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...

K.K. Downing Through the Years

I have no idea why, but I love when music sites do this. They do presentations showing musicians through the years. It's almost as if you can see how they change with age. I recently re-read K.K. Downing's book Heavy Metal Nights and Days with Judas Priest. It is good; I never thought I would like it. I always liked Glenn Tipton because I thought he was cute and a good guitarist. Who knew that those good looks came with an ego? After reading this book (again), I still maintain my respect for K.K. Downing. That's not to say I never respected him; I have and always will. I also thought he was cute because he was an actual natural blonde and had better hair than me, lol. Whereas Glenn was a natural brunette and decided to jump on the 80s metal bandwagon and dye his hair blonde. I am glad he was my other favorite because I can relate to him at least personality-wise. He doesn't like confrontations and is generally easy going. And plus, he's still pretty hand despite his sixty-something year old age. A few wrinkles here and there, but he's still pretty cute!!

Great book!! Great for any Priest fan who wants a different perspective on the band!

I do have to laugh at some of the moments he talks about. Like one time, not too long before he resigned from Priest, he was in a bar somewhere and Kerry King of Slayer was there as well. Slayer and Priest had been assigned to the bill at some music festival somewhere. Kerry had pretty much gotten K.K. drunk and on the way back, he accidentally urinated on himself. He laughs about it, chalking it up to "old man problems" and trying to get to his hotel room as a 57-year old rock star with urine soaked jeans.

One thing a lot of people probably don't know is that it was K.K. Downing who introduced the studded leather look into the band. He probably didn't know this was going to be popular with the gay communities. He just wanted the band to have a sort of uniform, to make them different than the other bands around at the time. He thought the band needed to "toughen up" their image and by doing so, the band started wearing black leather. Rob took it a step farther and starting wearing leather everything. K.K. took him to a leather shop in London that specialized in S&M-type stuff to get leather clothing and of course introduce him to the leather look for Priest

But it does seem that at times, K.K. and Glenn were at each other's throats and other times, they were the best of friends. He does seem to think (and it's probably true) that Glenn started thinking he ran the band.

1970

1974 Rocka Rolla promo picture

1973

1978

1981

1986

1990

2005

2008

2011. Downing's final days in Priest and beyond.....

Ritchie Blackmore Through the Years

We all know that not everyone ages so gracefully. Everyone sees beauty differently. For some reason, some think "The Man in Black" has either aged like milk left in the sun too long or aged rather nicely. People also have opinions about whether they think he's more down to earth in his older years or he's still the moody, arrogant opinionated jerk he's always been. This post is inspired by a post I seen on Loudwire. Only it was not Ritchie Blackmore; it was Tom Araya from Slayer. It was a sort of slideshow showing him through the years. It also said he was one of the greatest guitarists of metal. Opinions can differ there. That's fine; everyone is entitled to an opinion. While I'm not partial to Slayer, it's cool that someone did a presentation showing Tom Araya over the years. He's a handsome guy, even now.

I thought I would do something like that but of a guitarist I like. I'm not in to Slayer; I don't really care for their music, but I'm glad they are around. I am a Deep Purple fan, however. I do not think Ritchie is the egotistical monster some think he is. I seen a documentary on him called The Ritchie Blackmore Story. It's very good. The person behind the documentary talks to him and others who know him or have worked with him and Ritchie seems like a terribly kind guy, just very intensely private. He obviously wants privacy from the prying eyes of the world, especially after all the drama of Deep Purple or Rainbow. He seems very down to earth, very personable. He seems like the kind of guy who will take interest in what you're saying and pay attention to you. Overall, a very kind man

Early 1960s

15 years old and already playing breakneck fast...

1968

Mark I lineup of Deep Purple
L-R: Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Ian Paice (drums, red shirt), Jon Lord (keyboard, white shirt), Nick Simper (bass), Rod Evans (vocals)

1970

The Mark II lineup of Deep Purple
L-R: Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Ian Paice (drums), Jon Lord (keyboard), Roger Glover (bass) Ian Gillan (vocals)

1973. Before the birth of Rainbow...

Burn sessions at Clearwell Castle

1975

1979

"Since You Been Gone" video

1980

1981

1982

Ritchie and Amy Rothman

1984

1990

1993. The final days of Blackmore in Purple...

Today

Ritchie Blackmore and current partner Candice Night on their wedding day.
He looks very happy