Bruce Pilots His Life: Plane, Solo Album, Accident
The Belfast Telegraph has an interesting article about Bruce, planes, his solo effort and the famous accident that happened to him during one of the last show last year:Bruce Dickinson, pilot of the airwaves
22 October 2004
Metal legend Bruce Dickinson has more talents than you might expect. Not only does he front one of the most successful heavy-metals bands of all time - Iron Maiden - but he's also an author of two books (on a cross-dressing 18th century toff, as it happens), a competing fencer who was once rated fourth in Britain, and a pilot.
Now he's added yet another string to his bow - or should that be electric guitar? - by becoming a radio DJ for digital station 6Music.
"I love doing the show and it's turned out really successful for us," he enthuses. "We can play whatever the hell we want and mix everything from Alice Cooper to more modern bands like Viking Skull."
Bizarrely, Bruce manages to fit his radio show in between touring the world with Maiden (selling 60m records in the process) and flying passengers around the globe as a pilot for a commercial airline.
"At the moment I'm flying planes full-time and it's now my proper day job until the Maiden tour next year.
"A few months ago I was flying overnight for seven hours to Africa. It was around midnight when the captain leaned over to me and quite unexpectedly showered me with vomit - so I had to spend the next five hours covered in it.
"It was then that I thought to myself, not even in my worst days in rock 'n' roll has anyone ever been sick on me. Sometimes flying airplanes is actually more rock 'n' roll than being in a band."
While Bruce is clearly in love with his new-found careers, Maiden fans needn't fret as the singer feels he can juggle all of his jobs quite easily.
"The thing with all these pursuits is that I think they can all co-exist quite happily with one another. It's just a matter of fitting everything into the right places."
After touring solidly for a year in support of Maiden's Dance Of Death album, Bruce suffered an accident during one gig in America that left him counting his blessings that he lived to tell the tale.
"We were playing one night and our stage set had lots of ramps and things for me to play around on. So I was standing on a platform 10 feet above the drum-kit and I was running along. As I ran I slipped on some whipped cream - God knows where it came from - and fell all the way down, head-first, on top of the drums.
"I totally buggered up my fingers and ripped all the muscles on my chest and back. It was a total Spinal Tap moment but I still finished the gig.
"I can laugh about it now but at the time I was on major painkillers and nearly had to walk with a stick. Slipping on whipped cream in front of 10,000 people could only happen to me.
"During that time I was also recording my new solo album with producer Roy Z and when I was recording vocals we had a bed in the studio. I would sing for about five minutes and then lie down flat on the bed for 15 minutes because of the pain."
With another new solo album currently being recorded, a Maiden DVD, The Early Years, primed and ready for release, a summer tour with Maiden next year and his 6Music rock show on the airwaves every week, it's hard to know what this human dynamo will do next.
But Bruce has some ideas up his sleeve. "Some well-deserved sleep. Either that or I'm going to go to the pub."
The Early Years is released on November 8.
Sources: BelfastTelegraph.co.uk
Thanks to Blabbermouth for the hint
5 Comments
That's a nice story dude!
Thanks for sharing!
Rewrote the intro and added the full-article, which has interesting hints on his solo career (the time of his new solo recording sessions, for instance) and the recall of that famous whipped cream incident last year.
Cheers
interesting story, thanks 
is it November the 8th in N.Ireland then?
Thanks Bravewords
Cheers