Blaze Bayley

Blaze Bayley (born Bayley Alexander Cooke, 29 May 1963) is an English singer, musician, songwriter, and lyricist. He was the lead singer of Wolfsbane from 1984 to 1994, and currently from 2010 following reunions in 2007 and 2009.

Bayley was chosen to replace Bruce Dickinson as the lead singer of Iron Maiden after hundreds of auditions. His departure from Wolfsbane led to their disbandment later that year. After a serious motorcycle accident put him out of commission for a year, Bayley was able to record vocals for Maiden's The X Factor, released in 1995. Bayley went on tour with the band in support of the album. Another Iron Maiden album with Bayley on vocals, Virtual XI was released in 1998.

The two Iron Maiden albums released during Bayley's tenure did not chart as well as the band had hoped. The X Factor peaked at No. 8 on the UK Albums Chart and Virtual XI hit only No. 16, both being the lowest-charting Iron Maiden studio albums since Killers was released in 1981, which peaked at No. 12.

After hearing in February 1999 that Dickinson was returning to Iron Maiden, Bayley was kicked off from the group and return to Wolfsbane. He remains on good terms with his former bandmates. Iron Maiden occasionally performed songs from the two Maiden albums featuring Bayley, including "Man on the Edge" and "Futureal", which he co-wrote, though no Bayley-era songs were on the band's set list from the end of the Dance of Death World Tour in 2004 until the band performed "The Clansman" during the 2018-2019 Legacy of the Beast World Tour. Likewise, Bayley has performed Iron Maiden songs originally recorded by the Dickinson and Paul Di'Anno led line-ups at some concerts.

Since leaving Iron Maiden, he has embarked on a solo career as well as co-headlining a tour with Paul Di'Anno.

Discography
With Iron Maiden:
 * Studio albums
 * The X Factor (1995)
 * Virtual XI (1998)


 * Compilation albums
 * Best of the Beast (1996)
 * Best of the 'B' Sides (2002)
 * Eddie's Archive (2002)
 * Edward the Great (2002, 2005)
 * Visions of the Beast (2003)


 * Video games
 * Ed Hunter (1999)

As B L A Z E:
 * Silicon Messiah (2000)
 * Tenth Dimension (2002)
 * Blood & Belief (2004)

As Blaze Bayley:
 * The Man Who Would Not Die (2008)
 * Promise and Terror (2010)
 * The King of Metal (2012)
 * Infinite Entanglement (2016)
 * Endure and Survive – Infinite Entanglement Part II (2017)
 * The Redemption of William Black – Infinite Entanglement Part III (2018)
 * War Within Me (2021)

Live albums


 * December Wind (2018)
 * Live in France (2019)
 * Live in Czech (2020)