Bruce Dickinson on if he relived his life, he'd still quit Iron Maiden

Bruce Dickinson talked in a recent interview with Ultimate Classic Rock about whether, if he had the chance to redo some things from his past, he'd still quit Iron Maiden, although with a newer hindsight on it.

He joined the band in 1982, but left in 1993, making nine albums with Iron Maiden. He left for a solo career to blow off the frustration of writing just as many songs as bassist / founding member Steve Harris, but his songs getting tossed aside. He rejoined Iron Maiden in 1999 and has been with the band ever since. In a recent interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Bruce said "I would have done, yes. I wouldn't have changed that, but I would have done it better. I would have had more of a plan."

During the interview, he said it was a "spur of the moment decision. I realized Iron Maiden [was] doing it's thing and there was nothing anybody could do to change its trajectory. At the time, I was sitting there making what ended up being [second solo album] Balls to Picasso, and I realized that I didn't have much clue what to do outside of Iron Maiden." He mentioned it was a "shock" to find out he felt he was institutionalized in the band that earned him fame. "I thought 'What do I do about that?' I made the decision that either I stay...for the rest of my life, or I have to leave." Bruce mentions that he would not have been happy juggling a solo career and fronting Iron Maiden. "I was in this state of limbo then. I thought 'I have to leave, because otherwise...nobody's going to take it seriously. They'll just go: 'Oh, bless his pointy little head, it's his little side project.'"

Bruce even said that it takes something to sing the songs Steve Harris writes. He said "I [take great] pride in being able to voice Steve's riffs. There's not many people that can do it. I could never figure out why he wrote such bloody difficult words, though. Then we were chatting one day and it came out - the words follow the bass and drum. I tried to explain to him early on: 'Look, Steve, I'm going to lose my front teeth trying to sing this.' I never thought I'd be able to sing "Alexander the Great" when I first heard it, but that worked out fine."

Bruce Dickinson is once again married

The veteran Iron Maiden vocalist has finally married his fiancee, French fitness instructor Leana Dolci

According to an interview he did with Kerrang!, Dickinson revealed that he had been seeing a French fitness instructor named Leana Dolci. They became engaged in April of this year. It's not known when their relationship even started, but Daily Mail stated the couple were first seen together in 2019. In the interview with Kerrang!, Bruce confirmed they were married and that they evenly split their time between Paris and London

"I wander round and it all feels a bit bohemian, a bit exotic. I still love London, but it's a slightly different headspace when you get [here]". He said in his interview. This is Bruce's third marriage. His first was with Eric "Jane" Barnett, a woman he had met while attending Queen Mary University. They divorced in 1986. Then along comes Paddy Bowden. This was his longest lasting marriage, lasting 28 years. With her, they had three children together-Griffin, Austin and Kia. Unfortunately, Bowden died in 2020 from a mysterious illness. Bruce also has other things to be excited about besides getting married. He recently released a single off of a new solo album he's working on called The Mandrake Project. The single is titled "Afterglow of Ragnarok". This will be his first solo album since 2005, when he released The Chemical Wedding. This new album will also include a series of graphic novels, the first of which will be available for purchase on January 17 on Z2 Comics.

Continuing from the Kerrang! interview, "Every album I've done there's always been a couple of songs where you've gone 'Yeah, these aren't quite doing it for me in the same way', there isn't a single track on this album that I don't listen to and love. Number of the Beast didn't even have that. There's so many classics on that record, but I was always a bit, 'Well...' about "Invaders" or something."

Bruce Dickinson leaks unreleased 2003 Dance of Death album on air traffic control

We all know mistakes happen. But when mistakes involve one of the world's bigger metal bands, their singer and their yet-to-be released album getting released on air traffic control, this mistake just gets bigger.

Bruce Dickinson thinks back on a time when, in 2003, he found trouble with the air traffic control as he unintentionally played a yet-to-be released Iron Maiden album while flying. Around the time that Iron Maiden had completed their 2003 Dance of Death album, Bruce was working as a commercial airline pilot. When he was doing a spoken-word show in Austin, he recalled this mistake. He explained no passengers were on board, the crew was relaxing as he flew to their next European location. "We were coming back empty from somewhere down in Egypt or somewhere, and we're flying over Italy...autopilot's on, thumb in bum, mind in neutral, you know. And my first officer was a big rock fan, a big AC/DC and Airbourne fan, right?...He'd brought his boombox with him, and he said 'Hey boss, listen. Do you mind...if I listen to music?' I went 'Of course, it's not strictly company procedure. F--- it, yeah. Come on!'"

