Iron Maiden
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49 free Iron Maiden trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Steve Harris named his band after a torture device, played a first gig in a Poplar hall in 1976, and fifty years later was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In between came a papier-mache mascot who squirted blood, the first metal videos on MTV, a Boeing flown by the frontman and more than 130 million albums. These 49 questions cover the whole run: Ash Mountain, the Soundhouse Tapes, Rod Smallwood, Martin Birch, the Di'Anno years, Bruce Dickinson's audition, Nicko McBrain, Compass Point, the World Slavery Tour behind the Iron Curtain, Rock in Rio with Queen, the Orson Scott Card concept album, the UK number one from a Nightmare on Elm Street film, Blaze Bayley, the Three Amigos, the Grammy for El Dorado, Ed Force One, Empire of the Clouds, Senjutsu and the 2026 Pophouse deal. Easy questions stick to the classic line-up; the expert tier asks about Dennis Wilcock, Bob Sawyer's teeth, Charlotte and the Harlots and the 66.66 euro keychains. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo or print it for a metal night.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which football club does Iron Maiden founder Steve Harris support, wearing its crest on his bass?
West Ham United
West Ham United coached the teenage Harris as a youth player before music won out, and in 2025 Iron Maiden headlined the club's London Stadium home.
Q 02In which part of London, home to founder Steve Harris, was Iron Maiden formed in 1975?
East London
East London: the Cart and Horses pub in Stratford, where the band played some of its earliest gigs in 1976, now trades as "the birthplace of Iron Maiden".
Q 03Which old film did Steve Harris say gave him the idea for the name Iron Maiden?
The Man in the Iron Mask
The Man in the Iron Mask, an old film of the Dumas novel, put Harris in mind of the iron maiden, a spiked torture cabinet, and the band had its name.
Q 04Whose wartime speech introduces "Aces High" on Iron Maiden's live album Live After Death?
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill's "We shall fight on the beaches" speech of 1940 sets the scene, because the song is told by an RAF pilot scrambling to fight in the Battle of Britain.
Q 05Who has been Iron Maiden's lead singer on most of its albums since 1982?
Bruce Dickinson
Bruce Dickinson was still fronting rivals Samson when Maiden's manager cornered him backstage at the 1981 Reading Festival; he quit in 1993 and came back in 1999.
Q 06Which singer fronted Iron Maiden on its first two albums before being dismissed in 1981?
Paul Di'Anno
Paul Di'Anno was let go after the Killers tour, by which time the band had quietly auditioned his successor behind his back.
Q 07What is the name of Iron Maiden's skeletal mascot?
Eddie
Eddie started out as a mask hung at the back of the stage, rigged to dribble fake blood during the set, long before he appeared on a record sleeve.
Q 08Which artist painted Iron Maiden's mascot for the band's record covers from 1980 into the early 1990s?
Derek Riggs
Derek Riggs kept the creature's face in shadow on the first single's sleeve, so that the debut album cover would be the first proper look at him.
Q 09What was the title of Iron Maiden's self-released debut EP of 1979?
The Soundhouse Tapes
The Soundhouse Tapes began as a demo that a London rock-club DJ played until it topped his weekly request chart, and the EP took its name from his club night.
Q 10Which label signed Iron Maiden in December 1979?
EMI
EMI put out Running Free as the band's first single; invited onto Top of the Pops, they refused to mime, and the BBC reluctantly let them play live.
Q 11Who became Iron Maiden's manager after hearing the band's demo tape in 1979?
Rod Smallwood
Rod Smallwood had been a booking agent, and those contacts helped him put his little-known band on Kiss's European tour as the support act in 1980.
Q 12Iron Maiden's "The Trooper" is told by a cavalryman riding to his death in which doomed attack?
The Charge of the Light Brigade
The Charge of the Light Brigade, Britain's cavalry disaster of 1854, is retold from one rider's saddle, and the band later named its own Trooper ale after the song.
Q 13The title of Iron Maiden's "2 Minutes to Midnight" refers to which symbol of nuclear danger?
The Doomsday Clock
Q 21Iron Maiden's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", from Powerslave, retells a poem by which writer?
