Iron Maiden Black Denim/Stranger in a Strange Land

Black denim vest. There are some stories behind why certain patches made the vest.

First, the vest itself. Modern black denim is lightweight, over-dyed/processed and cheap feeling. It took some time to find an older Levi’s stock vest that was the appropriate fit and wash. The only complaint here is that there are no inner or outer pockets; only the chest pockets. This supposedly dates the production between 1974-1985, but i’m not entirely certain on that.

The Maiden BP is my favorite Eddie design. The Stranger... being appropriate for my current walk of life and living on essentially a foreign coast .

Seventh Star was a formative album for me. It was my first true discovery of the vocal prowess of the master, Glenn Hughes. Whether or not one wants to call it a Black Sabbath album doesn’t matter. There is a lot of soul behind those tracks and that album has been special to me for some time. As for the other Sabbath patches, multiple eras of the band had to be represented as each has an importance.

The Dio Sacred Heart patch is interesting. The depth of Dio’s lyrics is something that I continually finding myself appreciating more and more as I get older. Sacred Heart itself, despite being the end of the classic era, has more than just a few songs that have words that cut very deep. The title song itself may be the best from his solo catalog.

In the scarcity that is the world of Budgie merch, the Night Flight tour patch is a bit more common than others. The album itself is far from their best effort but “Turn to Stone” is specifically appropriate for this working as it coincides thematically with the Stranger Eddie concept on a personal level.