British heavy metal legends Iron Maiden return to Tampa for the first time since 1988, making good on a promise to return to Florida after their triumphant 2009 set in Ft. Lauderdale. Aside from bassist/founder Steve Harris, no one has been a member of Iron Maiden as long as guitarist Dave Murray [pictured below, far left. I spoke to him last week.

Where is Iron Maiden right now?

We’re in Argentina at the moment. We’ve been in South American for quite some time. We’ve toured all over Brazil, Colombia, Peru. We’re actually videoing the show tonight for a DVD that will come out at some point in the future. And it’s in a big football stadium here, so there’s a lot of people. And then we’re heading to Chile and back up to the U.S. next week.

Our neck of the woods.

Absolutely. It’s been going absolutely fantastic. It’s been a tremendous success down here. We came, we played, and now it’s time to keep moving forward.

You guys visited Florida two years ago for the first time since 1995 (I made the eight-hour road trip and it was great). The Tampa show on Sunday will be your first time back here since 1988. Where have you guys been? What’s taken you so long to get back here? (laughs)

This article appears in Apr 7-13, 2011.