When the dates for the Smith/Kotzen Black Light/White Noise Tour were announced, the status at MetalTalk towers hit code massive. Such was the excitement around the previous tour and the music released so far, the interest around next year’s shows is massive and, as Adrian Smith told MetalTalk, he and Richie Kotzen are raring to go too. We also cover next year’s Knebworth House show and how Adrian still enjoys playing with Urchin.
The logistics for arranging the tour are quite complex. You imagine that when everything is confirmed, there is a feeling of satisfaction which then grows to a big buzz of excitement when the announcement is made.
“It’s been a while coming together,” Adrian Smith said, “because Richie’s got his solo band, and I’ve got Maiden. It takes a while to get these things arranged, but touch wood, we got it together. We’ve got a five-week tour. I’m really looking forward to it as well.”
For Adrian Smith, this is back to basics touring, so there may be a bit of readjusting to sleeping in a bunk on the tour bus with all the snoring, bumpy roads and speed bumps, but Smith/Kotzen is like a family.
“Because, as you say, you’re travelling on a bus, you do socialise more,” Adrian says. “It’s like being back in Iron Maiden in the ’80s. We’re all on the same bus, kind of like a gang. But it’s good fun, and playing clubs, it’s a cliché, but you’re closer to the audience. You get that real instant contact with the audience, and the sound is bouncing off the walls.
“You play a stadium with Maiden, hit a chord, and it just disappears into the ether. But you play in a club, and it resonates in the building. We’re looking forward to it, looking forward to playing the new songs.”
There is no plan to take Richie out for a taste of British cooking when he hits old Blighty, fish and chips, pie and mash or a curry. “Richie’s been to England many times and Europe many times, so he knows the score,” Adrian smiles.
There are some great venues on this tour. Adrian and Richie Kotzen will be able to see the bar and the whites of people’s eyes. Does that take Adrian Smith back to his Urchin days?
“I get a little bit nostalgic sometimes,” Adrian says. “You sit there, when you’re not touring… When I’m at home, it’s 9 o’clock, and I’m thinking, bloody hell. When I was a kid, I would have been playing in some pub somewhere at 9 o’clock in the evening on a Thursday or having a pint just before I play.
“I still see the Urchin guys, my old band. We still play when we get a chance. You know, just some fun. We’re like brothers, really.”
You know that the shows will be rammed, and the new material will sound special. “I think people will enjoy this show,” Adrian says, “because we’ve got a fantastic band. We’ve got Julia Lage, an incredible bass player. Bruno Valverde is one of the best drummers in the world. We’ve got all these new songs that we’re just dying to play. I think they’re gonna translate really well to the stage, so I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun.”
With a lot more vocal muscle required than when he is with Iron Maiden, does Adrian Smith take extra care of his voice on the road, or is it just a cup of tea and an early night?
“I don’t smoke anymore, so that’s good,” Adrian says. “When I was very young, I just didn’t do anything. I don’t really baby my voice. I don’t have that kind of voice that needs it. Sometimes Bruce will not talk all day. He’ll wear a scarf. But he probably sings a lot more than I do.
“I’m sort of sensible. I think it’s also in the songs, if the songs are structured in such a way that you’re not straining your voice. I don’t strain my voice as much as I used to when I was a kid. I just used to belt it out and scream and shout. You pace yourself a little bit.
“Richie and I share the vocals, so it’s not a tremendous strain, like doing the whole show yourself. It’s enjoyable. That’s one of the things I like about Smith/Kotzen. It was always my ideal to link up with someone else who likes to sing, and you can bounce off someone.”
Adrian Smith smiled when I said that MetalTalk described the Black Light/White Noise album as having tunes baked so hot that the album should come attached with oven gloves. But the chance to get these great live-sounding songs cooking in front of a live audience is something that Adrian and Richie are desperate for.
“I think they will translate well,” Adrian says. “We don’t go overboard on production. There are not that many overdubs. It’s kind of a pretty raw, so it’s not like you’re trying to recreate this opera when you go on stage.
“It’s pretty basic, and, as I say, I think those songs will translate very well to the stage. Blindsided and White Noise, I think, they’re gonna sound like really, really, really heavy.”
It is a fantastic album, and both were pleased with the fans’ reception. “It was very, very positively received,” Adrian Smith says. “I think it’s a progression from the last album. It’s a little bit more cohesive, it’s a bit more focused, it’s a bit more uptempo, a bit heavier. Although I loved the first album, this was up a couple of levels as well.”
For the last tour, Adrian had spoken about playing every song they had written together, including the B-sides and the track Rise Again. Now there is the problem of having to drop some songs from the set, a cool problem to have.
