Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson recently discussed the harsh realities of aging as a vocalist, sharing his unfiltered opinion on legacy acts continuing to perform long past their prime.
In a new interview with Kerrang! magazine, Bruce Dickinson touched upon Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain‘s recent decision to step away from touring with the band due to health issues. The conversation ultimately led to a discussion about knowing when to step down.
The singer noted that he recently “had an argument with a journalist” about it, explaining that if he can’t perform at his very best, he’ll pack it in. The writer pushed back, telling him, “You can’t do that, you’ve got to go on.”
Bruce Dickinson recalled his response to the writer:
“I said [to the writer], ‘Look, there are loads of singers whose voices are shot and everybody knows it.’ He goes, ‘Yeah, but they’re legends.’ They’re not f**king legends, They’re people who can’t sing anymore. When they were singing, they were legends. When they can’t sing anymore, they’re not legends anymore.”
“That’s the end of that, the brutal truth,” Bruce continued. “I couldn’t go on stage if I didn’t think I could do it. I don’t know how people get onstage when they can’t do it anymore. Obviously, it’s their life, but it’s not my way.”
When asked if the prospect of eventually losing his vocal power worries him, the singer responded:
“No. It’s just a fact of life that one day it may or may not happen. You take each day as it comes, and you try to give the best performance of your life every night. That’s the rules of the game.”
The legendary frontman’s vocal discipline has remained a defining trait of his career, particularly following his triumphant battle against a small cancerous tumor at the back of his tongue in early 2015. After undergoing a grueling seven-week course of chemotherapy and radiology, he was given “the all-clear” by his specialists following an MRI scan.
During a December 2023 interview with Germany’s Rock Antenne, Bruce Dickinson elaborated on how he keeps his voice in performance shape after decades of touring and recording.
“Uh, I don’t know. A certain amount of it is probably the way I’m made. And then a lot of it is trying to look after the bits that you’ve already got. And other than that… I think the voice, it does change as you get older. I mean, there’s no doubting that, but I’ve been lucky that most of my highs are still there. And we do all the Maiden show in the original key, all the songs and everything. Which is not to say that one or two of the songs aren’t quite challenging. But I have news for you: they were always challenging; when I was 25, they were challenging,” he explained.
He continued, highlighting how aging has naturally expanded the emotional depth of his delivery over time:
“The tone of my voice has changed a little bit, and in many ways I like it more now than I did when I was 23. 23, I was like shiny and squeaky. Your voice becomes more lived in. You can express more emotion, you can carry more emotion. So, for example, there’s a song on [my upcoming solo] album [The Mandrake Project] called ‘Rain On The Graves‘. I couldn’t have sung that song when I was 22 years old in the same way. So it’s interesting to see how the kind of emotional life of the voice develops over the years. So that’s the kind of the realm that I’m trying. I’m trying to extend the range, the emotional range of my voice, as much as preserve the physical range at the same time.”
During the same conversation, Bruce Dickinson detailed his specific diet and fitness routine, explaining how his longtime passion for competitive fencing translates to the extreme physical demands of fronting a heavy metal band.
“I maybe changed a couple of minor things on my diet. I don’t eat as much bread, but mainly that’s because my wife is French, so I’m completely indoctrinated into the ways of French bread. And I’d rather not eat bread at all than eat rubbish, like industrial bread. So I’m sold on that idea. So I actually eat a lot less bread and I try and eat a bit more protein than I used to. And I do sometimes go down the gym and throw a few bits of iron around. And I still train fencing, and I don’t think people realize how physical that sport is, ’cause you’re covered in white and you’re wearing a mask. So it’s like people say, ‘Grand Prix drivers, they don’t they don’t do much hard work, do they?’ Because they’re all covered in the suit and they’ve got a helmet on, but they’re losing god knows how many kilos of water. They work physically incredibly hard. And the same thing on stage. I mean, on stage with Maiden, I’m losing about three liters of water during a show. I probably drink a liter and a half or two liters during the show. And so when I go back to my hotel room, I’m still a liter short of where I should be, so that I just gradually make that up. As a singer, ’cause I sing from my diaphragm and all the good things you should do, it’s not happy if you chuck an entire liter of water into your belly.”