They listened to some AC/DC and Airbourne, and then Dickinson told his colleague that he had the upcoming Iron Maiden album with him, "which nobody in the world has heard apart from the band and management." Asking if the co-pilot wanted to hear it, the response was not surprising. "Yeah, yeah, cool!" "[We] put it in the CD player, as it was then, and put the boombox on the pedestal and we start playing it, I shout back to the boys and girls 'Anyone wanna hear the new Maiden album?'" They all agreed, so Dickinson took his hand microphone and placed it near the boombox. "Probably "Rainmaker" or something is blasting out all through the cabin. And it's been about four minutes or so, and I'm thinking 'I haven't said much on the radio recently'"

That's when he realized a mistake had been made. He realized that his broadcasting of the music went beyond the plane and its occupants. "I finally get on to Rome and all I can hear is this bloke going 'Who is transmitting? Who is transmitting the music? What airline are you? Who are you? Own up!'" Thinking about how he might have been identified, he responded "The great thing was, he wouldn't have a f---ing clue who it was because the album wasn't released yet!"

When Bruce Dickinson Heard About His Replacement in Iron Maiden

Everyone knows the story of how former Wolfsbane vocalist Blaze Bayley replaced iconic front man Bruce Dickinson in Iron Maiden.

The early to mid 1990s was a tough time for Iron Maiden. Vocalist Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith had left the band to pursue solo careers. Which left Maiden without a singer and guitarist. Luckily, they had covered the guitarist space with former Gillan/White Spirit guitarist Janick Gers. And also, luckily, they were able to find a replacement for Bruce. Maiden's former vocalist had quit the band in 1993, after completing the Raising Hell special on TV, with magician Simon Drake. The magician had shoved the singer into an iron maiden torture device before Eddie came up and removed Bruce's bloody head from his equally bloody body

The band's next move was to find a replacement. At that time, bassist Steve Harris was going through a divorce and suddenly found himself wondering how to care for his four kids Lauren, Kerry, Faye and George. Luckily, the singer stress was relieved when the band found a perfect singer in Wolfsbane front man Blaze Bayley. In the eyes of the press, it was a controversial decision because they couldn't imagine Iron Maiden without Bruce Dickinson. Still, Blaze Bayley had one person cheering for him: Bruce Dickinson himself.

In a 2007 Classic Rock Magazine interview, Bruce said "When Blaze got the job, I was, like 'Wow, I hope this works out.' I thought it would probably be more difficult than he could imagine, even though he was having a great time. And look, if Iron Maiden offered you the job, you're not going to turn it down, are you?" Meanwhile, the press was having a field day with the tensions flying back and forth between Iron Maiden and their former vocalist. Bassist Steve Harris and tour manager Dickie Bell accused Bruce of being "f---ing awful" at some of their last shows together. There could have been awkwardness between Bruce and Blaze, but instead Bruce sent Blaze a most unusual gift. He had sent Blaze a pair of house bricks painted yellow

"I saw an interview with him, and there was a line at the end where he said 'I feel like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz'", replied Bruce. "I thought 'That's really sweet - I know exactly how you feel.' So I painted up two bricks and sent them to him." Dickinson stated he admired Bayley for taking what was going to be a near impossible job. "Absolutely. Hats off. Full respect to him for that. His voice is very different to mine. And there was a point where he got the job where I thought 'How the hell is he going to manage to do those songs? Maybe they just won't do them. It's gonna be hard.' I said to someone at the time 'Why don't they really do something off the wall and really outrageous. Get a woman! There's some of these female Finnish vocalists kicking around, and they have the most outrageous voices! Do something to really, really knock people's socks off.' But I'd have been f---ed then. I'd have never come back.'"

