Blaze Bayley (Wolfsbane, solo, ex Iron Maiden)

Blaze Bayley is an English heavy metal singer. He is currently a solo artist and also the singer of Wolfsbane. He was previously the lead singer for Iron Maiden and recorded two albums with them. His latest solo record out now on streaming is titled “Circle of Stone” and is available on vinyl as well. We discuss the new album, the ups and downs of life, the music business and more!

00:00 - Intro
00:13 - New Record "Circle of Stone"
04:55 - Inspirational Lyrics & Motivation 
08:45 - The Song "Rage" & Dogs
12:01 - Writing Songs & Character Bridge
12:58 - Lyrics for "Broken Man"
18:50 - Ghost in the Bottle & Life Philosophy 
22:52 - Career Retrospective & Love of Music
32:30 - Memorable Fan Experience & New Fans
36:40 - Streaming, Playing Shows & Set List
46:05 - Outro

Blaze Bayley website:
https://www.blazebayley.net/

Chuck Shute link tree:
https://linktr.ee/chuck_shute

Transcript

Chuck Shute: 0:12

I'm doing a deep dive in all your whole career, you've done so many amazing things. And now you got this new record circle stone, which is great. And it sounds like it's, you're getting a pretty good response from it, right?

Blaze Bayley: 0:24

Yes, it's very surprising. A lot of my hardcore fans that have been with me for a long time. Some of them say that this is my best record. And that's amazing to think I've been going this long, and the people who I really care what they think that's my hardcore fans, I don't really worry too much what they write in magazines, or anything like that. But fans who've supported me for a long time. If they say, We think this is one of your best, then that feels good. I take that seriously. Whereas I don't really care what journalists or anybody else says, because so often, it's not genuine, there's some ulterior motive or reason that they might want to say something. Whereas I feel with my fans, they spent the time I've invested the money, they have every right to say, You know what, it's not as good as your last one, because they bought the last one. You know, whereas I feel often that journalists, in the old days anyway, just weren't invested. And would be very dismissive of albums, by anybody, really. And not think about how long it took to make or what the process may have been to lead like that to lead to the results. So when I started my infinite entanglement trilogy, I made sure that the first album was sent out to all the fans that are pre ordered, before it went to any press. Something Oh, I was so small, it made no impact at all on sales, because the people that were going to buy it initially already got it. And that was nice. It was really nice to be able to do that. Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 2:34

because it wasn't Didn't you say it was the most preorders you'd ever had. And it's, it's on this really cool vinyl, these,

Blaze Bayley: 2:40

this one is the most pre orders, this circle of stone, we've sold out three times, we've sold out of T shirts on the tour. It's amazing the reaction that we've had, and we decided to do different colored vinyls, one of them limited edition. And that just that sold out very quickly, quicker than anything else. So it's been amazing. Really the reaction.

Chuck Shute: 3:08

Do you have that you have that copy? Because I saw you another interview show like the booklet or whatever, that it's really cool. It's this very colorful, giant thing.

Blaze Bayley: 3:16

Yeah, we got it somewhere here. I don't know. Yeah. somewhere

Chuck Shute: 3:21

else. I think that's one thing that's, that's, you know, people complain musicians will say, like, oh, well, nobody's buying our records and stuff. But like, I think if you do things like what you're doing where you up the game, and you include very cool things, and it's worth it. It's you're getting more than just the songs which people can hear the song streaming for free. But when you include the other things like the booklets and stuff, I think that makes it worth it more to for the collector and the hardcore fans, which again, who's trying, who's that's who you're trying to please.

Blaze Bayley: 3:48

With funds, as well, me and my team. It's a small team, but we're very dedicated, and we are fans. Were these nerdy, geeky collectors that can't help buying something three times, because it's on different formats. That's just us. So we are competitive, as well. So we look at what other people do. And we go, Well, we could have that. Why don't we oh, we could, we could have that. But you know what, when we do it, we could do it with an extra couple of pages and things like this. So that's, that's exciting, too, as an artist to be able to take my work all the way from the ideas it in the studio, and to have the artwork that I want that I believe represents. That feels really nice. Yeah, and

Chuck Shute: 4:44

I think it's cool. The album is I mean, musically, it's not a huge departure from what you've done your whole career. You know, fast paced metal and stuff. But lyrically it's really interesting. It's almost like an inspirational album in that regard because it's all about like, you know, getting knocked down and getting back up and all these like Really, like almost motivational, inspirational messages in the songs? Well,

