Bruce Dickinson Performs ‘Wasted Years’ With Smith/Kotzen at London Show

Bruce Dickinson walked onstage on Feb. 21 at O2 Shepherds Bush Empire in London and sang "Wasted Years" with Smith/Kotzen. The duo pairs Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith with Richie Kotzen, who fronts The Winery Dogs.

Smith penned "Wasted Years" back in 1986 for the Somewhere In Time album. Years later, he shared how it happened with U.K.'s Total Guitar magazine.

"I was messing around with a little four-track and I'd just put that riff down for 'Wasted Years,'" Smith shared during the interview, as reported by The Metal Voice. "I was playing Steve [Harris, MAIDEN bassist] some other stuff and I played it to him by accident and he said, 'What's that?' I said, 'You probably won't like this as it's so commercial,' but he really liked it and insisted we do it."

Julia Lage plays bass in the touring group, and Bruno Valverde is on drums. Lage once performed with Barra de Saia, a Brazilian rock band that received a Latin GRAMMY nomination. She's part of Vixen now and has jammed with Pat Travers, Elliot Easton from The Cars, Nuno Bettencourt from Extreme, and Mark McGrath from Sugar Ray.

Smith/Kotzen dropped their first album in March 2021. It climbed to No. 10 on Billboard's Top Album Sales chart and cracked the Top 20 across the U.K., Germany, Japan, and Canada.

Their second album arrived in 2024. Black Light / White Noise came out through BMG in April 2025.

Dickinson became Iron Maiden's singer in 1981, taking over for Paul Di'Anno. The Number of the Beast has sold nearly 20 million copies around the world.

The band hits Athens on May 23. Sofia gets a show on May 26, then Bucharest on May 28. June brings concerts in Hannover, Amsterdam, Milan, and Paris. They'll keep going through September with appearances in Toronto, Montreal, Boston, and Los Angeles. All tour dates are on Iron Maiden's official website.