Terry Slesser
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Terry Slesser (also known as Terry Wilson-Slesser, born Terence Arthur Slesser) is a blues rock singer from Newcastle, England. He is chiefly known for his role as vocalist in ex-Free guitarist Paul Kossoff's band Back Street Crawler, renamed Crawler after Kossoff's death in 1976.
In 1980, he was considered by AC/DC when they were looking for a replacement for their much-loved vocalist Bon Scott, who had died in February of that year. Slesser eventually turned down this opportunity when he choose not to join an established music group and instead started a solo career.
He is also known to fans of Iron Maiden as the co-writer of "A Rainbow's Gold", which Maiden recorded as a B-side for their single "Two Minutes to Midnight" in 1984. The song was originally recorded by Slesser's first band Beckett, and featured on their one and only album in 1974. Slesser himself actually auditioned for Iron Maiden when Paul Di'Anno left the band in 1982. But Maiden bassist and founder Steve Harris felt that Terry's vocals sounded great with some songs but didn't work with others. Iron Maiden eventually settled on Samson vocalist Bruce Dickinson.
As of 2007 Slesser is still touring as a solo act or with Freeway (with Simon Kirke).