Blaze Bayley: 5:06

I tried to do with the circle of Stones album, was to keep it a little bit simpler lyrically, where I'm often really interested in finding an unusual rhyme, putting two words together into a phrase that you wouldn't normally expect. With the circle of stone, it was a lot more emotional, I was, I thought, I'm going to try with this one, to keep things simpler, generally. And so it comes from a more emotional place with a simple lyric in a lot of places. But still, following this theme of talking to myself, and having a conversation with my listener that says, Don't give up. A, they will tell you to give up, they will make you feel like giving up, but don't accept what they say. And don't let their words be the words that you use to describe yourself. And it's a theme that's run through the last couple of albums.

Chuck Shute: 6:18

Yeah, well, and I think like, I heard you say, this was a great quote that you were saying, you know, talk to yourself, like you're talking to your best friend, because it is interesting, a lot of times people we beat ourselves up so much. And I mean, I see people like they treat their pets better than they treat themselves, you know, like you would never, you know, treat your say those kinds of things to your pet or your friends. So that is really good advice. Yeah,

Blaze Bayley: 6:40

I stole that completely from somebody else. You from Professor Peterson. When he said, You look after your dog better than yourself. And I thought, you know, that's so true. And it really rang true with me. Because when I lost my dog through illness, I didn't. You know, it was horrible. And so yeah, I think it's true. And you might talk if best friend off a ledge, but you won't think of talking yourself or that you can talk to yourself, a lot of people. So it's a theme that is serious for me, because I work with words. And when I'm putting my songs together, each word is important. And the phrase is important, as is the feeling. But people underestimate the power of individual words. And I try and use individual words in the best way that I can to leave my listener, my fan feeling better, at the end of the song, feeling that if they're weak, they can grow strong. And it's just something that's become more a part of what I do. As we've gone on and with circle of stone, there is absolute misery and darkness. At the same time, there is hope.

Chuck Shute: 8:27

Yeah, well, the saw the song that reminds me when you say darkness, that song rage, which is really interesting. You said it was about this prince Luellen guy, so I looked him up and I was reading. I mean, this guy is crazy. Like somebody had sex with his wife. So he hangs the guy. He kills his dog. I mean, this guy was vicious. Yeah.

Blaze Bayley: 8:46

And for me, what I want you to do in that song, I want you to avoid using the words hound or dog. And for those of us that love animals to put it in the context of your friend, and losing your temper, and that rage is a blind rage that you can fly into which I've been guilty of in the past. You can and you live with the regret and the of the consequence of what you do when you lose your temper fly into that rage and for brain swelling. A dark character he suffers from that and you can't have a more loyal friend than your dog that will never question and when I was suffering with suicidal thoughts, and my dog was still with me and you know licking my face and making a fuss. It was an amazing thing when I when I look back and I really wanted to make sure I didn't use those words hound or dog that it was friend. So and that came out and then people Like you've done, I've looked into it five, it's a true story. And also, it comes from this Celtic ancestral mentality because it's a Welsh story. So I'm really happy with the way that it turned out. But it took some convincing we, we had the song in different formats, and we had to rearrange it. And it took a lot from the initial parts of that song and the Lyric, to get that into the format that ended up being the album version. There was a lot of work there, trying things in different order. And it fell into place. It was the last session that we were going to have recording the vocals, we had about 30 minutes left on what we thought would be a demo vocal. And my co producer, Chris said, can you just do something here at the beginning, let's have a quiet start. Just anything we'll do just so we've got something nice to listen to over the weekend. And so I did, I didn't have a special lyric for it. And then a few days later, when we listened back, it's that is the actual vocal that beginning. For some reason, there was a magic in the room. There was no pressure, I was completely relaxed when I did it. And that's the start of the stories that quiet beginning imagining that you are haunted, because you can't sleep. You are you can't get into a deep sleep, that something is there. At that, that was it. That was the beginning and we had it from then. That's

Chuck Shute: 11:58

it. So is it cathartic to write those kinds of songs, because these are feelings that you had your and thoughts that you had? Well,

Blaze Bayley: 12:05

I always try to build a bridge between the character in the song, whether that's a true story or something I've created, in my own mind, build that bridge from my own emotion into the song. So even though it doesn't say often it doesn't say me the way I feel. It says the way we feel or you feel, then the still if you look closely, you can see that. Yeah, I've interpreted those feelings and there is from the dark is to the most hopeful. There's usually a connection to me.

