Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson recently spoke with Raymond Flotat of Mxdwn about his solo album, The Mandrake Project, comic books, and more. An excerpt follows:
Mxdwn: Coming on that stuff that you’ve been up to with Iron Maiden and the Legacy Of The Beast world tour or the Future Past world tour, you’ve had two albums with them, two massive tours with them. The question that I have for you is, I know that you’re going out on the road with this solo album. I know that you’re going to be hitting about four months of dates coming up. What I’m curious about, why not take a break? You seem like you’ve been wall to wall busy for about six years straight.
Bruce Dickinson: "Yeah, I have. Yeah. It’s been great. I mean, if your destiny is to create things I’m in the right place, you know, and so far, touch wood, what I’m doing, I’m pretty happy with, you know? Musically and, you know, other areas of creativity as well, like the comic, you know, the comic book and things like that. They all kind of fit together because my world as a singer is very visual. And so to be able to actually put visuals to a story as well as have a musical story as well in a different environment, you know, with the album, is really satisfying. So to take it out on the road and give it the air that it needs to really breathe with an audience, is gonna be great. I’m very excited by that."
Mxdwn: You know, it’s amazing to me at the amount that you’ve been doing, that you still have the energy or like, I need to be on the road for four months. I mean, you hear about a lot of bands, they’re out, they do their thing. And then they’re like, I want to be nowhere for a year and a half. So I mean, that after all of this, the last six years, you’re like, I’m good. I’m ready. Let’s rock. I wonder, is that a wellspring of energy in you? Do you just have that kind of thing going on?
Bruce Dickinson: "I think if you’re doing good stuff and you’re enjoying it and people are digging it. I mean, why would you want to stop? You know, I mean, it’s because this is not work. It’s not, you know? I mean, work is something you do that you hate, right? You know?"
Mxdwn: Oh, yeah, I know. I know what you mean.
Bruce Dickinson: "You know, and so, yeah, this is not that. And so I love it because not only are we taking the story to this audience and me actually getting to quantify exactly where is my audience? Because, you know, I was I was having my own audience with Accident of Birth, in particular, Chemical Wedding. I thought, 'Hey, you know what, I’ve actually got people that like my music, not just my music, because I happen to be the guy in Iron Maiden,' you know? And then, of course, I rejoined Maiden and they had Tyranny Of Souls. And fifteen something years later, I’m getting a lot of positive vibes from people. They go, 'Hey, new solo act!' I go, 'Yeah, yeah!' Because, you know, 'We’ve listened to all that stuff now and it’s really, really cool.' I mean, the intervening years, I think, have been have been very kind to people’s perspective of my back catalog, the six albums that I’ve done previously."
To read the complete interview, head here.
Iron Maiden have announced they will headline Graspop Metal Meeting in Belgium on Thursday, June 19, 2025. Tickets are on sale now.
With this announcement, the dates for the Run For Your Lives World Tour 2025 are now complete.
Iron Maiden's Run For Your Lives World Tour will kick off on May 27, 2025 in Budapest, followed by stadium, festival and arena shows around Europe. The tour marks 50 years since Steve Harris formed the band in late 1975 and to celebrate this Maiden fans are promised a very special set list, spanning the nine studio albums from Iron Maiden to Fear Of The Dark, with their most spectacular and elaborate show ever.
Special Guests for the first half of the tour, including the London and Dublin outdoor shows (but not the UK arenas), will be American rockers Halestorm. The second half of the tour sees Sweden’s Avatar as guests. And, finally, British metal band, The Raven Age, will open all UK & Ireland shows.
Check IronMaiden.com for tickets and further details.
Dates are as follows:
May
27 - Budapest, Hungary - Budapest Aréna *
28 - Budapest, Hungary - Budapest Aréna *
31 - Prague, Czech Republic - Letnany Airport *
June
1 - Bratislava, Slovakia - TIPOS Arena *
5 - Trondheim, Norway - Trondheim Rocks (Festival)
7 - Stavanger, Norway - SR-Bank Arena *
9 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Royal Arena *
12 - Stockholm, Sweden - 3Arena *
13 - Stockholm, Sweden - 3Arena *
16 - Helsinki, Finland - Olympic Stadium *
19 - Belgium - Graspop Metal Meeting
21 - Birmingham, England - Utilita Arena ^
22 - Manchester, England - Co-op Live ^
25 - Dublin, Ireland - Malahide Castle *^
28 - London, England - London Stadium *^
30 - Glasgow, Scotland - OVO Hydro ^
July
3 - Belfort, France - Eurockéennes Festival
5 - Madrid, Spain - Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano **
6 - Lisbon, Portugal - MEO Arena **
9 - Zurich, Switzerland - Hallenstadion **
11 - Gelsenkirchen, Germany - Veltins-Arena **
13 - Padova, Italy - Stadio Euganeo **
15 - Bremen, Germany - Bürgerweide **
17 - Vienna, Austria - Ernst Happel Stadium **
19 - Paris, France - Paris La Défense Arena **
23 - Arnhem, Netherlands - GelreDome **
25 - Frankfurt, Germany - Deutsche Bank Park **
26 - Stuttgart, Germany - Cannstatter Wasen **
29 - Berlin, Germany - Waldbühne **
August
2 - Warsaw, Poland - PGE Narodowy **
*Halestorm
^The Raven Age
**Avatar
Trooper VIP packages will be available at all shows.
Says Bruce Dickinson: "Next year is a very special one for Iron Maiden and we’re going to be giving our fans a once-in-a-lifetime live experience. This is a tour that’s gonna put a smile on your face and a cheer in your throat. If you’ve seen us before, then get ready to take that experience to a whole new level. If you’ve never seen us before, then what the hell have you been waiting for? Now’s your chance to find out what you’ve been missing! Iron Maiden’s definitely gonna get ya!”
Manager Rod Smallwood adds: "50 years of Maiden and I have seen 46 of them! With well over 100 million albums sold and almost 2500 shows in 64 countries and counting, to countless millions of fans, we are all still loving every second and consider every tour a new challenge to bring something different and exciting to our fans. And for this very special one we’re pulling out all the stops!
We will cover classics and fan favourites 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. This is going to be a huge couple of years for Iron Maiden, and Eddie of course, and we are very excited about what we have up our sleeves for you fans throughout the whole of our 50th year. I promise you are all going to be very happy indeed!"
On Saturday June 28th the band will perform at the London Stadium, home of West Ham Football Club – the team that band founder Steve Harris has supported throughout his life, and with whom Iron Maiden have a long and storied history.
This concert in front of over 60,000 fans, will be the first time that Iron Maiden have performed on the club’s hallowed turf. A true homecoming show – with Steve Harris, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith & Nicko McBrain all born in the surrounding area – it will also be the biggest UK venue the band have ever headlined outside of their festival appearances.
Steve Harris: "My love of football and my support of West Ham is no secret, and I know many of our fans around the world have shared that with me too. So we’re all very excited to be playing at the London Stadium as part of the Run For Your Lives tour. We can’t wait to see you all there!"
