‘My Being Fired Was Premature, but I Don’t Regret How It Was’: Guitarist Dennis Startton Opens Up on Leaving Iron Maiden
“You’ve got to admire what Maiden have done, how far they’ve come, and how big they are.”
Guitarist Dennis Stratton reflected on the growing differences with manager Rod Smallwood that resulted in his departure from Iron Maiden, calling the split “premature” but adding that he doesn’t regret the way it panned out.
Having joined Steve Harris’ band after playing with several other bands (including Remus Down Boulevard, with which he used to open up for the legendary Irish guitarist Rory Gallagher), Stratton was a few years older and more experienced than his Iron Maiden bandmates when the story of the NWOBHM giants began in earnest.
However, Stratton would find himself leaving the band in late 1980, after helping bring Iron Maiden’s self-titled debut to audiences across Europe as the band opened for KISS on the NYC rockers’ European leg of the “Unmasked” tour. Speaking to Guitar World in a new interview, Stratton explained what led to his departure from Iron Maiden:
“The truth is that I never saw eye-to-eye with Rod Smallwood, who managed Maiden back then. He was basically the headmaster, which was really about trying to keep five young kids together. I was older than the other guys, so I was used to having my freedom, which caused issues.”
As for what these issues were, the guitarist explained:
“Sometimes I’d travel from gig to gig with just the crew for a laugh or a change of scenery. And then, sometimes I’d go from venue to venue in one of the trucks with a driver, just to keep them company, to see different parts of the world, and for different sorts of conversations. But Rod didn’t like that.”
“No, I don’t regret how it was. At the end of the day, Maiden were a new band, and it was all about gelling and learning. It wasn’t just musical learning, but learning habits and all that.”
“But my being fired was premature because we hadn’t been together long enough. When I was fired, we’d already wrapped pre-production on the second album, Killers. I’d worked on the whole album but I never got the chance to record.”
“The entire thing was premature, but what’s done is done. You’ve got to admire what Maiden have done, how far they’ve come, and how big they are.”
Stratton, whose band Lionheart released a new album called “The Grace Of A Dragonfly”, recently recalled how Smallwood went “ballistic” after catching him toying with adding more layers to “Phantom of the Opera” which the guitarist never meant to include on the final mix:
“What I didn’t realize was that Rod Smallwood had crept into the studio behind us, and we didn’t know he was there. And then he went absolutely ballistic. ‘Get rid of that, it sounds like Queen!’ ‘And that’s what it’s supposed to sound like,’ I said. [Laughs]”
“I said, ‘Rod, Rod, we’re only messing about! We only got the two parts that are here. That’s it, don’t worry.'”