California Jam
It’s telling that the new collaboration between Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith and genre-hopping virtuoso Richie Kotzen was one born out of friendship. On the pair’s new album, titled simply Smith/Kotzen, the way their vocals and guitars trade off is much like a conversation, each telling their own bluesy chapter in the unfolding story.
Adrian is often considered the most technically driven of Maiden’s guitar trio, and has played a central role in evolving the metal genre into what it is today, while Richie has progressed from his roots as an 80s shredder and one-time member of glam rock stars Poison to make a series of modern soul-tinged solo albums in which he marries his sky-scraping voice with finger-twisting fusion lines and improv blues to stunning effect.
As fate would have it, Adrian buying a house in close proximity to Richie’s is what got the pair initially acquainted...
“I bought a place in California seven or eight years ago,” Adrian explains. “And obviously there’s a great music scene in LA and everyone knows everyone. I was vaguely aware of Richie from the early
