Adrian Smith Pulled A Full Hammett, Lost His Phone Full Of Ideas
In general, I like to think of Iron Maiden as a more competent band than Metallica–they’ve been doing metal longer, they’ve never become embroiled in technological controversy, and even during the Virtual XI era they never cut their hair.
But that didn’t stop Adrian Smith from pulling a full Kirk Hammett and losing his phone full of ideas while on tour in America. According to Smith in a recent interview:
“I’ve got tons of song ideas on my phone. But it was a bit embarrassing, really, because in America we do runners from gigs, so we jump offstage, jump straight into the cars and go haring off, and we stop at a gas station or a lay-by and change in the dark on our way to the airport. It sounds crazy, but I actually lost my phone in America doing that and it was full of ideas. I had no password on my phone, so this guy found it and he went through my ideas, and there’s me sitting in my underpants in a hotel room on video singing and playing guitar!”
I don’t know which would be worse–losing a cache of song ideas or knowing that some metalhead is watching you warble unfinished material in your skivvies.
Thankfully, Smith’s story ends on a high note:
“I got a letter [from him] and he sent it back to me…He said he was a fan and said he loved my little performances on the phone! Of course, I thanked him and sent him a load of merch.”
Nice. Good on that guy for getting Adrian his phone back as opposed to selling it to TMZ for a ton of cash.
However, I do want to bring something up: how can these guys, who use their phones to store demo versions of their very livelihood, be so careless with their property? Granted, everyone’s misplaced their phone–I only have mine in my pocket due to a gracious bartender in New York who didn’t swipe it–but these guys aren’t everyone, they’re rock stars. So either they need to stop keeping their ideas in their phones, or they need to have those little bastards tethered to their jeans. Once again, it’s great that Adrian didn’t lose his phone forever, but the chance of someone ruining him with it was tremendous. The dude didn’t even put a password on it! Come on!
Let this stand as an example to fans, though: if you find a rock star’s phone, do the right thing and contact them. You may not get a bunch of media blood money, but you’ll get the thanks of a great musician and probably a fuckton of limited-edition merch.
