BRUCE DICKINSON was willing to help IRON MAIDEN find a great replacement if he couldn't sing following his cancer diagnosis
06-11-2024
During a new appearance on the Rich Roll podcast, IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson spoke about the band’s ethos of independence and integrity, refusing to follow trends or bow to commercial pressures. He said in part: “We are outsiders in terms of the music industry in a lot of senses. There are bands, and there are bands, and there are bands, and they’re just bands. I mean, you might like them, you might not like them, they might be successful or not successful. But MAIDEN is somehow more than that. MAIDEN is part of the core existence for a massive number of people, an unlikely number of people from all kinds of walks of life and avenues, from CEOs to special needs people — I mean, the whole gamut — and everybody seems to get something out of the band. And I don’t analyze it or question it. It just is. And it’s a product of who we are when we get together.”
He continued: “It’s a strange chemistry, because it’s manufactured — as in, I would never have met (MAIDEN bassist) Steve Harris and (MAIDEN guitarist) Dave Murray in the normal course of my life, ever, if they hadn’t gone, ‘Hey, we want a singer for IRON MAIDEN.’ And now, what we have in common is IRON MAIDEN, is that music. And, of course, we all got to know each other. And one of the reasons I think the band has survived is because we have grown into each other over the years as people, but at the same time the music is always sacrosanct.”
Elaborating on the importance of retaining the integrity and authenticity in MAIDEN‘s music, Bruce said: “When I had throat cancer (a decade ago), the last thing on my mind was, would I ever sing again? The first thing on my mind is, am I gonna get through this and be alive? And the last thing on my mind was would I ever sing again? And I thought, ‘Well, we’ll get to that stage when I’m done and we start trying to sing.’ And I was quite prepared to accept that I might not be able to sing with IRON MAIDEN again. I might be able to sing, I might be able to vocalize, I might be able to sing in a different way, but if I couldn’t sing the way I have to sing with IRON MAIDEN, I’ll help them find a great replacement. Because the music is sacrosanct.”
Explaining what he meant by saying that the chemistry in MAIDEN was “manufactured”, Bruce said: “The manufacture bit comes from only in the sense that we didn’t all grow up on the same street. And in actual fact, bands that all grow up in the same street together, or families that play together, that could be a recipe for implosion. I mean, I know OASIS have just gotten back together and doing it, but my God, how difficult was that? The two brothers and… So we all get together, but the music is the single point of contact that is the most important thing for all of us. If I couldn’t do it, if I couldn’t do what I do now effectively, I would be the first one to say, ‘You know what? It’s time I retired from singing for IRON MAIDEN and did something else.’ Stack shelves or something. Because I have too much pride on the line to go out there…”
He added: “I was speaking to a fan the other day, and they said, ‘Oh, it’s great you guys are all still back together.’ I said, yeah, we’re all still back together because we’re fierce and the music is still as good, if not better in some respects, than we played it 20 or 30 years ago.”
Dickinson, who had a golf gall-size tumor on his tongue and another in the lymph node on the right side of his neck, got the all-clear in May 2015 after 33 radiation sessions and nine weeks of chemotherapy.
Bruce previously told iNews that he wanted to cover his cancer battle in his 2017 autobiography, “What Does This Button Do?”, to raise awareness of the condition, which affects people who often have no or minimal history of tobacco or alcohol abuse. The individuals with HPV-related oropharyngeal cancer who undergo treatment have a disease-free survival rate of 85 to 90 percent over five years.
During an appearance on the Swedish TV show “Malou Efter Tio”, Dickinson spoke about how his singing voice has changed following his cancer diagnosis 10 years ago.
“It’s a little bit different,” he said. “Two things are slightly different. One is my saliva, which obviously lubricates your throat a little bit, is a bit less than it used to be. Although, back ten years ago, if I had the same cancer, I wouldn’t be making any saliva. But now, I’m probably 70 percent, which is great. Thanks very much, everybody upstairs. (Laughs) And the other things is that I think that the shape of possibly the back of my tongue, which forms vowel sounds and things like that, might have changed shape slightly, because, obviously, it had a big lump in it, and the lump’s gone. So maybe the surface has changed shape. So I notice a few differences. Funnily enough, the top end of my voice is maybe even a little bit better than it was before. (Laughs)”
Dickinson said that he was given “the all-clear” by his specialists following an MRI scan after a course of chemotherapy and radiology.
“I was amazed,” he said. “My cancer was a 3.5-centimeter tumor in my throat and a 2.5-centimeter one in my lymph node, and that was the one that I could feel — that was the secondary one. But I did 33 sessions of radiation and nine weeks of chemo at the same time, which is fairly standard therapy for it. And it was gone. And I said to my oncologist: ‘What do you mean it’s gone? Where has it gone?’ And he said, ‘Well, your body just gets rid of it.’ A body is an amazing thing.”
Bruce‘s latest solo album, “The Mandrake Project”, was released in March via BMG.
IRON MAIDEN will start their “Run For Your Lives” world tour on May 27 next year in Budapest, Hungary, followed by 27 stadium, festival and arena shows around Europe. The tour marks 50 years since Steve Harris formed the band in late 1975 and, to celebrate this, MAIDEN fans are promised a very special setlist, spanning the nine studio albums from “Iron Maiden” to “Fear Of The Dark”, with their most spectacular and elaborate show ever.
Dates are as below. Tickets go on sale next week. As always, there will be an exclusive pre-sale for IRON MAIDEN fan club members and Trooper VIP packages will be available at all U.K. and Ireland shows.