He did come back, in 1999, along with Adrian Smith. Nowadays, the Blaze era of Maiden is said to be very divisive among the Maiden fans. Some love everything about the Blaze era. Some hate the fact that Bruce was replaced by this virtual unknown. A lot of critics are quick to judge the two albums made with Blaze - 1995's The X Factor and 1998's Virtual XI - as the band's weakest albums. Mostly because of the adult-oriented lyrics replacing the space travel, sci-fi, horror-type lyrics Maiden once wrote about. Those who have read the excellent book Run to the Hills: Iron Maiden, The Authorized Biography by Mick Wall will know that, at the time those albums were written, Steve Harris was going through a lot of personal problems at the time. Bruce Dickinson had just left the band. Steve Harris was going through a divorce and wondering how he would care for his four kids Lauren, Kerry, Faye and George. He was very down at the time and it was guitarist Dave Murray who gave him the strength to carry on. He simply said that the band should carry on with a new vocalist. And that they did. When Bruce was asked if he had heard those records, here is his response.

Bruce said "No. It was all a little bit fraught. The only time I've actually listened to the albums was when Steve said 'We need to go and record one of these songs.' I thought 'Oh, how does it go then? I'd better go and have a listen to it.'" 

Bruce Dickinson on Iron Maiden

The Iron Maiden front man reflects on the band he has sung with, off and on, since 1982.

The legendary British metal band had recently released Senjutsu, a seemingly Japanese-themed album. This was the most recent album to be released, a large gap between now and 2015's The Book of Souls. He describes the music as "real music played by a bunch of old geezers."

"Every now ang again we come up with an album that really seizes the day and, Senjutsu is one of them. The last album where I think we had a similar sort of sensation was probably [Bruce's return to Maiden 2000 album] Brave New World, because there were lots of cynics going 'It's just going to be retreads and a lot of old crap.

It wasn't and people went "Oh my God, it's really good." After that, people went "oh well, it's another Maiden album, it's another Maiden tour." But quietly we were getting a lot bigger than we ever were back in the day.

But this time you had covid, and people were locked in and they missed going to see this big, monstrous band with Eddies and everything. They were thinking "Where the hell is that in my life?" and then you come with an album like Senjutsu - which was recorded before covid was even dreamt of - and it fills that hole.

It's very heartening that people really got it. Musically it's a stunning album - it's complex, it's emotional, it's got multiple layers. People go [disgruntled voice] "It doesn't sound a bit like 1983". No, of course it doesn't, we've all moved on a little bit. As we get older, we get more contrarian and cantakerous. It's a bit like Neil Young - he's been at it for years, but he still manages to come up with things that rub the establishment the wrong way.

We did have our little animated secret weapon, which was the video for [first single] "Writing on the Wall". I knew we weren't going to be going anywhere for a while, and Maiden certainly weren't going to be setting up our gear in some rehearsal studio and pretending we're playing some huge live gigs, cos we'd just look like a proper bunch of Charlies. So I said "We should put our resources into doing an incredible video." My template for it was the Rammstein video [for Deutschland], which was a piece of art. Rammstein and Maiden are different styles, but what I was after was the emotional impact that video had. And I think we captured the emotional impact.

Then there was the teaser stuff we did. I can't take any credit for that - it was all assembled by Sarah, who does all the social media and internet magic. When she and her team came up with it, I said 'Is this really going to work? Are people really going to be fascinated by this or is it just a bunch of Maiden geeks?' Which shows how much I knew. We went head to head with Drake the week the album was released [the rapper narrowly beat Maiden to the No.1 spot]. I don't really get what he does, though a lot of people do, but going head to head with him felt like 'No, this is real music played by a bunch of old geezers who make no concessions to the times in which we live.' People say 'You're dinosaurs.' And we go 'Yeah, and there aren't too many of those left.'

This is who we are, it's what we do. But by and large our audience has moved on with us. Maiden's audience is like a table made of plywood: every year you add a new layer and the table just gets bigger and bigger. We've grown organically - not through social media or any of that stuff. We've grown by going out and doing it in front of people. I can't wait to get back out there and play these songs. We're still fired up, and to get back together in a room with the guys to just play music is something I'm looking forward to more than you can ever imagine. I did this gig in Hungary recently with me and [Deep Purple bassist] Roger Glover doing [Purple's] Concerto for Group and Orchestra, and that was the first time I've played music in front of an audience for a few years. It was unbelievable. Roger was in tears. And the Maiden thing will be that to the power of ten."

Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson through the years

Everyone gets older. Some age gracefully. Others age like sour milk. Here are some photos to show Bruce Dickinson through the years. By the way, the photos used will be different than the photos used on the link. The only reason for that is I would have had to download all the photos and it's much easier to simply look for photos elsewhere.

