BRUCE DICKINSON Says He Was 'Pleasantly Shocked' By IRON MAIDEN's First Rehearsal With New Drummer SIMON DAWSON

This past Monday, April 21, IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson took part in the Musicians Institute’s MI Conversation Series with host Ryan J. Downey in Hollywood, California. During the chat, which can be seen below, Dickinson spoke about MAIDEN‘s upcoming “Run For Your Lives” world tour, which is scheduled to launch on May 27 in Budapest, Hungary. The trek will mark MAIDEN‘s first with new drummer Simon Dawson, who previously played with MAIDEN co-founder Steve Harris as a member of his BRITISH LION project. Asked if MAIDEN has already started rehearsing with Simon, Bruce said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, we’ve already had a rehearsal with Simon on the last [MAIDEN] tour. Simon was tagging along with BRITISH LION, as Steve was doing shows [with both bands]. But it was kind of insurance for us because we weren’t sure… We were hoping Nick [IRON MAIDEN‘s longtime drummer Nicko McBrain] was gonna make the tour, but there were some times during the show when, not so much his drumming, but his physical body was really… We were worried. We were, like, ‘We do not want to end up with Nick in hospital, and we do need to have a backup.’ And Simon was suggested by Steve, and we all went, ‘Yeah, but how do we know it’s gonna work?’ So we said to Nick, ‘Look, in the middle of the tour, we’ve got a couple of days in Portland, Oregon. We’re gonna rent a rehearsal place and we’re gonna just give Simon a go just to see if it works, just in case.’ So we did. And a couple of us were, like, ‘I don’t know how this is gonna be, but hey…’ And honestly, I was pleasantly shocked. I was, like, ‘Wow.’ We went through the whole set without a break. And this guy had not rehearsed with anybody. He just, like, turned up with MAIDEN. We went through the entire set of the tour that we were on at the time, and it was all there. I thought, ‘My God, we could do a show tonight if we had to. That’s unreal.'”

Explaining why Dawson was the right man to replace McBrain, Dickinson said: “The incredible thing was with Simon, which, obviously, when it was suggested, after Nicko decided to retire, or retire from live playing, that Simon should take over, and there were other drummers that people thought were kind of in the frame. And one of the reasons that we didn’t pick those other type of drummers was ’cause, although they were very good drummers — nothing wrong with their drumming — they all wanted to sound like Nick. And you can’t replace Nicko. You shouldn’t even try to replace him. You don’t want a Nicko clone. You want a drummer that plays the material but plays kind of their own style. And if I’m honest, if I closed my eyes at moments during that rehearsal [with Simon], it was like having [late MAIDEN drummer] Clive Burr back in the band, ’cause he’s got that feel. It’s that big band swing time feel. He has all the same influences and everything. And I was just, like, ‘Oh my God. Wow.’ So I’m actually really excited. We start [rehearsing for the tour] next — not next week. Hang on. I actually go back to Europe tomorrow. And then we’ve got, like, 10 days and then we start. So we will be going through it. I’ve got my little speaker set up in my little Airbnb at the moment. I’ve got the whole setlist on there.”

Bruce went on to say that “Run For Your Lives” will mark the start of “a new chapter with Simon, and I look forward to it. There’s no shame in that,” he added. “We are doing the best we can do for the music.

“MAIDEN has always been greater than the sum of any individual part, which is kind of the way it should be, really, when you’ve got something like that,” Bruce explained. “And we’re also in the semi-unique position that we’ve never really had to — well, we’ve never really been darlings of any mainstream media. [We] have got to where we are now and getting bigger and bigger and bigger without, basically, anybody taking any notice of us at all.”

Regarding the setlist and the production for the “Run For Your Lives” tour, Bruce said: “The show that we’ve designed is unlike any other MAIDEN show we’ve ever done. I should not say anymore, ’cause once we get to the first two shows in Budapest, then everyone will be all over the social media saying what they think about it and so on and so forth. But I’m really excited. It’s like a whole new chapter for us, this new show. And we’ve never really done a kind of greatest-hits tour. And if there was one, then this would certainly be it. I mean, the first 25, 30 minutes, I kid you not, is gonna blow people’s minds. They’re [gonna go], ‘I can’t believe they’re playing that, that, that.'”

He added: “We sold a million tickets in Europe for this summer, for basically two and a bit months this summer, and we are bringing it to the USA in ’26.”

McBrain played his last-ever gig with MAIDEN more than four months ago in São Paulo, Brazil.

The 72-year-old British musician, whose real name is Michael Henry McBrain, announced his retirement on December 7, 2024 in a statement on MAIDEN‘s web site and social media. He also said that night’s concert at Allianz Parque in São Paulo, Brazil would mark his final show with the iconic heavy metal act.

Despite the fact that he was stepping away from touring, McBrain said that he would remain closely connected to IRON MAIDEN and continue to be involved in “a variety of projects” with the band, while also focusing on personal ventures and his existing businesses.

On December 8, 2024, IRON MAIDEN announced Dawson as its new touring drummer.

The São Paulo performance marked the final show of “The Future Past” world tour, which began in May 2023.

Last September, IRON MAIDEN promised fans “a spectacular and elaborate new show” on its 50th anniversary tour in 2025 and 2026.

MAIDEN said it 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.”

“Fear Of The Dark” marked Dickinson‘s last album before he exited MAIDEN and then later returned in 1999.

Tapped to replace Clive Burr in 1982 after touring activities for the “Number Of The Beast” album concluded, McBrain brought a degree of finesse and technicality that was largely missing from IRON MAIDEN‘s early output. Whereas Burr was often lauded for his heavy-handed, punk-oriented style, McBrain was largely the opposite, playing with a degree of dexterity and flair that helped primary songwriter Harris take MAIDEN down more adventurous paths. He eventually became the third longest-tenured member of MAIDEN, behind Harris and guitarist Dave Murray.

McBrain spent his early drumming years playing for the likes of Pat Travers and French rockers TRUST, eventually falling on to the radar of Harris and MAIDEN during the group’s initial European tour.