Confession: I just discovered Iron Maiden…

Happy Friday

TL;DR: I just discovered Iron Maiden—yes, I know. In 2025 no less—thanks to an AirBnB commercial 🎸. Somehow, their logo was etched into my brain, but their music? Never crossed my playlist. Until now. And TBH? It slaps.

Here’s the funny thing: I was watching an AirBnB commercial about traveling with kids (which I do often), and in the foreground, a kid was absolutely shredding on a guitar while Wheatus’s “Teenage Dirtbag” played (Naturally, I Shazam’d it). That led me to the music video… which led me to realizing that the “teenage dirtbag” in question was obsessed with an "Iron Maiden".

And the crazy part—I somehow never listened to Maiden before. Despite having a pretty eclectic music taste (hip-hop, funk, Jazz, R&B, alternative, and a heavy dose of Metallica for gym motivation), somehow Maiden never crossed my radar, at least not conciously. I didn’t even know Metallica was influenced by them until I fell down the rabbit hole. But the logo? That had been living in my brain rent-free for decades. Now that I’ve finally listened, I get it.

So yeah—shoutout to AirBnB for the not-so-subtle hint that my kids are too big for hotel life, to Wheatus for their enduring ode to teenage angst, and to YouTube for being the world's most effective enabler of late-night spirals, and to Iron Maiden for waiting patiently for someone like me to finally discover them—like an old head at the bar who knows you’ll eventually wise up and order the good whiskey.