Here is some info you may or may not know about this iconic Iron Maiden vocalist

Birth name: Paul Bruce Dickinson

DOB: 8/7/1958

Where: Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England

-Started trying to obtain his pilot's license in the late 1990s. Is now a fully licensed commercial pilot. His love of flying was inspired by the fact that his family had served in the RAF (Royal Air Force, for those who may not know)

-His love of music and dreams of becoming a musician started while he was at boarding school. He heard "Child in Time" by Deep Purple blaring out of another student's room. And when performing with a small band at school, he heard a student struggling to hit the high notes on The Beatles' "Let It Be". He stepped in to bolster the student's high notes and discovered he himself could hit the high notes. That told him right there he was destined to sing for a living

-He has three kids. The oldest is son Austin Dickinson, singer for alternative metal band As Lions, daughter Kia Michelle Dickinson and youngest son Griffin Dickinson, singer for alternative metal band SHVPES. All three of his children he had with second wife Paddy Bowden, who recently passed away from unknown reasons

He started out singing lead for hard rockers Samson before being lured away to higher success with Iron Maiden, who had just lost their first vocalist, Paul Di'Anno

1980

Still fronting Samson at the time

1982

-Uttering "The Number of the Beast"

1983

-Giving a Piece of his Mind

1984-1985

-"Tell me why I have to be a Powerslave..."

1987

-"Heaven can wait..."

1990

-The rumblings of a solo venture...

1992

-"Fear of the dark, fear of the dark, I have a constant fear that something's always near..."

1993

-Still with Maiden

1994

-Officially solo

1996

-Learning to fly

2000

-A Brave New World, the Air Raid Siren is back

2005

-It's all a Matter of Life and Death...

2008

-Flying high again...

2009

-Somewhere Back in Time...

 2012

-Finding The Final Frontier

2015-2016

-The Book of Souls

2019

-On tour with Maiden

2020

-Looking good for being in his 60s...

August Birthdays

Since it's August, it's time to say Happy Birthday!

Joe Elliott

-Birth name: Joseph Thomas Elliott Jr.

-DOB: 8/1/1959

-Where: Sheffield, England

-Is a massive fan of Queen and Mott the Hoople

James Jagger

-DOB: 8/28/1985

-Where: New York City, New York

-Told the media that he and Twilight actor Robert Pattinson had drama class in high school together

Rob Halford

-Birth name: Robert John Arthur Halford

-DOB: 8/25/1951

-Where: Sutton Coldfield, United Kingdom

-His struggle with his homosexuality caused him to start abusing drugs and alcohol. Once he did come out, people still accepted him as their Metal God front man of Judas Priest

Dustin Hoffman

-Birth name: Dustin Lee Hoffman

-DOB: 8/8/1937

-Where: Los Angeles, California

-He only pursued acting because he didn't want to work or go into the military

Glenn Hughes

-DOB: 8/21/1952

-Where: Cannock, United Kingdom

-Had a small fling with Linda Blair on the set of The Exorcist II

Ian Gillan

-DOB: 8/19/1945

-Where: Chiswick, London, England

-Over the years he's had a rocky relationship with former Deep Purple/Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore

Robert Plant

-Birth name: Robert Anthony Plant

-DOB: 8/20/1948

-Where: West Bromwich, England

-Was in a car crash in the mid 1970s and as a result, he injured his arm. To this day, he cannot fully extend his right arm

Bruce Dickinson

-Birth name: Paul Bruce Dickinson

-DOB: 8/7/1958

-Where: Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England

-First got into music when he attended a boarding school and heard Deep Purple's "Child in Time" blaring out another student's room

Viola Davis

-DOB: 8/11/1965

-Where: Saint Matthews, South Carolina

-Her mother, Mary Alice, worked as a maid, a factory worker and a civil rights activist. Her father, Dan Davis, worked as a horse groomer and trainer

Antonio Banderas

-Birth name: Jose Antonio Dominguez Banderas

-DOB: 8/10/1960

-Where: Malaga, Spain

-Initially, Hollywood was hesitant to cast him in movies because of his strong Spanish accent. He learned English phonetically and was able to start appearing in movies

Sean Connery

-Birth name: Sir Thomas Sean Connery

-DOB: 8/25/1930

-Where: Glasgow, Scotland

-Best known for portraying spy James Bond

Vivian Campbell

-Birth name: Vivian Patrick Campbell

-DOB: 8/25/1952

-Where: Belfast, Ireland

-Was previously in the bands DIO and Whitesnake

John Deacon

-Birth name: John Richard Deacon

-DOB: 8/19/1951

-Where: Oadby, United Kingdom

-He was actually one of the last bass players brought into the band Queen

Happy birthday Bruce Dickinson!

