THE CLASSIC ROCK INTERVIEW
BRUCE DICKINSON
A “mouthy little fucker” who got kicked out of boarding school, he went on to front the UK’s most successful heavy metal band, fence for his country, hold a commercial pilot’s licence, release solo albums, write novels and screenplays, and more. A full life? Not half.
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Bruce Dickinson has a didgeridoo. He’s owned the indigenous Australian wind instrument for years, but has yet to master it. “I’ve passed out a few times, trying to do the circular breathing,” he reveals. “I get as far as semi-circular breathing and then it’s all over.”
Dickinson hopes to pick up some tips when he visits Australia soon. His psychologist friend Kevin has also brokered a deal for them to attend a ceremony, access to which is usually denied to non-aboriginal people.
“I’m looking forward to experiencing more of the culture,” he says, breezily.
The eternally curious Dickinson is in a breezy mood. He’s releasing a new solo album, The Mandrake Project (which reunites him with long-time collaborator guitarist/producer Roy Z) on March 1, which will have an accompanying tour and a comic-book series of the same name.
You hear Dickinson arriving at Iron Maiden’s West London HQ before you see him. That familiar voice booms out from behind the Samurai Eddie cardboard cut-out guarding the doorway, and then a pint-sized colossus in black boots and with an iron-grey top-knot saunters into view.
“During lockdown I was scratching my balls going: ‘What the f★★ k do I do now? Learn to cook?’”
Dickinson has fronted Iron Maiden since late 1981, barring a few years off for solo ventures and selfdiscovery. In between he’s written novels, screenplays and an autobiography; presented radio shows, fenced for his country, acquired an airline transport pilot’s licence, and helped invent a bottled ale. Just don’t mention the Vikings. More on them later…
The Mandrake Project is your first solo album since 2005. What kept you, other than being in Iron Maiden?
It’s been on the boil since 2014. Then I got diagnosed with throat cancer, then we had fucking covid, so there were two years when I couldn’t go to the USA. So by the time I reconvened with Roy Zeverything had moved on.
Is this a covid project?
Not exactly. I had the idea before covid, but then it got kicked into touch because of getting ill and getting busy with Maiden. But during lockdown I was scratching my balls going: “What the fuck do I do now? Learn to cook?” Okay, but there are only so many people I can poison: myself and [new wife] Leana.
Samson in 1980: (l-r) Paul Samson, Bruce Dickinson,
Thunderstick, Chris Aylmer.
Dickinson at his last performance with Samson before joining Iron Maiden, at the 1981 Reading Festival.
So I started writing a treatment for a sort of ‘four bikers of the apocalypse’ story, involving Eddie. During the process I was introduced to the screenwriter Kurt Sutter, who wrote [gritty biker drama] Sons Of Anarchy and [cop show] The Shield. I told him I had this other crazy idea for a screenplay, and he liked it.
That is a serious endorsement.
Yes it is. But Kurt suggested instead of a screenplay, it would make a great cartoon, a comic-book series. He recommended talking to Z2 Comics, who hooked me up with a writer called Tony Lee, who did Dracula AD and Doctor Who, and he suggested a very well-regarded cover artist, Bill Sienkiewicz [Marvel’s New Mutants]. So now we have this Watchmen-style series, which will come out in three volumes.