Bruce Dickinson recently sat down with Songfacts to discuss his singing career, including his new work on ‘The Mandrake Project.’ During the interview, Dickinson opened up about his voice and how a previous health scare might have unexpectedly improved his abilities:
“Well, after throat cancer, my top end got a bit of a new lease on life because somebody took a three-and-a-half-centimeter golf ball out of my windpipe to make the cancer disappear. I’ve got more bottom end now. There’s a bit more growl to the voice, which I really like.”
He shared:
“When I was 18, 19 years old, I could squeak like a banshee, but I couldn’t do more looser, bluesy stuff because you need a kind of weight to your voice to do that. I had all the top-end stuff I could do. But now I’m in kind of a happy medium where I can do a lot more of that low-end stuff.”
In 2015, Dickinson faced a significant health challenge when he was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor at the back of his tongue. Fortunately, the tumor was caught early, and in seven weeks, the singer was cancer-free.
His Singing Through The Years
Following his recovery, Dickinson released ‘The Mandrake Project,’ his first solo effort post-cancer. He also created the ‘Senjutsu’ album with Iron Maiden in 2021.
During the recent chat, the vocalist compared his singing in early years to now by saying:
“The large parts of it are surprisingly intact, especially at the top end. Because typically, it’s the high notes that go. I’ve always been quite a loud singer. Some singers have the ability to sound like they’re singing really loud, and actually, they’re not. It’s relatively quiet and all terribly under control. I’m not that singer.”
His words went on:
“I open my gob, and it comes out, and it has to shake my body down to my boots. I sing with my entire body, pushing out that sound. I think that’s one reason why my voice has lasted – because my voice gets a huge amount of support from my lungs and my diaphragm and all the rest of it.”
You can read Bruce Dickinson’s new interview here.
