In a new, wide-ranging interview, Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has revealed the exact Paul Di’Anno-era song that convinced him to join the legendary band, pinpointing the title track from 1981’s Killers as the moment he knew he had to be their singer. The decision fulfilled a thought he’d had two years prior when he first saw the band and wondered to himself: “What if I was singing these songs…”
Speaking exclusively with Metal Hammer magazine as part of Iron Maiden‘s 50th-anniversary celebration, Dickinson reflected on the pivotal moment in 1981 when he was secretly offered the frontman position. He revealed which song from his audition ultimately sealed the deal.
“Killers,” he stated, referring to the title track of the band’s second album. “It reminded me of discovering Deep Purple when I was 15 years old, except updated. It had the same energy. It was in the guitar the drumming, the bass playing, everything… Everything was on the front edge, really pushing forwards.”
That feeling was the culmination of a journey that began two years earlier, in 1979, when Dickinson‘s then-band, Samson, played a show with a fledgling Iron Maiden as the support act. He was immediately struck by the band’s power.
“I remember watching them and thinking, ‘F***ing hell, this is something else,’” he recalled. While he thought their then-singer Paul Di’Anno was “good,” his mind immediately went to the possibilities. “The one think I thought about Paul was, ‘OK, he’s good, but what if I was singing these songs…’”
In the same interview, Dickinson also took the opportunity to debunk a long-running internet rumor that he had never met Paul Di’Anno until a 2022 concert in Zagreb, just a couple of years before Di’Anno‘s passing.
“F**k me, no, that’s internet bulls**t,” Dickinson said bluntly. “Samson recorded [their 1981 album] Shock Tactics in the same studio as Maiden recorded Killers. There was a bar and we’d all be in there hanging out.”
Bruce Dickinson‘s recollections provide a fascinating, ground-level look at a pivotal moment in heavy metal history. His decision to join the band in 1981, sparked by the forward-thinking energy of “Killers,” set in motion a chain of events that would turn Iron Maiden into one of the biggest and most beloved bands in the world, a legacy they are now celebrating 50 years on.
