Di’Anno – Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer (the official documentary on ex-Iron Maiden frontman Paul Di’Anno) is coming to North America in June via DVD/Blu-ray and VOD. It’ll also have multiple live showings.
Details of the Documentary + Release
Directed by Wes Orshoski (who’s also made films about Motörhead and The Damned), Di’Anno – Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer has already screened in the U.K. It also played at Sound Unseen in Minneapolis on May 13.
Luckily, the movie will have more of a presence in the States next month, when it appears at the San Francisco Documentary Festival on June 3rd before having its North American theatrical premiere at the Lumiere Music Hall Theater in Beverly Hills, Calif. on June 9th. Per Blabbermouth, a “special question-and-answer session with . . . Orshoski will immediately follow the Beverly Hills screening.”
That same day, Di’Anno – Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer will release on digital VOD and on DVD/Blu-ray formats.
As described by distributor Cleopatra Entertainment:
The life and career of pioneering heavy metal frontman Paul Di’Anno, the powerhouse voice heard on Iron Maiden’s early albums, will be celebrated in the forthcoming documentary. . . . In a strikingly raw and intimate film, . . . Orshoski captures the late singer riding an emotional rollercoaster toward the end of his life.
Featuring appearances by James Hetfield (Metallica), Gene Simmons (Kiss), Maiden’s Steve Harris and members of Exodus, Slayer, Megadeth, Overkill and Sepultura, the film chronicles how two Iron Maiden fans encounter Di’Anno at the lowest point of his life and then set out to restore his health and relaunch his career.
Wheelchair-bound since the mid-2010s, Di’Anno’s health nosedived during the Covid-19 pandemic, when those two fans launched a crowdfunding campaign which ultimately led to him relocating to Croatia, where – through the help of those fans and doctors – he made a dramatic turnaround while running out of money, reuniting with his former Maiden bandmates, and falling in love. Eventually he makes a heroic and drama-filled return to the stage. All of this is captured in Di’Anno: Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer, which Orshoski began shooting in 2017.
“For years there wasn’t much to capture,” says Orshoski, whose credits include ‘Lemmy,’ a study of Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister and ‘The Damned: Don’t You Wish That We Were Dead.’ “Paul was waiting for surgeries that doctors in the U.K. would not green-light. He was in an incredibly dark place. But once he got to Croatia, fans and doctors gave him the hope he was desperately searching for. It was beautiful to witness. I wanted to make a film that was unlike any rock doc you’ve ever seen. And in the end, I think we got there.”
Unsurprisingly, the documentary has received rave reviews, such as from Metal Hammer, who praised its “harrowing insight into Di’Anno’s frustration and frailty at a desperately low ebb with an abrasively real, warts-and-all approach to its subject that serves Paul’s legacy far more compellingly than some sanitized panegyric” [via Blabbermouth].
You can see the official trailer for the film below:
Di’Anno – Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer Trailer
You can also grab tickets for the San Francisco Documentary Festival here and grab tickets for the Lumiere Music Hall Theater showing here. Lastly, you can preorder the physical release here.
READ MORE: The Paul Di’Anno Iron Maiden Song Bruce Dickinson Doesn’t Want to Sing (And For Good Reason)
More About Di’Anno
As dedicated Iron Maiden fans surely know, Di’Anno was in Iron Maiden from 1978 to 1982 and appeared on all releases through 1981’s Maiden Japan. As such, he also sang on their initial two studio LPs – 1980’s Iron Maiden, which he preferred, and 1981’s Killers – before being replaced by Bruce Dickinson due to stylistic differences.
From there – and as Loudwire wrote when Di’Anno died in late October of 2024, at the age of 66 – he “launched and participated in several short-lived projects over the next decade, including the eponymous Di’Anno, Gogmagog, Battlezone and the pre-New Wave of British Heavy Metal band Praying Mantis, who enjoyed a brief renaissance in 1990.”
Loudwire continued: “He founded and fronted the band Killers for much of the ’90s and briefly in the early 2000s, and he continued to perform and release albums as a solo artist well into the 21st century.”
Naturally, Iron Maiden paid tribute to Di’Anno following his passing, as did ex-singer Blaze Bayley. Around the same time, rockers such as Anthrax, Slash, David Ellefson and Exodus also paid tribute to him. A month after his death, Di’Anno was laid to rest in London.
Other Iron Maiden News
Speaking of Iron Maiden movies, Loudwire recently reviewed the band’s official career retrospective: Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition. As we described it, the film explores the group’s 50-year career “through the lens of their legion of fans” alongside “an eye-watering amount of vintage photos and video clips so captivating you won’t even want to risk a blink.”
Elsewhere, up-and-coming WWE wrestler Lizzy Rain embraced her metalhead core by evoking Iron Maiden during her in-ring debut last month!
Finally, Iron Maiden are gearing up for the 2026 leg of their ongoing “Run for Your Life” international tour, during which they’re celebrating their 50th anniversary by focusing on their initial nine records (from 1980’s Iron Maiden to 1992’s Fear the Dark). They’ll be supported by an alternating list of other acts – including Anthrax, Megadeth, Evergrey and Alter Bridge – and play Germany, France, Canada, the United States and Brazil among many other places.
The tour will last from the end of May to the end of November, and you can see the full list of dates – and purchase tickets – here.
Are you looking forward to Di’Anno – Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer? Let us know!
In Memoriam: Rockers We Lost in 2024
We say farewell to some amazingly talented performers and rock movers and shakers.
Gallery Credit: Chad Childers, Loudwire