CNN Covers Maiden

On the heels of my rant about CNN and some of its lame coverage, the news outlet today posted a surprisingly positive article about the raging popularity of Iron Maiden around the world.

The article stems from their recent appearance at Sao Paulo's Palmeiras Stadium.

Some nuggets:

"In South America, it's like verging on hysteria," says Adrian Smith, one of the group's three guitarists. "We got here to the hotel yesterday and there 2,300 people screaming. They were screaming up until sort of midnight last night. I could hear them chanting 'Maiden, Maiden.' I woke up late today and I sort of stumbled down to the café because I couldn't get any room service. I just wanted a cup of coffee, you know."

"He's [Eddie, Maiden's mascot] the most outrageous and the biggest rock star there's ever been," says Iron Maiden's lead singer, Bruce Dickinson. "And it's great because we don't have to be. We can just concentrate on doing what we do. The truth is we're not actually any of us interested in the rock star thing. We're very pleased that the paparazzi find us utterly, utterly uninteresting."

"Iron Maiden has never relied on radio play or TV or the conventional forms of media that a lot of music bands rely on," says Sam Dunn, a documentary filmmaker and Maiden fan who's making a film of the group's "Somewhere Back in Time" tour. "I think for the fans, that's what's most special. That it's still driven by that communication and that it's a community of fans, and we don't have to rely on the major media corporations to tell us that this is the music we should be listening to, we're listening to it because we want to."