‘It’s Gonna Be A Really Cool Album’

Bruce Dickinson, the iconic frontman of IRON MAIDEN, discussed the fan reception of his newest solo album, The Mandrake Project (released in March 2024), during a Musicians Institute MI Conversation Series event.

“Yeah, it was great. Honestly, the reception was great,” Dickinson said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “The reaction to the band when we toured all through Europe [last year] was fantastic. Obviously, we just did two or three shows here in Southern California [in April 2024] just to kind of warm things up before we went down to Brazil… But, yeah, it was brilliant. And people got it. I mean, not everybody is gonna get everything you do — it’s not compulsory — but I thought it was a really good, varied album. It was heavy, but it was emotional and stuff. So it was really good. And it worked really well live. In fact this, a couple of tracks [from the album] that we didn’t play — well, we’ve never actually played — we’re gonna be playing on the U.S. tour. ‘Shadow Of The Gods’, which is the most unplayed popular track on the record. So, yeah, you get the benefit of that, and all the people in Europe will be jealous.”

Regarding a potential follow-up to The Mandrake Project, Bruce commented: “I’ve just been in the demo studio with everybody for the last three weeks, and we ended up with 18 tracks in 15 days…

“It’s gonna be a really cool album. And, obviously, the guy that’s producing it, Brendan Duffey, he mixed Mandrake. We started off with him doing the Atmos mixes and then kind of morphed into, ‘I take it you do stereo as well.’ And he’s great. So, we are just keeping the same crew on this record. And [I’m] looking to record it next year, early next year. I’ve got some gaps. January, February, March, April is kind of free zone for me next year.”

Bruce Dickinson is set to hit the road once again with his highly anticipated “The Mandrake Project” 2025 North American Tour.

Tour dates are as follows:

August 22, 2025 – Anaheim, CA – House of Blues
August 23, 2025 – Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues
August 25, 2025 – Phoenix, AZ – Marquee Theatre
August 26, 2025 – Albuquerque, NM – Revel
August 28, 2025 – Houston, TX – House of Blues
August 29, 2025 – Dallas, TX – House of Blues
August 31, 2025 – Pryor, OK – Rocklahoma *

September 02, 2025 – New Orleans, LA – House of Blues
September 04, 2025 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – Revolution
September 07, 2025 – São Paulo, Brazil – The Town *
September 10, 2025 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount
September 11, 2025 – Boston, MA – House of Blues
September 13, 2025 – Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE
September 14, 2025 – Silver Spring, MD – The Fillmore
September 16, 2025 – Toronto, ON – HISTORY
September 18, 2025 – Montreal, QC – MTELUS
September 21, 2025 – Louisville, KY – Louder Than Life *
September 23, 2025 – Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore
September 25, 2025 – Detroit, MI – The Fillmore
September 27, 2025 – Chicago, IL – Riviera Theatre
September 28, 2025 – Minneapolis, MN – Uptown
September 30, 2025 – Denver, CO – Summit Music Hall

October 05, 2025 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern

*Festival dates

Dickinson released his latest solo album, The Mandrake Project in March 2024 via BMG. Alongside the album, Bruce also announced an exciting collaboration with Z2 for an upcoming comic series. To the delight of the international comic community, 2,000 exclusive versions of the comic were unveiled at CCXP, adding to the excitement surrounding this extraordinary project.