“It is,” Adrian smiles. “We’ve got a shortlist of songs we’ve drawn up already, so we’ll work on those and see what we need.” Rise Again came from a Mike Portnoy drum track that Richie received. “I listened to it,” he says, “and I started thinking of Frank Zappa and all this fusion and stuff like that. I came up with this thing, and then Richie put all this fusion stuff in. It turned out great. We didn’t have enough songs for the set, so we said, let’s try it. I thought it was not gonna work. But it worked so well, and it was such a lot of fun.”
The tour kicks off in Spain on 3 February, hitting Nottingham on 12 February, and runs to Sweden on 8 March 2025. April sees three headline shows in South America before they play Bangers Open Air, São Paulo, Brazil.
“We were offered this festival in São Paulo,” Adrian Smith says. “It was a little bit after the tour, there’s a three-week break, which is a little bit awkward. But it was too good to turn down. So then we put some other gigs around it to try to make a little tour out of it. I’m really looking forward to that big festival in South America, and some gigs in Chile, Argentina and Brazil.”
I say that I had visions of the Smith family and the Kotzen family sitting in the kitchen somewhere with a glass or something, sticking pins in a map to see where they wanted to play. “It looks a bit like that, doesn’t it?” Adrian laughs. “But the timing was such that it’s after the tour proper, but we couldn’t turn it down really.”
Then there is the matter of the Knebworth House show to come. “We did it a few years ago with Maiden,” Adrian says. “That’s an overused word, iconic, but it really is an iconic venue, and it should be a special day.”
As Knebworth House custodian Henry Cobbold told us this year, the significance of standing there on stage in front of 120,000 people, across multiple generations, can build a legacy and a legend. Is that something that Adrian will think about when he first walks out onto the stage?
“Yeah, I mean, we always try to,” he says. “Twickenham was amazing as well, because that is just an incredible stadium. I’ve never been before, but I should imagine if you see a rugby match here, it must be incredible as the stands are so close to the action. The London stadium was incredible, 73,000 people, what a night that was.”
But Knebworth House will be very special. “It sort of gets a bit more than a gig at this stage,” Adrian says. “It’s like an occasion. Having said that, it is another gig, so you try to go out, and you play the same as you always do, and try to do the best show you can.”
We talk about Freddie Mercury’s last live show with Queen, and how, with cameras everywhere, the record button was not pressed, so the only visual memory of the day is from a Dutch guy who was filming on a handheld VHS camera. You hope that next year someone will have responsibility for that job.
“The last time we played in England, we played KK’s Steel Mill, and they are all set up for recording there. It turned out really well. I mean that would be brilliant if we could get some live stuff. My favourite albums are live albums. Deep Purple in Japan and Humble Pie live at the Fillmore, where they capture the band and the audience. You’ve just got to record it right and mix it right, and it can be fantastic.
“Hopefully, we’ll do some recording and Knebworth? I don’t know about Knebworth, but it would be a shame not to, wouldn’t it?”
With Adrian in Los Angeles, the plan is to begin rehearsals there in January and then travel to Europe to acclimatise. The setlist and arrangements are all in the hands of Adrian and Richie, but the love for the rhythm section is there.
“They’re very musical,” Adrian says of Julia and Bruno, “so they slot right in. Anything they do usually enhances the songs. They instinctively know what is best for the songs.
“I have to say, we tried some very well-known people as rhythm sections, and it was good. But there’s something about the way Julia and Bruno play together. Julia glues between the guitars and the drums. She is such a musical player, but she’s got that bottom end as well. That just gives it a lot of weight. I mean, she’s a great singer, too, but we haven’t really got into doing multiple harmonies. Richie and I do that mostly. But you know the musical rhythm section, if you know what I mean, they’re not just banging away.”
For the tour, is it house lighting, guitars, amps and a drum riser, and you are all set to go? “Yeah, we’ve got a little backdrop,” Adrian smiles. “It’s been in my garden shed for a couple of years, so we had to dig that out. It’s kind of back to basics, but you know, it’s gonna be fun.”
Will the Stevie Ray-esque hat be making a reappearance for the tour? “I’m working on a new hat, actually,” Adrian teases. “I can’t alert the media to it, just at this moment, because I have not finalised it, but I am working on some new headwear. Because the old barnet is not what it was.”
I can relate to that, for sure. For now, it is the Christmas break and time to get refreshed and ready to kick some arse in the new year. You know this tour is going to be awesome. “We’re gonna have a good time,” Adrian Smith promises. “It’s gonna be fun.”
Smith/Kotzen will hit venues across Spain, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Czechia, Poland and Scandinavia through February and March 2026. Tickets are on sale from SmithKotzen.com.
Iron Maiden will be joined by The Darkness, The Hu, Airbourne and The Almighty at Knebworth House on 11 July 2026. For tickets, visit IronMaiden.com.
You can read more about our feature with Knebworth House custodian Henry Cobbold here.