Chuck Shute: 12:49

Yeah, well, I like the song broken man. That's another one that a lyric that resonated with me on that. One is I look back now I see that I had a lot of help. But then like a fool. I thought it was all good luck. I'm like, oh, that's like. So that's something that you do realize, as you get older, you think that if something good happens, oh, well, that was just luck. And then you realize like, No, you know, you had a lot of people in your corner.

Blaze Bayley: 13:12

Yeah, a lot of people were opening those doors, we're going okay, I'll give you a helping hand. But you don't see them. Or I'm guilty of that. And I think a lot of people are in their late 20s and early 30s. When you're ambitious, you're constantly looking forward. And where you are doesn't count, because it's not where you want to be. And that isn't healthy. In the long term. When I'm looking back going on. I was with these wonderful people in these wonderful places with these incredible opportunities. But I just didn't go, Oh, where am I now and enjoy? Where I am. I would look forward. No, I'm not there yet. I've got to keep going. I've got to keep moving forward. And then when life really kicks the crap out of you a few times, and you are on the floor and you go there, maybe you have a bit more humility and go, Ah, well, I wouldn't have got here if they hadn't helped me if they hadn't picked me up. If they hadn't sat me down and go, come on, man, you could do it. It's not about that. I remember. We're working in a shop, I worked in a warehouse. I worked as a driver, after made and I'd spent all my money on trying to make it in a band, keep the band together, make my albums and people would come into the shop fans would come into the shop and they wouldn't say why are you working in a shop? They would say when's your next album? What are you doing? And when when you're going to be on tour again, and they didn't look at me like, Oh, he's reduced to being a shop worker, it's like, oh, well, he must be, he must be planning something, he must be coming back, we, you know, um, that that was incredible, really, that as well, you know, some people cynical and horrible. And it never believed. But those fans that came in and said, when's your next album, when I didn't even believe in myself, they still believed that I could do quality work and do something worth listening to. That was incredible and broken man. When I look back, and I stopped drinking, which was a big part of realizing how dumb I'd been in situations before, then I just want it to be honest to you know, a part of me, I don't care about being cool. I absolutely don't care about putting on a big rock star show and keeping a distance, or not cool. I'm just a guy who has learned to sing because I love to sing. And I realize that, for me, I'm nothing without my fans. And I live for that. I imagine how a song is going to be live, how people will react, will we be able to get people to sing this bit. And when we're mixing up, let's mix it this way. So that when we do it live, you as a listener, you you've heard this, but when you see it live, it'll be this great, big, visceral thing that you got why, but you know it, even though you don't think you know, so that's really something special for me. And I feel very lucky to be able to do that. And I didn't think gratitude was important when I was in my late 20s. And in my early 30s, or anything like that. And then I My philosophy has changed. So expect nothing, expect the worst, expect nothing. But prepare for the worst. But when you do have something good happen, just celebrate it no matter how small it is. And that was a thing. I think I was guilty of in the past. Small things, great things that happened to me. I didn't go whoa, we sold five CDs. This is a most CDs we sold on an eye or anything. It'd be all we got free beers. Wow. I just took it my stride. And I think now celebrate those small things. That's a part of life because it is really tough. And to keep moving forward takes a lot that you just didn't expect. So I like the idea of and I live by the idea of celebrate small things. Prepare for the worst, and expect nothing. Don't expect it to be good or bad. If it's bad. All right, then you got to deal with it. But if it's good, take a moment to say this is a good thing. Okay, be grateful for it. And really that philosophy as I've got older, that's really helped me to get to keep going to get through each day.

Chuck Shute: 18:49

Yeah, well, that reminds me that lyric is one of my favorite songs on the record as ghosts in the bottle. It's such a catchy like fast paced tune but that lyric good just like what you're talking about right now. Like what you can do except that life is hard but good times could be in the cards, wish it dream it be it we will find a way like it's that's very positive, inspirational message message to people. It's

Blaze Bayley: 19:10

one of my one of my favorite lyrics. It's really simple, obvious, cliche, good times could be on the cards. It's just, it's a little bit done. And I had it there. And no, I'm keeping this. It just brings you back to reality and get as bad as it is. Could be something good round the corner doesn't have to be bad. So I really, really liked that and the ghost, keeping the ghost in a bottle. Keeping a baby can bottle up your bad thoughts and just take a look and go in and look at it and go actually doesn't look so bad. Now it's in a bottle and he's in the distance. Now actually, maybe I can Yeah, just keep things in there. So I'm glad Have you that you like that one and you saw positive in it?

