IRON MAIDEN Guitarist On Decision To Scale Back Touring: 'We're Not Gonna Kill Ourselves'

July 23, 2003

IRON MAIDEN guitarist Dave Murray spoke to MTV.com about the band's decision to do away with extensive road treks following the completion of their current "Give Me Ed ... 'Til I'm Dead" tour.

In the future, the band will still release albums, but MAIDEN plan to limit their touring to festivals and select stadiums.

"Over the years, we've toured for nine months on every album, and if you add that up it's a lot of time," Murray said. "Maybe it's time to sit back a bit. We're still gonna go out and have fun, we're just not gonna kill ourselves."

Playing festivals will allow IRON MAIDEN to reach the most people in the least amount of time. "People [from all over] tend to gravitate to festivals and spend the weekend there," Murray said. "They make it an event. They camp out for this three-day event, and they get there a few days before and start partying. So by the time we go on, they're excited. The responses we've gotten in those situations are amazing."

The band, who kicked off the North American leg of the "Give Me Ed ... 'Til I'm Dead" tour with DIO and MOTÖRHEAD Monday night (July 21) in Worcester, Massachusetts, are playing a set that consists almost exclusively of the band's singles.

"We're taking stuff from all the albums and putting a set together where the fans will know every song," Murray said. "It's for the old fans and for the new fans, and as soon as we go on and start playing it's like one big sing-along."

Included in the set is the sole new song, "Wildest Dreams", the first single from the band's upcoming CD, "Dance of Death", due in September. "We thought we'd just throw one of the new songs in the middle of the set as a little taster of what's to come and to keep everyone on their toes," Murray said.

"We'll be coming back with the new album and playing a lot of the new songs," Murray continued. "We always try to live in the current. If we just kept doing tour after tour with all the old stuff, it would become redundant because it would mean we were just existing on our past. MAIDEN have always tried to push moving forward all the time."

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