During one of his shows as a part of his solo spoken-word tour, Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson recalled his early years as the band’s new vocalist after replacing Paul Di’Anno. Dickinson unveiled that he had severe problems with the band’s bassist Steve Harris back then.
Iron Maiden started their Killer World Tour on February 17, 1981, in Ipswich, and it ended on December 23, 1981, in London. It was the band’s first world tour, and they also drew significant attention after they supported Judas Priest, that was on their World Wide Blitz Tour and UFO as part of their concerts. However, the band members went through very challenging times because of their lead singer’s current situation.
Paul Di’Anno’s self-destructive behaviors, mainly caused by his drug addiction, didn’t let him stay in the band for a long time; thus, the remaining band members decided to fire him after the tour. They had to find a new singer, and Samson’s Bruce Dickinson was invited to the auditions. They immediately hired Dickinson due to his successful performance in the audition, but the early years were hard for the new member.
After a fan recently asked whether he fought with one of his bandmates, Dickinson responded, saying he was very close to a fistfight with Steve Harris. The main reasons behind the crisis were the place of monitors, bashing microphone to his face, Dickinson’s singing in the middle of the stage. Dickinson stated that they figured it out using a bigger stage and agreed with the singer’s position, then he celebrated Harris’ 66th birthday.
Dickinson’s statement follows:
“When I first joined the band, I was a very different animal to the previous singer. When I joined, I said, ‘I know I’m the new boy, but here’s the deal: when I sing, I kind of stand in the middle of the stage at the front, I do the singing bit, and then I go somewhere else… You can go anywhere you like, but when I sing, I want to sing in the middle.
So I’ve got my monitors down there, and I’m singing away, and suddenly this maniac comes up and goes, ‘F*ck off!’ Then the roadies come, and they move my monitors off to the side. I’m, like, ‘Cheeky f*ckers.’ So I f*cking move them back again.
This carried on for a while. In the end, what I did was I got an extra-long microphone stand. I had a microphone stand that was like a tank trap for bass players. He’d jostle me; I’ve still got lumps out of my front teeth and chips and cracks, of all the times he bashed my fucking microphone into my teeth. So we nearly came to blows. However, we came to accommodation in the end. I sing in the middle of the stage; we just made the stage twice as big.”
You can watch the video below.