Happy birthday to the Air Raid Siren himself, Paul Bruce Dickinson!!!

Estranged Wife of Iron Maiden Vocalist Passes Away

That's right. You read it right. Current Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson lost his wife, Paddy Bowden, of over 29 years. She passed away unexpectedly at the apartment they shared in London.

Bruce had said that "this is a terrible tragedy which appears to have been a tragic accident". They had married in 1990, during what would have been the making of Iron Maiden's No Prayer for the Dying album. They had become estranged in 2018, most likely due to the stress of Bruce always being away, touring with Maiden because of their heavy tour schedules

His son, Austin, who fronts his own band, As Lions, said he "hasn't even got words" for the events to follow after learning of his mother's death. She was found dead in their London apartment, at age 58. Austin also wrote something on Instagram. "By now a lot of you have seen the news. My mum has tragically passed away. I haven't even got words to say right now and I ask for privacy and respect for me and our family"

When the ambulance crew responded, they had been wearing protective suits, because of the Coronavirus outbreak, when they found her deceased at 10:00am. They had received a call about a person feeling "unwell". One neighbor, who wishes to remain anonymous, told The Sun "We thought it was some sort of coronavirus alert. They're a very private couple-it's tragic news."

Two ambulances had arrived on scene, one within two minutes. But Bowden had been pronounced dead on arrival. An interesting note about her is that she is American by birth. The veteran Iron Maiden vocalist, 61 and his wife, 58, share three kids together over the 29 years they had been married-son Austin, 29, son Griffin, 27 and daughter Kia, 28. The couple had parted ways in 2018. It was discovered that Dickinson had relocated to Paris after getting into a relationship with a fitness teacher named Leana Dolci, who is said to be in her 40s. After the news of their relationship became public, a friend of hers had told The Sun "Leana has always been a huge Iron Maiden fan, following them around for nearly 10 years."

Apparently Bruce has been trying to learn French, but it is unnecessary since Leana speaks English almost perfectly. Bruce's singing career had come to a temporary halt in 2015 when he was diagnosed with stage three throat cancer after a discovery of two malignant tumors on his tongue

After going through nine weeks of chemotherapy and thirty three sessions of radiation, Paddy helped nurse him back to health. During that time, fellow Iron Maiden members said all touring would be more or less postponed until their singer was back to full strength

He wrote about his battle with cancer in his 2017 autobiography What Does This Button Do? In the book, he has kept former wives and children out of the book only to protect their privacy. During a BBC Radio 2 interview, he said "There's no need for it, really. And I think there's a belief that nastiness somehow sells books. And I'm not sure, one, that it does, and two that it's particularly the sort of book I would want to be a part of. So I made a decision at the time that, in amongst not being horrid to people, cause there's no point, at the same time, I thought well, I also don't want to tell confidences about other people's lives."

Bruce was married to his college sweetheart Jane for four years beginning in 1983, but had no children with her. He met Paddy Bowden in 1988, but married in 1990 after dating for two years. Not surprisingly, Bruce's sons Austin and Griffin have followed their father's footsteps into the music world. Austin is a highly successful singer with his own band, As Lions. Griffin is the singer for a metalcore band called SHVPES

On the music front, he told Argentina's Clarin Magazine that he would be releasing another solo album in 2020

My opinion on that-YES!! Woohoo!!! Something to make 2020 at least a little better! His solo stuff is awesome!!

Day 30-Random Picture

Here are a bunch of random photos
https://never3nding.tumblr.com/post/2660644142/tumblr-30-day-challenge


After all he's been through with cancer, he definitely has my respect. He's still handsome at his current age as well

Still handsome and my favorite member of Iron Maiden!!



Guilty as charged. I do love that accent on guys ;)

I have this image hanging in my booth at work

 

Awww, I'd cuddle him to no end!!