Documentary filmmaker Wes Orshoski has opened up about how Iron Maiden ultimately came through for his film Di’Anno: Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer — despite initially declining to participate when he first approached the band’s camp in 2017. Orshoski, co-director and producer of the acclaimed 2010 Motörhead documentary Lemmy, was speaking on the latest episode of The David Ellefson Show, hosted by former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson.
Orshoski recounted how he captured the first face-to-face meeting between Di’Anno and Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris in nearly three decades at a May 2022 Maiden concert in Croatia. He said (transcribed by Blabbermouth): “The day after I signed the contract to make this film in 2017, I called [Iron Maiden’s longtime manager] Rod Smallwood. He said, ‘I love the Lemmy film and I love what you do, but we’re not gonna be involved in this.’ And so five years later, I snuck my camera in with Paul. I guess if you wanna get into a concert in Croatia, go in with the rock and roll legend in the wheelchair. I didn’t wanna take my camera out, so when Steve came into the room, I just filmed it on my phone — and a couple of other people were filming it on their phones. Whether Maiden would sign off on it was a big, stressful situation for years. And Maiden, in the end, were super cool and allowed me to [use the footage in the film].”
Orshoski said only Harris came to meet Di’Anno that night: “Yeah, that broke my heart. I was, like, ‘Oh, man, how cool would it be if Dave [Murray] walked in, or Adrian [Smith], or even Bruce [Dickinson]?’ But, no, Steve was the only guy. In that moment, if you guys re-watch it, it’s all about that initial moment when they see each other, and they smile. Because they haven’t hung out in 40 years, they don’t really know each other anymore, but in that moment, there’s tenderness. And then they kind of default to that shy British thing.”
Orshoski also reflected on what Di’Anno’s financial trajectory might have been had he not sold his Iron Maiden songwriting rights for a modest sum years ago. “I’ve often wondered if Paul had never sold those rights, what his situation would’ve been like,” he said. “Instead of living in a small three-room apartment in Salisbury, would he have a house and money to afford private health care?” He suggested, however, that given Di’Anno’s personality, the money likely would have been spent regardless: “The big problem with Paul — somebody says it in the film — is that when Ronnie James Dio went solo or when Ozzy [Osbourne] went solo, they had infrastructure. They had good management. They had a great band. And Paul didn’t really have any of those things. He made an AOR album out of Maiden.”
Maiden’s cooperation extended to the most poignant moment in the film. Di’Anno died on Oct. 21, 2024, at his home in Salisbury at the age of 66. The following evening, Iron Maiden — who happened to be playing the Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota on Oct. 22 — held an unannounced moment of silence in his honor. Orshoski said: “The next morning I got a call from Dave Shack in Iron Maiden’s office, and he’s, like, ‘We wanna give you this footage.’ It’s just another example of them being super cool. They allowed me to license the music and video elements, and then they called and gave me this, which I augmented with fan footage so that you could feel what it felt like to be in the rafters in that arena.”
Di’Anno: Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer features appearances by James Hetfield (Metallica), Gene Simmons (KISS), Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris, and members of Exodus, Slayer, Megadeth, Overkill, and Sepultura. Metal Hammer describes the film as “a harrowing insight into Di’Anno’s frustration and frailty at a desperately low ebb with an abrasively real, warts-and-all approach.” Metal Talk calls it “a raw, dark and intimate documentary detailing the tragic final years of Iron Maiden’s original singer.” Orshoski began shooting in 2017; his other directing credits include The Damned: Don’t You Wish That We Were Dead.
One of the icons of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Paul Di’Anno — born Paul Andrews on May 17, 1958, in Chingford, East London — fronted Iron Maiden on two of heavy metal’s most foundational albums: the 1980 self-titled debut and the celebrated 1981 follow-up, Killers. He left the band in 1981 and was replaced by Bruce Dickinson. His subsequent career included work with Battlezone and Killers, as well as numerous solo releases. His final career retrospective, The Book of the Beast, was released in September 2024.
Di’Anno spent the final chapter of his life wheelchair-bound but defiant, ultimately relocating to Zagreb, Croatia, where crowdfunding organized by Kastro Pergjoni — who runs the Cart & Horses pub in London, birthplace of Iron Maiden — and Croatian fan Stjepan Juras helped him access affordable medical care and turn his health around. He performed more than 100 shows after 2023. He died of a tear in the sac around the heart, which caused blood to fill around it from the main aorta; the death was instantaneous. He was laid to rest on Nov. 21, 2024, at the City of London Cemetery and Crematorium in Manor Park, East London.
