Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson opened up about the toughest support acts the band ever had to follow.
When asked which bands were the toughest support acts that Iron Maiden ever had to follow, Dickinson pointed to a young and hungry Guns N’ Roses as the standout example.
“Back in the day, the toughest support act we ever had was Guns N’ Roses in America [in 1988],” Dickinson said. “They’d just released their first album [1987’s Appetite For Destruction] and were reaching this huge wave of popularity. They were full of angst and venom, where Maiden were a bit proggy – it was around Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son.”
Bassist and founding member Steve Harris also weighed in, naming Southern rock band Blackfoot as another act that left a lasting impression.
“Blackfoot are still one of the best bands that ever supported us,” Harris said. “I always say that it’s the support band’s job to go out and try to take the audience. They’ve got to go out, give it large, and make the main band work hard.”
Harris went on to reflect on the pressure that support acts face when stepping out in front of a crowd that isn’t necessarily there for them.
“I’ve seen it a couple of times where I’ve felt sorry for the support band,” he continued. “They can’t bottle it. The audience can smell fear.”
The comments offer a rare look at how Iron Maiden viewed the competitive dynamic between headliners and their opening acts throughout their career.
The context behind Dickinson’s remarks makes the story even more striking. The 1988 run was one of the most charged moments in rock history, with two of the genre’s biggest forces sharing the same stage night after night.
Guns N’ Roses opened for Iron Maiden on the Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour. The two bands crossed North America together, with documented stops including a June 1 date at Seattle Center Coliseum and a May 14 show at the Metro Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. By that point, Guns N’ Roses were no longer an unknown quantity. Appetite for Destruction had already begun its ascent, and the band’s raw, confrontational energy was winning over arenas full of fans who had come to see Iron Maiden.
The scale of Iron Maiden’s Seventh Son of a Seventh Son tour was enormous. The full touring cycle drew more than two million people worldwide, making it one of the largest live campaigns of the band’s career. That Dickinson still singles out Guns N’ Roses as the toughest act to follow — amid a tour of that magnitude — speaks to just how powerful the Los Angeles band’s live presence was at the time.
Appetite for Destruction had been released in July 1987. It was building toward becoming one of the best-selling debut albums in rock history. By the time Guns N’ Roses were opening for Iron Maiden in the summer of 1988, the album was already a cultural force. The band’s reputation as a must-see live act was spreading rapidly across North America.
The tour was not without its turbulence. Portions of the Iron Maiden run were cancelled due to Axl Rose’s throat problems, cutting short what had been a high-voltage pairing. Despite the disruptions, the shared billing remains one of the most talked-about touring partnerships of the era — a snapshot of two bands at very different but equally intense points in their careers.
