Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith recalled how he met Free and Bad Company singer Paul Rodgers in a doctor’s office.

In a new interview with BBC Radio’s Johnny Walker, Smith noted how the encounter came about thanks to Smith's father — who had no idea who Rodgers was.

“I had arranged for my father to see a doctor up in town,” he explained. “He was having a few health problems … back in the '90s. I was late getting to the doctor, as usual, and my dad was in the waiting room. And when I got there, my dad was in conversation with none other than Paul Rodgers. My dad turned to me and said, ‘Oh, Adrian, late as usual. But I’ve been talking to this nice young man here. He reckons he's a bit of a singer.’ And my dad's favorite singer was Perry Como, so he had no idea who Paul Rodgers was. And I just thought that was lovely.”

Smith added that he’d always appreciated Free, saying they were ”probably [his] favorite band" growing up. “I loved, and still love, that swaggering '70s bluesy rock," he noted.

Last year, Smith published his memoir, Monsters of River and Rock, where he discussed his balancing act between being with Maiden and pursuing his hobby of fishing. He said taking up the pastime opened a new relationship with his dad, as they left the city of London to spend days beside rivers. “I’d never even seen countryside before,” he told The Guardian. “I’d wake him up, going, ‘Come on, Dad! Let’s go fishing.’”

He also explained how he had abandoned the hobby for a while because he came to believe it was incompatible with his rock-star ambitions: “I couldn’t imagine Ritchie Blackmore trying to catch carp."

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