Adrian Smith was born in Hackney Hospital and grew up a few streets away from his childhood friend, and current bandmate, Dave Murray. Smith, whose father was a painter and decorator from Homerton, was the youngest of three, with an older brother, Patrick, and a sister, Kathleen. As a child, he was "a Manchester United fanatic," although he would lose his interest in football once he got into music. In his spare time, Smith is a keen angler, revealing that he used to take "worms and maggots" with him on tour, and was featured on the front cover of "Angler's Mail" on 25 August 2009. For over 20 years, he has been married to his Canadian wife, Nathalie Dufresne-Smith, who currently works for "Maiden Flight", a cancer awareness/patient rights organisation, and the pair have three children, Dylan, Natasha, and Brittany, the last of whom works as a professional film production assistant. In April 2020, ironmaiden.com announced Smith's autobiography titled "Monsters of River and Rock" would be released in September 2020. Smith currently prefers to use his Jackson signature 'San Dimas' Dinky, although he has used a variety of guitars over his career, including several different Dean models, various Jacksons, including the Randy Rhoads model, Fender Stratocasters (including three Fender Floyd Rose Classic Stratocasters; one with an added Roland midi pick-up), Gibson Les Pauls, Gibson Explorers, Gibson SGs, an Ibanez Destroyer, a Hamer Scarab, and Lado Guitars. On the "A Matter of Life and Death" DVD, he says the first decent guitar he bought was a Deluxe Gold Top 1972 Gibson Les Paul, which he paid £235 for when he was 17, in 1974. He still uses it to this day, stating that "it's still probably the best guitar I've got". As of 2010, his touring guitars included: Gibson Les Paul Deluxe Goldtop 1972 with DiMarzio Super Distortion in bridge position, his Jackson Superstrat 1986 prototype (which can be seen in the "Maiden England" video) with the pickguard changed to resemble his signature model, a Jackson Signature model with black scratchplate and maple neck, an early 70s Gibson SG, and another Jackson, inspired by his Les Paul Goldtop. As of August 2007, Smith endorses Jackson Guitars, his first guitar company endorsement in over fifteen years.