Was Joey Belldonna considered to be Iron Maiden's singer?

i personally know a guy who never liked Maiden because they have always been overrated in his opinion and he also prefers Priest, Saxon & Motörhead to Iron Maiden, so spacebeer is not alone on that one.

Yeah there are even people out there that prefer the BushThrax era of "Anthrax" better than the Joey era. So there are always a few 'special' people out there.
 
An unconfirmed list of the singer canidates after Bruce left that band is:

Blaze Bayley, U.K.
Dougie White, U.K.
Marco Hietala, Finland
Andre Matos, Brasil
Joe Belladona, USA
Solli, Norway
James LaBrie, USA

Of course it was Blaze Bayley who got the job. I don't know if this is true or not, but It's interesting speculation. Mr. Belladonna might have been a lot more succsessful than he is now... :)


Matos would have been an interesting choice, though I don't think it would have worked out long-term.

LaBrie had the technical chops back in the 90's, but sadly couldn't keep Dream Theater afloat after their creative well ran dry from Kevin Moore leaving.

Joey? Perhaps. But only on Maiden's old tunes. I can't picture Joey singing on The X Factor.

thraxhead
 
1980's Maiden destroyed 1980's Priest by a couple of hundred miles.

1970's Priest destroyed anything by any metal band, ever.

In fact, Stained Class is still an untouchable masterpiece that has no equal. Every metal album that has been considered "the best ever", be it The Number of The Beast, Awaken The Guardian, Master of Puppets, Images & Words, A Burnt Offering for the Bone Idol, Slaughter of the Soul, or whoever else is out there - every one of those albums owe some sort of nod to Stained Class.

thraxhead
 
1980's Maiden destroyed 1980's Priest by a couple of hundred miles.

1970's Priest destroyed anything by any metal band, ever.

In fact, Stained Class is still an untouchable masterpiece that has no equal. Every metal album that has been considered "the best ever", be it The Number of The Beast, Awaken The Guardian, Master of Puppets, Images & Words, A Burnt Offering for the Bone Idol, Slaughter of the Soul, or whoever else is out there - every one of those albums owe some sort of nod to Stained Class.

thraxhead

Just as Priest owes a nod to Black Sabbath. I am not a huge fan of Judas Priest. I respect them as being a pioneer for heavy metal music. But I just have a hard time with Rob Halfords vocal style. I think a lot of their material has been cheesy over the years. But they have also had a lot of good stuff. Stained Class is certainly one of great metal albums of that era.
 
I ran into an old friend of mine who was very connected with the music scene at NAMM a couple of years back and he did confirm there was a list of out there. Not sure if the one posted was it, but he said that the names were big names. I pressed him on it and he said he wouldn't name names (except for Blaze), but he said for sure he knew of 4.

#1 - Former singer of Helloween. He said he was always Steve's and Bruce's first choice because of his vocal range and his attitude (he is known as very nice person to deal with). Said the gig would've been Michael Kiske's, but he was sooo burnt out by what the other guys in Helloween did to him (and Ingo, the drummer's eventual suicide), he made it clear he would never sing metal again. That it killed both Kiske and Harris that Kiske didn't want to do it.

#2 - Former singer who replaced a legend from one of biggest metal bands of all time. I took this to mean Ronnie James Dio. Said there was communication between the singer and Harris, but didn't want to be seen as the guy who keeps replaceing legendary lead singers.

#3 - Former lead singer of IM. Since Steve wanted to go in a darker and heavier sounding direction, he thought about bringing back Di'Anno. They all always remained friends (including w/ Bruce), but the band thought there was no way he could've had the range to do Bruce's stuff and the band was still weary if he could handle the grind of touring w/o turning back to his old demons that got him kicked out of the band in the first place.

#4 - Blaze. Mostly because Steve thought he could mold him into sounding like Di'Anno and he could get away with singing Bruce's stuff. Steve was wrong.

What brought Bruce and Adrian back was Steve listening to Accident of Birth and Chemical Wedding. Bruce and Adrian did Maiden better than Maiden did Maiden.

He never told me how he knew, but he was very connected, so I took his word.
 
I ran into an old friend of mine who was very connected with the music scene at NAMM a couple of years back and he did confirm there was a list of out there. Not sure if the one posted was it, but he said that the names were big names. I pressed him on it and he said he wouldn't name names (except for Blaze), but he said for sure he knew of 4.

#1 - Former singer of Helloween. He said he was always Steve's and Bruce's first choice because of his vocal range and his attitude (he is known as very nice person to deal with). Said the gig would've been Michael Kiske's, but he was sooo burnt out by what the other guys in Helloween did to him (and Ingo, the drummer's eventual suicide), he made it clear he would never sing metal again. That it killed both Kiske and Harris that Kiske didn't want to do it.

#2 - Former singer who replaced a legend from one of biggest metal bands of all time. I took this to mean Ronnie James Dio. Said there was communication between the singer and Harris, but didn't want to be seen as the guy who keeps replaceing legendary lead singers.

#3 - Former lead singer of IM. Since Steve wanted to go in a darker and heavier sounding direction, he thought about bringing back Di'Anno. They all always remained friends (including w/ Bruce), but the band thought there was no way he could've had the range to do Bruce's stuff and the band was still weary if he could handle the grind of touring w/o turning back to his old demons that got him kicked out of the band in the first place.

#4 - Blaze. Mostly because Steve thought he could mold him into sounding like Di'Anno and he could get away with singing Bruce's stuff. Steve was wrong.

What brought Bruce and Adrian back was Steve listening to Accident of Birth and Chemical Wedding. Bruce and Adrian did Maiden better than Maiden did Maiden.

He never told me how he knew, but he was very connected, so I took his word.
Interesting stuff!!!