When you say you grew up in the late 70s early 80's I'd be curious to know what your age range was, say between 1979-1985, when Maiden truly hit their stride and amassed most of their fan base. In my opinion you would have had to be in the 13 to 17 year old range to truly get into this or any Heavy Metal band as an early true fan. It's the same reason I don't really listen much the Beatles or Elvis. They changed the world musically, but I wasn't there as a music consumer to notice.

No not at all. It's perfectly normal to get into earlier or later bands. It's just that I remember being the most impressionable musically in those years.

When Maiden were just starting out it seemed like a bit of rebellion to actually start listening to them and liking the crazy looking artwork on their album covers. I know at least for me it was absolutely the album cover artwork that drew me and my friends into them. I was 15 and thought it was cool to like them. Turns out they were an extremely technical tight band with good tunes to boot, so it was a win win. By 87 they had been around for quite a while and the shock value had worn off a bit. People were onto the next things like Metalica, Megadeth, GnR, etc. For instance, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Zeppelin were a bit before my time and although I LOVE these bands now, I had to kind of make myself listen to them a lot before I appreciated them.

Woody76 just made me think of this when he said he and his friends weren't into Maiden and I wondered how old they were at the time Maiden exploded. I'm pretty sure bands like Maiden and Judas Priest were also big in the States in the mid-80's. Just watch the trailer for Heavy Metal Parking Lot

The owner of CPR is a commercial pilot, He's super cool!!!

Bwahahaha! Hope he's got a few I'm looking for!