Bruce Dickinson recalls first impression of Iron Maiden
Although Bruce Dickinson is intrinsically linked to Iron Maiden, he wasn’t the band’s original singer but always fostered ambitions to take the reins after first seeing them live.
When Dickinson first became aware of Iron Maiden, it was 1979. The now-iconic rock group had been booked to open for Dickinson’s band Samson at the Music Machine in London, and the singer paid close attention to their performance.
Reflecting on the encounter in a new interview with Record Collector, Dickinson admitted that perhaps Iron Maiden should have been the closing act, and he was aware of this fact even before he witnessed them in all of their glory.
“We were headlining because our management had bankrolled the gig and said, ‘We want the top slot’ – although we didn’t really deserve it,” the singer frankly admitted.
Further heaping praise on the London band, he added: “That became obvious when Maiden came on, because the whole place was rammed. I’d heard rumors about how good they were, and I thought I’d better see them.”
Dickinson continued: “When they came out, I thought, ‘I’ve never seen Deep Purple, but this is what it must have felt like to see Deep Purple in their prime, rocking up a storm.’”
While Dickinson was a member of Samson, he couldn’t help himself from potentially becoming the Iron Maiden frontman after witnessing their brilliance, noting, “everybody in the venue left and we were headlining to about three people!”
At the time, Iron Maiden were fronted by Paul Di’Anno, and while Dickinson was mightily impressed by the sheer power of the band, he felt they deserved a better frontman than Di’Anno. “He was okay, but he didn’t have a lot of flex to his voice. I thought his voice had come as far as it was going to get,” Dickinson frankly admitted.
In contrast to Di’Anno, Dickinson added: “I saw what the rest of the band were capable of straight away.”
While his comments are undeniably arrogant, Dickinson eventually proved his point correct, as Iron Maiden reached new heights once he joined the setup in 1981. Although he left the band during the 1990s to embark upon a solo career, Dickinson returned to the fold in 1999 and has remained an ever-present figure since.
Earlier this year, Dickinson reignited his solo career by releasing The Mandrake Project, his first release by himself in almost 20 years. However, the vocalist remains committed to Iron Maiden, and the group are set to head on an extensive international arena tour later this year.
Meanwhile, the frontman shared his thoughts on rising ticket prices for concerts, singling out U2 specifically as perpetrators. “It depends what the show is and kind of who the audience are. I mean, I’m not gonna go around and say specific artists, because most of the artists that are charging $1,200 a ticket,” he remarked.
Dickinson added: “Like in Las Vegas, if you wanna go and see the U2 show, I think it was $1,200 dollars per seat in The Sphere. I’ve got no interest in paying $1,200 dollars to go and see U2 in The Sphere. None. A hundred bucks, maybe.”
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