Chuck Shute: 20:04

Well, it's so it's just so realistic. Like you do have to accept that life is hard. But like, yeah, there's probably something good around the corner. Like, that's just life. It's just ups and downs like you. I think, like I noticed, you said, driving, that's what's interesting, I used to do driving too, I'm not ashamed. I was an Uber driver. And I remember it was like, kind of taught me like life, because I'd always want all my rides to be high tippers, and, you know, to locations I wanted to go to, but I would get these awful riders and terrible locations. But then I knew like, well, I'm going to do this one tonight. But the next one is going to be a big tipper and a great place. And that's how it was like you couldn't control it as much as you wanted. You could not make every ride be a good ride. And that was just like what I learned. I was like, okay, that's life, like, you're going to have some bad times and some good times when

Blaze Bayley: 20:48

I was driving. And sometimes you drive the Drive Pilot, so or aircrew to a different airport to get their, you know, their next job and everything. And I sometimes get into conversation with people. And sometimes, I'd say, Yeah, I'm the singer, I'm working this job to get my band back together and do this. And I remember one guy in his late 50s, saying, Oh, my life just went through hell, I got divorced. I lost everything that house I had, and all of that. And when I met a great woman, we fell in love and all of this business and he said, I rent the house, I used to own now I live back in the house that that I loved. And we're happy, me and my wife were happy, we got everything. And and he said to me, said don't give up. It can happen. Don't give up and there was just driving a car, you know, like an Uber, and what? But you know, that was so right. And here I am. I'm older. And I'm selling more records than I've ever sold. I've got a great team. And I see fans that have been with me for over 20 years. And it's it's incredible, an incredible feeling to go to places and play to bigger crowds and sell out in places that you think, oh, man, if I knew we could play there, and that we're doing it on a regular basis from that. Those dark days. I'm pushing forward. And because I was very, very lucky to have people that really believed in me.

Chuck Shute: 22:50

Yeah, so when you look back on your whole career, I mean, it's such an interesting path because you were in wolfsbane. And I mean, you you guys played big shows with with besides Iron Maiden, you also played Motorhead, Ozzy, Alice Cooper, and all these big names, and that band was growing and getting bigger, and then you join Maiden and then that's like, you're at the top of the I mean, that's like the biggest one of the biggest metal bands in the world. And then you go out of that. And now you're kind of climbing back and you're doing well. So when you look back, is there something that you would have changed or done differently? Or do you feel like you had to go through that path to learn?

