Iron Maiden
By 1981, Paul Di'Anno was using drugs. Iron Maiden fired Di'Anno after their world tour. Singer Bruce Dickinson joined the band in September 1981. In 1982, Iron Maiden released The Number of the Beast. This was their third studio album. It was their first number one album on the UK Albums Chart. It was also on music charts in many other countries. When the album was released, Dickinson was having legal problems with Samson. Samson was the band Dickinson left to join Iron Maiden. Because of this, Dickinson said he did not write any of the songs on The Number of the Beast. The band went on another world tour. It was named The Beast on the Road. The band played in North America, Japan, Australia and Europe. In the US, a group of American conservatives said the band was Satanic. This was because of the album's name and the art on the album. A group of Christian activists destroyed copies of Iron Maiden albums. Dickinson said that this gave the band "loads of publicity". As of 2022, the band has sold 20 million copies of the album.