The alt country singer/songwriter has been noted as a secret metalhead, having apparently written songs inspired by Dio’s funeral and covered Alice In Chains’ “Nutshell.” However, Ryan Adams may have officially won us over with his cover of Iron Maiden’s “Wasted Years.”

While on BBC Radio 2 yesterday (August 30), Adams performed an acoustic rendition of “Wasted Years.” This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, though, since it was one of the metal songs he recommended to Blender Magazine. Nonetheless, we never thought we’d write “Ryan Adams Performs An Acoustic Cover Of Iron Maiden” in our life.

And our verdict: we like it a lot! You almost don’t recognize it as a Maiden song, but the lyrics are actually perfect for the stripped down rendition. But don’t just take our word for it, you can listen to Adam’s rendition in the video above. And we should add that this isn’t the first acoustic cover of “Wasted Years.” A underrated all-female band, Damone, did a stellar version of the song to close out their 1996 album Out Here All Night.

And in case you’ve never heard of the original 1986 Somewhere In Time single (blasphemy, just saying), then you can watch the song’s video after the jump.