Paul Di'Anno Interview with Egypt Today
From Heavy Metal to the HajjA former Iron Maiden vocalist shows that one can be politically active, religiously observant — and a rock ‘n roller
By David Lee Wilson
Redemption: in its true and pure form, it’s as rare as hen’s teeth, and those who have it are truly blessed. Few know that as well as heavy-metal music legend Paul DiAnno, a man now on the road to righteousness who hasn’t completely left all of his old ways to the past.
Having achieved his greatest fame as a member of the iconic British rock group Iron Maiden, DiAnno lived the life of a rock-star to the hilt. Sex, drugs, violence and the fulfillment of his wildest desires was pleasing for a time, but ultimately proved a hollow pursuit. Though he wasn’t specifically searching for an alternative to his decadent ways, DiAnno stumbled upon what has been, for him, a much better way.
Paul DiAnno embraced Islam some 15 years ago, and has since endeavored to reshape his life. Drugs and drink are out and the singer is far less likely to be found using his voice to summon demons than he is world-leaders in his effort to battle poverty, injustice and disease.
Though there is obviously much more to Paul DiAnno than a back catalog of heavy-metal classics — “Running Free,” “Wrathchild,” and “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” amongst the platinum sellers — he hasn’t fully abandoned his music. DiAnno still performs 200 concerts a year and has literally brought his music and message to the farthest reaches of the globe.
Egypt Today caught up with DiAnno during a rare break as he was wandering the United Kingdom’s Salisbury Plain, where he lives amongst a small group of British Muslims. Excerpts from our discussion:
Egypt Today: It seems you have entered a particularly productive phase in your career.
Paul DiAnno: I just had a month off and it was the first month off from work in four years. After the second week of it I wanted to kill everybody, so it was back to work for me! [laughs] We are going back to Russia at the end of the month and that is going to be pretty nuts.
Since we last spoke there has been a biography out with your life story
No, I’m not quite dead yet! I have a few more bits to get on with yet, but I have changed my lifestyle so much now that it is nowhere near as bad as it was in the book.
I only agreed to do [the book] because all of the proceeds go to a cancer charity that I sponsor.
Have you lost someone to cancer?
Yes, several actually. My Nana died of cancer, then my keyboard player in Battlezone, Attila, we lost him three years ago, and that is what made me decide to have a go at doing something about it.
You do other charity and community service work as well, don’t you?
It has taken a lot of time, so much time, in fact, that it finally dawned on me that I don’t have enough money to do it all on my own. I need some help and dealing with these kinds of things, particularly in Brazil [DiAnno splits his time between Brazil and England]. It takes so much time to get everything together, chase it all down and then try and tour as well, so I just can’t do it all by myself.
I am going back home to Brazil in May. I haven’t been there since December, when we did a couple of shows there and met with the president.
He kept saying “Yeah, yeah, yeah” to everything, but he hasn’t gotten back to me yet, so maybe he needs a kick to nudge him on! [laughs] It will take some effort to get the permits and the premises and everything working, but it will come.
Wait, this is the president, of Brazil?
Yes, Lula. Yeah, he is probably the second biggest Corinthian [the popular Brazilian football club] fan out there next to me! They had a quite productive year out there in South America last year really. I know what the American’s think of Hugo Chavez, but I actually think that he is a fantastic man. I played in Venezuela last year and I got a nice call from him that morning and had breakfast round the governor’s house as well, and by about one o’clock in the afternoon, I am talking to Fidel Castro, so I had a fantastic day!
It seems as though you are becoming quite the political celebrity?
Oh no! The reason I did that was because I had hooked up with the wife of Hugo Chavez and we are going to do some stuff for the children’s foundation, and then we wanted to see if we could get something up and running in Havana as well. The foundation is affiliated with UNESCO, and a new office is open in Brazil, and I agreed to do that with the president.
Good old uncle Fidel asked if we wanted to go and play in Cuba! We are going to do that next year and we will probably be the only heavy-metal band that has ever done it.
It seems like the only places you don’t tour is in America and the Middle East.
It is bloody difficult at the moment. With the last tour, it was the government in England that was the problem. We had that whole tour booked up, and when I left America 10 years ago it was all OK, but with 9/11 it has just been impossible for me to tour over there. It is just too much hassle for people in Europe to go to America. I think that America has been gripped by paranoia.
The UK is having a bit of its own paranoia at the moment as well.
Yes. Let me tell you, it has been crazy. I was away in Denmark the other day and everything was just kicking off with the embassy over these stupid cartoons. I think that it is all down to freedom of speech, really.
They [fundamentalists] are condemning the Danish, but then are supporting these suicide bombers who say that they are going to blow up everybody that disagrees with them, and it is just nuts.
I mean, everyone is entitled to their opinion, and it seems what the Danish people did, OK, it was quite disgraceful, but that is the freedom of the press, isn’t it? If you piss people off, you suffer the consequences in some way, but not by blowing someone up!
They are all mad and I can’t deal with it. No one seems to be capable of sitting down and talking.
As a Muslim, were you offended by the cartoons?
Yeah, very much so, but as I said, everyone has the freedom of choice to say what they want. It was bloody stupid, for sure. It was just somebody trying to be clever and they later realized that they did something really stupid. I don’t think that an embassy should be burnt down for it though. There were other people in those embassies, not the cartoonists. Innocent people are getting hurt and there is no need for that.
Do you feel that this kind of reaction feeds into the general fear of Muslims in the West?
