Vocalist Biff Byford of British heavy metal legends SAXON was recently interviewed by Canadian rock journalist Mitch Lafon.
Asked why he thinks SAXON never managed to reach the same commercial heights in the 1980s as a band like IRON MAIDEN, Biff said: “I just think that they had a fantastic team around them — and still do have, actually — and I think that made the extra… made it a bit better. I don’t think they were surrounded by ‘yes men,’ if you know what I’m saying, where I think we were surrounded a little bit by fawning ‘yes men,’ and we lost our way a little bit in the way that we wrote songs and the way we recorded songs. It would have been better if we had stayed with a winning team, if you know what I mean. That’s the sort of thing I mean. It’s not particularly anything to do with musically or fashion or anything. It’s just a matter of… I think they had the right team at the right place at the right time. They really went for it in America, and we sort of probably went about fifty percent for America. You have to remember that we were probably bigger in Europe at that time. It’s just how it goes, really. It’s just the luck of the draw, as they say.