‘He Went Absolutely Ballistic’: Ex-Iron Maiden Guitarist Recalls Provoking Anger of Manager Rod Smallwood With ‘Queen’-Sounding Guitar Parts

“… And then he went absolutely ballistic. ‘Get rid of that, it sounds like Queen!'”

Former Iron Maiden guitarist Dennis Stratton recalled provoking the anger of the band’s manager, Rod Smallwood, by adding guitar parts that sounded “like Queen” to an unreleased version of “Phantom of the Opera”.Stratton was a key component of the first stable cast of players Steve Harris recruited on his way to achieving heavy metal immortality, also famously featuring current guitarist Dave Murray, vocalist Paul Di’Anno, and drummer Clive Burr. While Stratton, DiAnno, and Burr all left the band within two years after the NWOBHM giants released their 1980 studio debut, Stratton was the first to do so, with “Iron Maiden” remaining the band’s sole studio album he actively contributed to.

Although comparably small, Stratton’s legacy in Iron Maiden is nevertheless intriguing, as is the unreleased, experimental version of “Phantom of the Opera” he contributed to. Asked to comment on the piece in a new interview with Metal Express Radio, the guitarist said (transcription via Killer Guitar Rigs):

“Basically, that was a little bit of free time we had in the studio because I always used to go in on my own — doing the guitar harmonies and maybe some backing vocals — and they would pick what they wanted if they wanted to keep it, or they took it off.”

“But that was a bit of fun because I was in the studio with the engineer, and we were doing the ‘You haunt me, you taunt me / You torture me back…’, and I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to have a big Queen sort of powerful chorus on that?'”

He added:

“I knew it would never happen because it’s Iron Maiden, but what happened was that we put a couple of layers down — a higher one, lower one, mid-range — and we were listening to it.”

However, neither Stratton nor the engineer were aware that Rod Smallwood had been in the studio all along. The guitarist, who was always open about the creative differences between him and Iron Maiden’s manager, said:

“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.'”

Stratton was always open about the creative differences between him and Smallwood. In 2022, the guitarist described his departure as a “joint decision,” adding that he and the band’s manager, widely considered a crucial part of Iron Maiden’s success, “never saw eye to eye much.”

In the same interview, Stratton noted how Smallwood didn’t like that he was spending more time with the road crew than with his bandmates while traveling, adding:

“And also he started moaning [about] the music I listened to; I think you should listen to anything you want, really. So anyway, I wasn’t arguing anymore. It was just a mutual decision.”