Yeah. I mean years ago the crusaders did some terrible things to Muslims, so it has been going on back and forth for centuries. There has got to be a better way, a way where everyone can sit down and talk, but everyone seems to be so jumpy that when one says something, then another says something else, and it all falls to pieces.
It’s mad and I am just trying to keep my head down and keep working on this children’s foundation and on my own kids; that is all I want to do.
How did you come to embrace the teaching of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH)?
I turned to Islam 15 years ago. My ex-wife was a Muslim, and she said to me, “Don’t say anything, just read this,” and I read the Qur’an and some other literature.
I had always believed in God, but because you say that you are a Muslim, people in the West think that you are running around with a machine gun. Most Muslims are very peaceful people. I have always believed that if you believe in God and you get down on your knees to pray to God, then you should pray directly to God, you don’t have to go around the ‘Holy Mother’ and everybody else to get there. It just made more sense to me. I also cut out doing drugs. I firmly believe that God has kept on letting me do what I am doing because he thinks that I am finally writing about issues that matter.
I may be kidding myself, but that is what I believe.
I know that you had been planning on performing the Hajj for some time, have you done it yet?
No. I have had only a little time off in four years and my wife and I broke up this year, so it has been really difficult. When I go back to Brazil my two daughters stay with me and things get busy, but I will get there one day for sure, insha’Allah. It is something that I must do and I have to do it before I die, but I don’t plan on dying just yet.
I was at the Wailing Wall a few years ago, but that is as close as I have come. You know, Jerusalem is a very important place to Muslims. I nearly got into a fight with some Israeli soldiers who were trying to stop me from going into a mosque there once.
Why would they stop you from going in?
You have to go through this little market thing downstairs from the mosque that is run by both Jews and Arabs side-by-side, but there is a gate with soldiers there stopping Muslims from going in to pray. I finally managed to get in and went to afternoon prayers, but it was a hassle.
It was a real eye opener to see that there are people running around with machine guns in front of a mosque. I hope that they can work it out and live side-by-side in peace some day. I wasn’t always a peaceful person. I would be violent, but I am a different man now.
Do you try and spread the teachings of Islam to non-Muslims?
Of course. My Qur’an goes everywhere with me. For those who are interested I have little pamphlets that I bring out with me. There is no mosque here in Salisbury, which is a shame because there are a few hundred of us here. They do have a Muslim foundation, though, and we meet and pray there often.
I know that you haven’t performed in Egypt, but you do travel here?
Yeah, I like to go to Sharm El-Sheikh. I love traveling through the entire Middle East, really. There are some really cool things there, but some really un-cool things as well at the moment. All of these great things seem to come from there, the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and Jesus. There is something mystical about the land and I can’t work out really what it is, but I love going there. It is just a whole different world.
Is it difficult to be a Muslim and live in the UK or Brazil?
No. I am really not in one place for too long though, am I? [laughs] When I do get a lot of time off, I usually go straight back to Brazil and I am a total recluse with my kids. I don’t do anything or go out anymore. I don’t drink or anything, so the craziest thing that I do these days is sit around with the kids and watch TV.
I am really boring now. [laughs]
You are constantly recording. What is new?
I am having a bit of trouble writing at the moment. I just can’t seem to write when I am on the road. The thing that has really lifted my spirits, though, is knowing that there are some good things going on in South and Central America. That is the greatest thing going on in my life right now apart from my own children.
You know, there shouldn’t be one kid in the world who is not fed, clothed, educated or sheltered. If you took some of the money that you put into all of these useless gadgets, like tanks and bombs and things like that, we could feed all the people — they are the future after all.
We are just trying to get things up and running and I am just trying to do it in my part of the world the best that I can. et
8 Comments
Di'anno lying as usual, he have never met the current president of Brazil...
i wouyldnt say that. DiAnno f*****g RULEZ!!!
but he's a fuckng liar, that's not the first time tells some absurd lie
Is this the same bloke? That's some change in direction! But anyway, stop spreading s**t about Paul Di'Anno. How, may I ask, do you know he hasn't met the president of Brazil? Crazier things have happened. What's your evidence? And if you're on about him being a liar, don't tell me you don't make up the occasional porky-pie every now and again. If you deny it, then you're a liar (hahaha!). Seriously though, we're all liars. Me, you, the politicians, all of us. I'm not saying it's right, but we all do it. I make up the occasional tall-tale every so often, but it'll always be for the right reason. So stick that in your pipe and smoke it! Give the man a chance and shut your cake-hole. Oh, by the way, feel free to back-chat - I love a good argument - hahaha! - Nicko JR
You can't know for sure whether he's lying or not. Besides, some of the things can easily be confirmed. For example, whether the proceeds from his book are really going to charity.
Either way, good for him, I say.
i agree with Nicko JR. it doesnt matter if he is or not a liar. he IS paul dianno. love him or hate him hes a man with his own way and attitude :)
Cheers for the support, mate - much appreciated. Mind you, I find it surprising that the bloke has become such a religious man after some of the stuff he's done in his life so far, but if it's true, good for him. PAUL DI'ANNO RULES!!! And I'm looking forward to hearing "The Living Dead" - I know it's really just an update of "Nomad", but I haven't heard "Nomad" so it might as well be a new album to me - Nicko JR
Nicko JR - NOMAD is just a mind blowing opus. highlights: The Living dead, Nomad, S. A. T. A. N. and many others