Blaze Bayley: 23:23

You know, especially in those early days, I was so earnest and ambitious about things, I would have relaxed a lot more and wouldn't have taken things quite so serious if I could go back now, but may be a part of that. Being ambitious, and trying to make the best lyrics that I could even though sometimes there were easygoing, happy lyrics joyful. Trying to make those best lyrics tried to be the best poet and songwriter that occurred and trying to make every performance something that was memorable for people in a good way. Maybe that discipline that I had back then, that was really what got me through to where I am now. Because now it's second nature. Now I don't have to think about what I want to put in to make the show good. And we have a saying, within my team, we say our worst show has to be a good show. And our best show should be a religious experience. That's the thing you can't we won't accept but and one of the things that happens is uncertainty. And living in the moment I'm talking right In a moment less than a second, if you're on stage, and something goes wrong, you, you just, you've lost concentration, that and you've, you've come in, you've struck the wrong chord, you've got, oh, no, I've got the chorus. And it was a second verse, or, Oh, no, not this is not the middle eighth. This is actually the second chorus idea, and things like this. You're gonna forget it, man and move on. You're just gonna leave it there. Leave that. Now get this bit right now, get this bit right up, get this bit right. Get this bit right. And you can get to the end of the show and feel like you've been on a bleeding tight rope the whole life? Just as a no, no, ah, and you can't let that past moment. That moment, you just bleed into the future and steal the next part that you're trying to get perfect. Because with music, you can be perfect. You can get everybody in time yet we're in time in tune. That's the minimum that you've got to be, then you've got to express it around that. So every time that you fall, you're cheeky, and no, come on. Come on, come on. And you'll get to the end of the show sometimes God Oh, I'm so glad that's over. And fans haven't noticed because you've been Gaza. Fans of God was one of the best ever. I was one of the toughest ever. It works like that. And then sometimes you get banged on. Yeah, got it. Got it. Got it. Yeah, this note here, they start here. Rafi there, extra breath. Breathe here. Big breath. Big breath support these notes support this dope, right? Dig into the rhythm now karma lodgement didn't bang, bang, bang. And you get to the end is I've done it. I've done it. But that's that's why isn't I think that Muse musical thing of leaving those mistakes, where they are and not carrying them through. A big part of that alerted my time with maiden. Don't let don't carry those mistakes through. No, no, leave that. Leave that. Don't look, don't let that messed up. Verse from three songs ago, be bugging you now be here now be right here doing this focused on this way you're supposed to be. And I think that's, that's done through, really. And that's something that I've really worked on. And also in life. I'm looking forward. I'm not. I'm trying not to let those past mistakes go. But if it had been like this, if I still live there. Now come on, where do you live? Look at what you've got. Look, you live in your life. Here I am. I'm a full time professional, heavy metal singer. There are hundreds, if not 1000s of people that want to be professional musicians and don't have the opportunity or don't have that look, or still dream of getting their first break and living it man. I'm living my dream. And I'm so lucky to be able to do that. And if I can make my songs more positive, and have a positive message and make you feel at the end of the blaze Bailey album, you feel a bit more empowered and positive than you did before you put it on, then that's a great thing. For me. What I really want is, I want the people at the gym there to see the treadmill on fire. They looking at you. And they're scared. They go. Oh, what's with that guy set? The treadmill on fire is so powerful. Well, he's listening to a blaze Bailey album. Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 29:05

I love it. No, I'm feeling the passion. I mean, it's not only the lyrics, but you back it up with the you can tell. I mean, you said I don't care about being cool. But I don't know if he call it cool or what but I just love when people are excited about stuff. Like you said, you're a heavy metal nerd. I mean, you can tell that you really care about the stuff and love it. You're not just doing it to sell tickets or some make money or whatever. Like you actually really love the music and you want to do a good job and I think people can see that.

Blaze Bayley: 29:31

I'm just I feel very lucky. You know that I'm able to do what I do as my job. But also the other side of that is I'm cursed. I can't do anything else really. I'm an on a skilled worker. That's it. So any other job I do. I am at the bottom of the pile with everybody else. If I go I'm working minimum wage In any other job that I do so to be able to work this job and do something I'm good at. And in what job? Do people come up to you at the end of the day and say, I love what you did? I mean, how lucky are you to have that? You must have done it as well. You weren't jobs where people basically at the end of the day, they they look at you as if they tried to dunk crap. You know what I mean? So I remember when I was driving, sometimes, people would look at me like, oh, dry, I don't want the driver talking to me. And what's important is being a good person not being famous, or well paid or anything, what sort of person are you? Are you a good person? Are you a kind person? Are you responsible for yourself? Do you try and do well, for your self did try to survive and get through all this hardship, and struggle? Do you try your best that makes you a good person? But if you don't you look down on people and you're trying to take advantage of people, then No, I haven't got time for that. So I'm lucky really to be in a situation where I am able to meet my fans, I do a free meet and greet it while it's included in your ticket price. My tickets aren't any more expensive than anyone else at my level. When you come to a blaze, Bailey show, your meet and greet is included. And so what's different about that, compared to a lot of artists, I actually meet everyone in my audience before the show, because it's a free meet and greet. And they were able to spend a few seconds together a couple of minutes. And they say, this song means the world to me or this album. And that's a really great feeling to have. And people buy my record, and come get me to sign it. And that man to to sign your work to have work that is worthy of being signed is a is a really great feeling. Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 32:27

what do you have any memories? Like what's the most memorable fan experience that you've had? I mean, there's probably people that have listened to your music that has, you know, changed their life?

