In a new interview with Music Radar, Bruce Dickinson revealed that during his throat cancer treatment, he was prepared to leave IRON MAIDEN if his singing was compromised.
In 2015, while undergoing cancer treatment, the vocalist, though hopeful, began mentally preparing for the potential end of his career.
He said: “I felt good. I believed I was going to come through fairly strongly. It was going to be a hard ten months, but at the end of that, I thought — I hoped — I should be able to do what I’d done before. But if not, I was quite prepared to leave — because if you can’t sing like you should be able to sing, that’s it.”
“I would have wanted the band to carry on properly,” Bruce continued. “But I would have offered to help them find another singer, because there are other people out there. I could suggest this bloke, or this bloke, or this bloke – he could probably do a pretty good version of me.”
“I had the conversation with the guys [in the band]. I said, ‘I do not want to go out and be a sad parody of myself.’ And the band don’t deserve it either. So I’m thinking: if I lost that voice, I could figure out something else to do. I don’t know what, but I’d have to take a positive spin on it.”
“But there’s no way I would persist in saying, ‘Oh, no, I can do it’, when manifestly I couldn’t. That would not be fair to anybody,” he added. “I’m not just a singer. I’m a storyteller. I finally figured out finally what I do in life — I tell stories, and I just happen to do it with my voice in MAIDEN, but that’s basically what I do.”
During a recent interview with Music Radar, IRON MAIDEN guitarist Dave Murray emphasized that he and his bandmates will recognize when it’s time to retire.
“To me, there’s nothing worse than seeing a band you like on stage and they look like they shouldn’t really be there doing it,” he said. “We’re nearly hitting the seventies mark now, but I think we will all know when it would be time. It would be a mutual decision.
“I think there’s a time and a place to bail out with dignity and grace — as opposed to dragging it out. If you can leave it at that high level, and then bow out gracefully, I think it would be satisfying for us. And not just flog a dead horse, when you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.”
Dave shared his thoughts regarding MAIDEN‘s “Run For Your Lives” world tour, which begins in Hungary in May 2025 and has dates announced through August 2025 in Poland. “We’re all set up for this tour, and after that we’ll see what the future holds,” he said. “But at the moment the band sounds great, we still have that excitement and adrenaline when we go on stage. We’re still enjoying it, and that’s what it’s all about, really.”
IRON MAIDEN’s longtime drummer, Nicko McBrain, performed his final show with the band earlier this past December in São Paulo, Brazil.
The 72-year-old British musician officially announced his retirement on December 7 via a statement on MAIDEN‘s website and social media channels. He confirmed that the concert at Allianz Parque in São Paulo would be his last with the legendary heavy metal group.
Although stepping away from touring, McBrain assured fans he will remain closely connected to IRON MAIDEN, contributing to various projects with the band while also focusing on personal endeavors and his ongoing business ventures.
On December 8, IRON MAIDEN introduced Simon Dawson as their new touring drummer. Dawson, a seasoned session drummer, is also a longtime collaborator of Steve Harris in BRITISH LION.
Source: metaladdicts.com