IRON MAIDEN lead singer Bruce Dickinson says: “Next year is a very special one for IRON MAIDEN and we’re going to be giving our fans a once-in-a-lifetime live experience. This is a tour that’s gonna put a smile on your face and a cheer in your throat. If you’ve seen us before, then get ready to take that experience to a whole new level. If you’ve never seen us before, then what the hell have you been waiting for? Now’s your chance to find out what you’ve been missing! IRON MAIDEN‘s definitely gonna get ya!”
The tour includes five shows in the U.K. and Ireland, with arenas in Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow, and outdoor shows in Dublin and London. So it is with immense pride that IRON MAIDEN will celebrate their 50th anniversary with one of the most notable concerts in their history.
On Saturday, June 28, MAIDEN will perform at the London Stadium, home of West Ham Football Club — the team that band founder Steve Harris has supported throughout his life, and with whom IRON MAIDEN have a long and storied history.
This concert in front of over 60,000 fans at the London Stadium, which was constructed in Stratford for the 2012 Olympics and four years later became the new home of West Ham, will be the first time that IRON MAIDEN have performed on the club’s hallowed turf. A true homecoming show — with Steve Harris, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith and Nicko McBrain all born in the surrounding area — it will also be the biggest U.K. venue the band have ever headlined outside of their festival appearances.
Steve Harris says: “My love of football and my support of West Ham is no secret, and I know many of our fans around the world have shared that with me too. So we’re all very excited to be playing at the London Stadium as part of the ‘Run For Your Lives’ tour. And of course, it’s not just London — the whole U.K. tour is going to be a real celebration for all of us. To be able to bring this very special show to all our fans across the U.K. and Ireland next year is going to be a great way to mark 50 years of IRON MAIDEN. We can’t wait to see you all there!”
Special guests for the London and Dublin outdoor shows will be American rockers HALESTORM. British metal band THE RAVEN AGE will open all five U.K. and Ireland shows.
MAIDEN manager Rod Smallwood states: “50 years of MAIDEN and I have seen 46 of them! With well over 100 million albums sold and almost 2500 shows in 64 countries and counting, to countless millions of fans, we are all still loving every second and consider every tour a new challenge to bring something different and exciting to our fans. And for this very special one we’ re pulling out all the stops!
“We will cover classics and fan favorites from the first nine albums, from ‘Iron Maiden’ to ‘Fear Of The Dark’, many of which we haven’t played in years and many we will likely never play again in the future. We have already been hard at work for months putting together an even more spectacular and elaborate new show which will bring the songs to life more than we have ever been able to do before. This is going to be a huge couple of years for IRON MAIDEN, and Eddie, of course, and we are very excited about what we have up our sleeves for you fans throughout the whole of our 50th year. I promise you are all going to be very happy indeed!”
“Run For Your Lives” 2025 tour dates:
May 27 – Budapest Aréna, Budapest, Hungary *
May 31 – Letnany Airport, Prague, Czech Republic *
Jun. 01 – TIPOS Arena, Bratislava, Slovakia *
Jun. 05 – Trondheim Rocks, Trondheim, Norway (Festival)
Jun. 07 – SR-Bank Arena, Stavanger, Norway *
Jun. 09 – Royal Arena, Copenhagen, Denmark *
Jun. 12 – 3Arena, Stockholm, Sweden *
Jun. 13 – 3Arena, Stockholm, Sweden *
Jun. 16 – Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland *
Jun. 21 – Utilita Arena, Birmingham, England ^
Jun. 22 – Co-op Live, Manchester, England ^
Jun. 25 – Malahide Castle, Dublin, Ireland *^
Jun. 28 – London Stadium, London, England *^
Jun. 30 – OVO Hydro, Glasgow, Scotland ^
Jul. 03 – Eurockéennes Festival, Belfort, France (Festival)
Jul. 05 – Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain **
Jul. 06 – MEO Arena, Lisbon, Portugal **
Jul. 09 – Hallenstadion, Zurich, Switzerland **
Jul. 11 – Veltins-Arena, Gelsenkirchen, Germany **
Jul. 13 – Stadio Euganeo, Padova, Italy **
Jul. 15 – Bürgerweide, Bremen, Germany **
Jul. 17 – Ernst Happel Stadium, Vienna, Austria **
Jul. 19 – Paris La Défense Arena, Paris, France **
Jul. 23 – GelreDome, Arnhem, Netherlands **
Jul. 25 – Deutsche Bank Park, Frankfurt, Germany **
Jul. 26 – Cannstatter Wasen, Stuttgart, Germany **
Jul. 29 – Waldbühne, Berlin, Germany **
Aug. 02 – PGE Narodowy, Warsaw, Poland **
Support acts:
* HALESTORM
^ THE RAVEN AGE
** AVATAR
Having been established in 1975 in the East End of London, IRON MAIDEN have, over the course of 17 studio albums, more than 110 million records sold and some of the greatest world tours that music has ever witnessed, become one of the greatest and most influential British rock bands of all time. Yet despite their enormous success, they have remained down to earth and true to their roots throughout their career.
IRON MAIDEN are currently on the road completing their acclaimed “The Future Past Tour” dates, which started earlier this month in Australia and New Zealand and continue through Japan, Canada, United States, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Argentina before concluding in Sao Paulo, Brazil with two concerts at the huge Allianz Parque Stadium in December.
IRON MAIDEN‘s latest album, “Senjutsu”, was released in September 2021 via BMG. The band’s first LP in six years was recorded in 2019 in Paris with longstanding producer Kevin Shirley and co-produced by Harris. It features three tracks whose running time exceeds 10 minutes each.
For “Senjutsu” — loosely translated as “tactics and strategy” — the band once again enlisted the services of Mark Wilkinson to create the spectacular Samurai-themed cover artwork, based on an idea by Harris.
“Senjutsu” topped the charts in several European countries upon its release, including in Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland.
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