Smith/Kotzen, the powerful rock duo of Adrian Smith, of Iron Maiden fame, and Ritchie Kotzen, of Winery Dogs fame, have teamed up once again to release their newest track, “Blindsided”. Coming off of their third studio album Black Light/White Noise, which was released in April of 2025, the duo debuted “Blindsided”, their first new music since the album.

The track itself is classic driving hard rock. The drums drive the song forward while a  few distorted guitars bring heavy hard rock sound. These two concepts are seen clearly throughout the video that released with the track.

The video itself is somewhat of a PSA against drunk driving. The opening frame depicts a woman holding a wine glass, swirling the wine around in her hands.. The scene cuts to a man laying in bed as he looks out into the distance and appears to be worried. TThere is then a shot of the woman holding her car keys looking towards her car. As the title of the song fades in, the drums crash, the wine glass shatters, and the woman gets behind the wheel. All of the driving footage of the video shows fuzzy street and city lights, mimicking the distortion of vision the woman’s experiencing after a few drinks. The driving throughout the video can only be described as fast and reckless. While the woman is driving she notices her phone ringing on the seat next to her. While the video never shows her reach for it, the rest of the story is somewhat shown, and also implied. Nearly all the remaining sequences after this depict a crash or the shattering of some bottles or glass.

Throughout this track, Smith/Kotzen speak to an important issue, while also delivering a quality piece of music using some of the themes that made the two famous. It’s a catchy fast-paced rock song that is well complemented by a video that matches its sound.