Adrian Smith

Born in Hackney, Smith grew up in Clapton. His father was a painter and decorator from Homerton. Smith has an older brother and a sister. As a child, he was "a Manchester United fanatic", although he would lose his interest in football once he got into music. He purchased his first record, Deep Purple's Machine Head, at age 15. Shortly thereafter, he met Dave Murray who lived in the same neighborhood. Smith and Murray formed a band called Stone Free, with Murray on guitar, Smith on vocals, and their friend Dave McCloughlin playing the bongos. After seeing the attention Murray received from girls, Smith took up the guitar, starting with an old Spanish guitar once owned by his brother, before purchasing an old guitar of Murray's for £5. His early influences included Johnny Winter and Pat Travers, who he claims made him a "melodic player" rather than a "speed merchant or a shredder" as he "was inspired by blues rock rather than metal." Leaving school after completing his O-levels, Smith formed the band Evil Ways, including Dave Murray on guitar, which was later renamed Urchin. Smith began writing his own material, including a song called "Countdown", which evolved into "22 Acacia Avenue" that later appeared on Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast in 1982. …

In his spare time, Smith is a keen angler, revealing that he used to take "worms and maggots" with him on tour, and was featured on the front cover of Angler's Mail on 25 August 2009. In 1988 he married Nathalie Dufresne-Smith, who currently works for Maiden Flight, a cancer awareness/patient rights organisation, and the pair have three children. Smith released the book Monsters of River and Rock in 2020. The book primarily details Smith's love of fishing, and relates anecdotes from his many decades of pursuing the hobby whilst touring and recording with Iron Maiden. Smith stated that around 70% of his book was focused upon fishing, with the remaining content discussing his music career. In its review of the publication, MetalTalk described the book as "a prize catch amongst rock biographies – highly recommended." Another one of Smith’s personal interests is tennis, which he plays multiple times per week and has credited with helping keeping himself in shape. In January 2025, Smith lost his Malibu house in the Southern California wildfires.