Blaze Bayley: 32:38

Well, I think one, one lad came, we were doing a tour of Russia, this is years and years ago. And he came with a bucket of crabs, live crabs, and he said, Blaze. I got these myself in the Black Sea this morning. And he bought them to the show the live crab, I thought it was just put something on the site table ready to sign. But he was showing me the live crabs, and we cooked him and ate them afterwards, as well. And you come to my hotel, my parents went to hotel, come on holiday. All the problems with Russia and Crimea, and all of that is so incredible. Things like that have happened to me. And when people tell their stories, I saw you in 1998 That was the first time or the last time I saw you was 1998. And then they've come and they've been down some kind of rabbit hole and understood Oh, actually I can like Iron Maiden. And I can like Blaze Bailey or I can like wolfsbane and like Blaze Bailey all you know, glycol, three. That's really, really nice. A nice feeling. I'm just very lucky that people have supported me and stayed with me for so many years. And now it seems there's a whole bunch of new fans who are going you know what? Real melodies, interesting lyrics, things that are more intentional, then that's what I want to listen to. And this feels incredible. I talked to a couple of people about this contemporaries, and we think that what's happening is that those traditional heavy metal values of melodic guitars, big chords, interesting lyrics, interesting individual voices that that's coming back. Now out into fashion. But, you know, we've kept going and the cycle goes around and we feel that the cycles come in again? Or is it that things are so accessible now that if you have the streaming services for small artists like me, it's like having the best radio station in the world. Because if someone hears your name, they can then go and look at what is your most popular song and have a listen. So it's incredible. So I never get annoyed about, Oh, you don't make much money off streaming, I really don't care because about how much money I make off streaming. But what is better about streaming than what was before it is that you can find Blaze Bailey, anywhere in the world that you have internet, you can go and listen to blaze Bailey song. If you go, Well, what's he like? Then he couldn't do that before it was all tied up my radio, and MTV and the video channels. So now I have a much better opportunity to get to people who may like what I do.

Chuck Shute: 36:18

Yeah, it definitely seems like it's able, you're able to grow your fan base more a man. And like you said around the world, literally. I mean, people can discover you, and then go back and do your whole catalog and find all the songs.

Blaze Bayley: 36:32

Um, yeah, I'm very lucky, some, some fans get confused. So we're trying to reassure them, it's okay to stream if you're still buying the album. Because a lot, a lot of people who are so loyal, they'll go, I'm not going to listen to it until I've bought it from you. And it's okay to listen to it, you can still listen and then buy it to have your coffee, you

Chuck Shute: 36:57

know, push play, and then like go to work and let it repeat. And so you get the strain that helps you out,

Blaze Bayley: 37:03

and you change in the algorithm, then I'm going to come up, as you may also like a lot more often. And what I really care about is if I can just fill the venues that I'm playing now that that's our aim, we we play venues between two to 800 people, if we can fill those venues. That's it for us that vibe of the sold out venue. That is just an incredible feeling that we love to have.

Chuck Shute: 37:38

Yeah, so are you doing mostly just solo shows? Are you going to try to do a package with some other bands?

Blaze Bayley: 37:45

Well, I don't really have anything to do with the business side of it. So I find that my energy is best spent on the creative side, thinking of more songs, more lyrics, trying to capture those little ideas as they go by. So what we've got planned for this year is It's in two parts really. We're doing the 30th anniversary of me joining Iron Maiden with a song that's mostly Iron Maiden from my two albums. So you've got Klansmen. And you've got sign of the cross and our version, our interpretation of virus. And commerce das amigos. You've got that is one set that we're doing in some places. And the other set is the circle of stone Tour, where it's quite a few songs from the new album circle of stone, and from the last album wall within me and a couple of things well old, like from silicon Messiah era, and it's where we've been booked where we think, Okay, well, there's a few festivals that want that I made and set is probably the last time we're going to do that for a long time. And most of our headline shows have been circle of stone. And the songs I can't tell you. The chuck the songs that we're doing from the new album are just going over so well. Why if you can't even believe the difference, and there's a we do a day of reckoning is one of the songs from circle of stones got to a challenging middle section because he is so emotional and expressive. And we just forget the record. When you come and see me. It's a different thing to the record. It's a difference between reading and writing. In a way, and we do that song in a free time in the middle, and we just have to look at each other and feel where we are to get that bit done. And it's come over so well, it's so dramatic and emotional. It's, it feels huge. And it's almost like a center point of the show that everything goes to nothing. And then comes back from nothing into this immensely powerful chorus that I demand you sing with me.