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's ballad is retold across more than thirteen minutes, and Steve Harris says he is proud that teenage fans went off to read the poem because of it.
Q 22Iron Maiden's World Slavery Tour opened in 1984 with five shows in which Eastern Bloc country?
Poland
Poland got the band's full stage show, trucked through the Iron Curtain for five concerts in six days at one of the frostiest points of the Cold War.
Q 23Iron Maiden played the opening night of the first Rock in Rio in 1985 as special guests to which headliner?
Queen
The Doomsday Clock stood at two minutes to midnight in 1953, after American and Soviet H-bomb tests, and it had crept back to three minutes in 1984, when the single came out.
Q 14Which two live clips made Iron Maiden the first metal band shown on MTV?
"Iron Maiden" and "Wrathchild"
"Iron Maiden" and "Wrathchild" both aired on MTV's launch day in 1981; the first was only the sixteenth video the channel ever played, between Rod Stewart and REO Speedwagon.
Q 15Which veteran producer worked with Iron Maiden from Killers until retiring in 1992?
Martin Birch
Martin Birch, who had already made records with Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, was brought in because the band disliked the thin sound of its debut album.
Q 16Which 1982 album was Iron Maiden's first to top the UK chart?
The Number of the Beast
The Number of the Beast came with its own legend: during the sessions the producer's car hit a minibus full of nuns, and the repair bill came to £666.
Q 17Which film gave Steve Harris the nightmare behind the title track of Iron Maiden's 1982 album?
Damien: Omen II
Damien: Omen II gave Harris the nightmare. The band wanted Vincent Price to read the spoken intro, but he asked £25,000, so another actor was hired instead.
Q 18Which drummer played on Iron Maiden's first three albums before leaving at the end of 1982?
Clive Burr
Clive Burr later developed multiple sclerosis, and his former bandmates set up a trust fund and played benefit concerts to help cover his living costs.
Q 19Iron Maiden recorded Piece of Mind and Powerslave at Compass Point Studios in which island country?
The Bahamas
The Bahamas: for both albums the band wrote the songs in an out-of-season hotel on wintry Jersey, then flew out to Nassau to record them in the sun.
Q 20Which 1983 song, the first single Iron Maiden released in the United States, became a rare American radio hit?
Flight of Icarus
Flight of Icarus was held to a steady pace because its singer bet that would get it onto American radio; Steve Harris always found it too slow and prefers it faster live.
Queen topped the bill that night; Maiden broke off a winter tour of the United States to fly down for the single show, then went straight back to the snow.
Q 24Most of Iron Maiden's live album Live After Death was recorded over four nights at which arena?
Long Beach Arena
Long Beach Arena in California supplied the first three sides and the whole concert film, but the fourth side was taped months earlier at London's Hammersmith Odeon.
Q 25Iron Maiden's concept album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son was inspired by a 1987 fantasy novel by which author?
Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card's Seventh Son gave Harris a theme for the band's seventh album; the first song written for it came from his wondering whether a famous psychic had foreseen her own death.
Q 26Iron Maiden's "Run to the Hills" describes the conquest of which people by European settlers?
Native Americans
Native Americans tell the first verse and the invading soldiers the second; it was the band's first single with its new singer and its first UK top ten hit.
Q 27Iron Maiden drew a record 107,000 fans in 1988 headlining which British festival?
Monsters of Rock
Monsters of Rock at Donington drew the largest crowd in its history that day, but the band's triumph was tinged with tragedy: two fans had died in the crowd during an earlier set.
Q 28Which guitarist replaced Adrian Smith in Iron Maiden in 1990, straight from playing on the singer's solo album?
Janick Gers
Janick Gers was still making the solo record when Maiden asked him to step in; when Smith came back nine years later, the band simply kept them both.
Q 29Which single gave Iron Maiden its first UK number one, over Christmas 1990?
Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter
Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter began as a solo song its singer wrote for a Nightmare on Elm Street film; Steve Harris liked it so much that the band took it over.
Q 30Which country's Christian groups stopped Iron Maiden from performing there in 1992?
Chile
Chile's church leaders had the 1992 concert cancelled, yet the band's 2012 live album and film En Vivo! was shot in Santiago's national stadium.