Paul Di’Anno ponders retirement

Paul Di’Anno knows how he’ll spend his retirement – but he’s given himself at least two years to decide when to do it.

And he’s still upset over the “official” reason given for his departure from Iron Maiden in 1981.

He’s back on the road after serving a prison sentence for benefit fraud. Last year he pled guilty to claiming over £45,000 through being unable to work because of back problems – even though he was playing gigs all over the world at the time.

But his thoughts are beginning to move beyond the live arena. He tells Let There Be Rock: “It’s what I do, and it’s what I love, but it’s not everything. The everything is my family. When I leave this, there’s no return for me – I’m done.

“I am tired. I work very hard.”

Considering his future he says: “It’s going to be fishing, sitting around scratching my balls and watching TV, and trying to have another baby. But we’ve got two years for all that, so it’s all good.”

Di’Anno describes himself as “the hardest critic of myself” and says he’ll know when it’s time to bow out: “I get nervous every night. I’m almost puking before I go on the stage, and it’s happened all my life. The day that doesn’t happen is the day I’m done.”

In the meantime, though, he reveals his current band is working on new material, and suggests he might release two or three albums in the coming 24 months.

But he wants to set the record straight about Maiden’s claim that he had to leave because he didn’t want to tour. He explains: “Look at what I do: 300 concerts a year. It wasn’t about touring.

“I lost my voice in Germany the same time Klaus Meine lost his. I went to see the same specialist. Klaus gave me the number of the guy in Switzerland. I stayed with Klaus in Cologne and got it sorted, and I ‘ve never had any problems since.

“Sometimes it goes, sometimes it doesn’t – but all that crap, I don’t want to tour? I love touring. It’s my life. It’s politics. I’m not going to say any more because we’re still friends, but whose band is it? Exactly.”

And to those who believe he’s amounted to nothing after Maiden, Di’Anno points out: “That first solo album went straight to number one in Japan, the first western artist ever. We’ve done 25million records. It’s been good.”