Chuck Shute: 40:36

Yeah, that's cool. I'm just looking at the setlist right now and seeing what you do some of the old Blaze songs and then your soul stuff, couple Iron Maiden songs, it looks pretty fun.

Blaze Bayley: 40:45

It's been going great. It's we didn't know what to expect. But it's going great. And what I'd like to do is over the course of the year, and maybe going into next year, bring in more of the songs from circle of stone because they all feel well, we don't do anything that we think we're not going to play live usually. And they all feel like that would be really cool to do live.

Chuck Shute: 41:16

Yeah. Would you ever just do like just start out with a few songs and then just go in a circle a stone and do it like, like a full just to the full album?

Blaze Bayley: 41:24

Well, it's in two halves. So part two of the album's side to those seven songs, then I think we may at some point in the future end up doing those in the order of the album. But generally speaking, the songs on side one, they have different things to say. And it's nice to put those next to older songs and different things that we do. And so far that's working really well.

Chuck Shute: 41:58

Yeah, I don't see ghosts in the bottle on the on the setlist though, you got to add that that's a good one,

Blaze Bayley: 42:05

I want to add ghost in a bottle, and you're beyond this year, and broken man. And until we meet again, I'd like to pull off at some point. But I think it's too much to come out with 10 new songs, it's too much. And it's also too much to concentrate on. Songs change as we play them live and they become familiar. But in a way as you play them live that connection, or that's almost psychic, because it's musical, and you know where the time should be. And then that's where the time is, then I think it's too much to come out with 10. Or once, I think to build it and go right, come and see this part, come and see this set with the songs in and then gradually build on that. And my fans come and see me two and three times on each tour. So it's nice to be able to have a set where if it's your favorite song, there's a chance that you're going to hear it like ghost in the bottle.

Chuck Shute: 43:13

Yeah, that's really cool. I don't think you have any US tour date set up at the moment that you think that would I mean, that's kind of it's hard to come here right because of it, don't they they charge a bunch of money to tour in different countries. It's really I didn't understand this until I started doing these podcasts. But

Blaze Bayley: 43:27

visas are expensive. It's it's tough to get there. So make it on the small artists are completely independent. So it matters where we spend the money and we love touring the US we really enjoyed our last US tour. But it's a lot to get that together and make it balance ago, okay, we're not going to lose a ton of money, or we're going to come back with a bit of money, whatever. But I've got so many fans in the US. It's and so dedicated that have supported me for so long. We're always trying to think of a way to get back.

Chuck Shute: 44:11

Yeah, that's what I was saying. Like the package deal. Like I don't know if like if you tour with your buddy Tim Ripper Owens that'd be or like, or one of the festivals or something or the cruises or whatever. Those are always I think those pay pretty well. Absolutely.

Blaze Bayley: 44:24

That's that seat. They're all they're all there. We're waiting for offense. We're sending things out. Would you like us to come up by your cruise? So yeah, we'd love to do it. It's not because we don't want to having the opportunity. Yeah,

Chuck Shute: 44:39

but in the meantime, you got it. You guys got a ton of shows lined up all over the world. The album circle stone is out. Now they can people can get the vinyl or stream it on all the streaming services. And yeah, very cool. Thanks so much for doing this. Anything else you want to promote?

Blaze Bayley: 44:53

Well, just thank you, Chuck. Thanks for having me on the show. And if people Would Have a listen to circle of stone album. And if they like it, tell someone about it. Because the best recommendation I can get is from someone who actually knows about music. And generally speaking, those people don't work in record companies. They are people that actually spend their own money on getting an album. So I would just say if you could give my album a chance, then that would be absolutely great.

Chuck Shute: 45:27

Yeah, I agree. And I think people that liked that style of music will love this. This is you're at the top of your game with this with people like that Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, you know, heavy metal kind of music and like I said, the lyrics I think that is, like you said, the lyrics are, it's different now. It's, it's more intelligent. And so that's really kind of cool. Even if you'll just want to read the lyrics. I think that's really interesting. Thank you very much. Very cool. Well, thanks so much for doing this. And yeah, come back anytime. If you have more stuff to promote. Let me know if you ever talk to us. I'll come see you.

Blaze Bayley: 45:59

Thanks, Chuck. Thanks for having me on the show. Good luck with that. All right.

Chuck Shute: 46:03

Thanks so much. Please see ya.