On behalf of his family, Conquest music has confirmed the death of Paul Andriesprofessionally known as Paul Di’Anno.

Paul died at his home in Salisbury at the age of 66.

Born in Chingford, East London on May 17, 1958, Paul first came to prominence as the lead singer of the English heavy metal band IRON GIRL between 1978 and 1981. He sang on their groundbreaking debut album “Iron Maiden” and the influential follow-up release, “murderers”.

Since departure IRON GIRL, Paul Di’Anno had a long and eventful recording career BATTLE ZONE And MURDERERS as well as numerous solo releases and guest appearances.

Despite suffering from serious health problems in recent years that limited him to performing in a wheelchair, Paul continued to entertain its fans around the world, with more than 100 shows since 2023.

His first retrospective album, “The Book of the Beast”was released in September 2024 and featured highlights of his recordings since his departure IRON GIRL.

In December 2022, Di’Anno spent time in Split, Croatia, recording an album with his new project called POWER HORSE. The band was founded earlier that year by Di’Anno and two guitarists/authors, Hrvoje Madiraca And Ante “Pupi” Pupacic. The resulting LP was made available under the name in July 2024 PAUL DI’ANNO’S POWER HORSE banner.

Not even two months ago, Di’Annowho had spent most of the past decade performing in a wheelchair due to serious health problems, discussed the progress of his treatment, two years after undergoing major knee surgery in Croatia. He told SDTV – Stonedead Festival: “It’s making tremendous progress. The only problem is, and I’m sorry to say, with my own country here (in Britain) it’s a piece of shit for the NHS.” (National Health Service, a comprehensive public health service under government management). I leave, I get – with the lymphedema (a chronic condition that causes swelling in the tissues of the body due to a compromised lymphatic system). When I’m here, it looks like it’s all full of liquid. It took two hours for the medical staff in Croatia to go down. Come over here (back to Britain), they don’t even do that, lymphatic drainage (a gentle treatment). massage that focuses on the lymphatic system, which is located just under the skin). Or they wrap you in bandages. We took them all off yesterday and put on compression stockings. And they don’t even do that unless you go through all these channels. Fuckin’ England, you’re done, buddy.”

Paul also reflected on his recent encounter with the singer who replaced him IRON GIRL, Bruce Dickinsonin Croatia. Brucewho was promoting his new solo album, “The Mandrake Project”performed with his solo band on July 13 at Hala Zagreb in Zagreb, where Di’Anno was treated after undergoing knee surgery.

Paul said: “(Our conversation was) private, so I won’t say anything more about it. Everyone thinks we hated each other, which is nonsense. That’s the press for you. But obviously we’ve known each other since the time he was in prison fed up.” SAMSON and all that. So yeah, it’s all good.”

Di’Anno also discussed his meeting with Dickinson during a recent appearance on “The Neil Jones Rock Show” on TotalRock. He said, “Well, I can’t tell you too much. I came from the clinic where I was, because I was going on stage that night, also in Zagreb, to do signings, and I was going up.” and do three numbers with a GIRL covers some kind of band. All I remember is my transport picking me up from the clinic. I say, ‘Where are we going?’ So I went to that outdoor concert. And Bruce was on stage. I thought, Oh, I have no idea. That was my first thought. Anyway, so after it was all over, I went backstage. All Bruce‘s band came down to say hi and stuff. They said, “We’ll come see you later, in about an hour or two.” And the next thing I know, Bruce came in. We just gave each other a hug, shook hands and had a chat, which is of course private. But hey, it’s all good. But the press has brought out the bad things about us, that we don’t like each other and so on and so forth. But hey, it’s all good. He’s snuck at me a bit over the years, and I’ve snapped back every now and then, but hey, it kept things interesting. Yeah, he’s a great singer, man. Absolutely brilliant.”

Asked if that was indeed the first time, he and Bruce had actually met in real life, as had been reported, Paul clarifies: “No, because, obviously, (we had met when he was) with SAMSON (before he became a member GIRL) and so on.”

In 2005, Di’Anno was asked by Classic rock revisited editor Jeb Wright about his earlier comment that Bruce is a better singer for GIRL than he was. He said, ‘Yes, I admitted that Bruce is a better singer for GIRL than me. I still think that, but it only relates to the GIRL albums made after my first two initials GIRL classic albums. My feeling is that I could never have made my mark in the right way GIRL albums that came after ‘Iron Virgin’ And ‘murderers’ because Bruce‘s voice is much better suited to that material than my voice ever could be. But other than that, I don’t really compare our voices because I feel like I couldn’t sing Bruce‘s period of GIRL songs, Bruce certainly doesn’t have – and never has – the voice to replace me on the first two classic albums. My voice is mega-aggressive and always will be, and that’s what made those first two classic albums what they are. On the other hand, BruceThe band’s high and sometimes operatic voice helped give the later albums a different character. I’ll say this anyway: Bruce sounds incredible to many later GIRL numbers like ‘The Trooper’, ‘Number of the Beast’ And ‘Two minutes before midnight’ but let’s be honest – no intention of sounding arrogant here, just saying what everyone knows – when Bruce tries to emulate me on classics like ‘Remember tomorrow’, ‘Free Run’, ‘Wrath Child’, ‘murderers’ or something of the first two GIRL albums, he just doesn’t have the tools for the job, because the aggression just isn’t there. Your voice can often explain a lot about your background, and I think my voice shows the rough, lower class I come from. Bruce‘s voice gives an impression of the background of a public schoolboy.’

In a 2022 interview with Sakis Fragos of Greece Rock hard magazine, Di’Anno discussed the circumstances that led to his departure GIRL and whether it is true that it has anything to do with his vocal performance. He said: “My record stands for itself. I’ve played more shows than IRON GIRL ever played… They give a lot of concerts, but I played a lot more than they ever did. So it wasn’t my voice. It had nothing to do with that. I was just angry about certain things, which were private matters in the band. And the way I dealt with them may not have been good, but I dealt with them. And that’s the end. And that’s all I’m going to say.”

Asked if it’s true that he wasn’t properly compensated for his work on the first two IRON GIRL albums, Paul said, “I don’t have anything to say about that, because honestly, it’s nobody’s business. I’m paid very well. I’m very happy with that. Look, when I try to say, ‘Oh, IRON GIRL didn’t pay me enough money,” is a poor reflection of IRON GIRL. And I won’t accept that. I was paid very well. They took care of me. End of story.”

Photo credit: Marco Benjamin Alvarado (thanks to Central press for Conquest music)