BBC Interviews Bruce Dickinson

on August 30, 2005 @ 16:16

Interview: Bruce Dickinson
By Linda Serck and Catherine Turner

Find out how BBC Berkshire managed to make rock god Bruce Dickinson say the line: "I am not an aficionado of bunnies". Read our exclusive interview with the Iron Maiden frontman below.

What a coup for the Reading Festival. Iron Maiden have been at the forefront of world metal and is one of the greatest live bands around, headlining stadiums and major festivals all over the globe, and selling over 60 million albums in the process.
So did we approach the frontman and 'rock god' with the required amount of kow-towing respect? Well, let's just say it was a case of two blondes, Bruce and...a bunny?

He grabbed a pew and joined BBC Berkshire at the Reading Festival Launch Party with pint in hand, despite not giving any interviews for publications that evening. We couldn't miss this exclusive opportunity however, and the extremely affable and eloquent singer, also a BBC 6 Music presenter and pilot, readily chatted to us for a good half hour. And he couldn't have been more genuine - a lesson to be learnt by many image-conscious too-cool-for-school bands around today.

"I don't like being recognised, I have no interest in being famous at all, I just do what I do."
A rather fame-shunning rock god
The last time Iron Maiden played at Reading was when they headlined in 1982, though Bruce did reveal he has been to the festival since. He says: "I've been to the Reading festival twice before - as a punter, though I stayed backstage in the hospitality tent!"

This year however he won't be hanging around supping beer by the sounds of things. He says: "I'll be arriving at the last possible minute and walking on stage raging and pillaging and then disappearing immediately afterwards."

So no pre-concert drinks or post-festival party for Bruce then. In fact, to gear up for the show it's not a bottle of whiskey that prepares him for the stage but a "flask of coffee". So what does he do to get the crowd going? "Well if it's the audience is a bit lagging we kick them in the nuts until they wake up!" comes the grinned response.
Literally and not just metaphorically we hope - there'll be a photographer at the front somewhere surely! "No!". Oh come Bruce you must have seen some tootsie action in your time. "One would wear out one's tootsies" he replies.

So the audience may not have to buy codpieces but they can expect to be dripping wet from moshing to Iron Maiden's more classic songs. Due to popular demand and to coincide with the release of the band's live DVD covering songs from the first four albums, they'll be performing tracks from Iron Maiden, Killers, Number Of The Beast and Piece Of Mind.

Despite being the headlining act on Sunday and evidently seen by many as a metal god, Bruce rather surprisingly shuns stardom. He says: "I don't like being recognised, I have no interest in being famous at all, I just do what I do. If I could be like Captain Kirk and beam myself up and then beam myself down, I would! I love performing on the stage but I don't like being famous - I just don't see the point, it just cheapens everything."

Catherine Turner, Bruce and Linda Serck

Is there not a glamorous element to being Bruce Dickinson? "I don't regard it as glamorous, I stopped regarding it as glamorous 23 years ago because that's when I fulfilled my life's ambitions. I dreamt for years about making albums and doing world tours - I'd fulfilled all my ambitions in one year and so I thought 'what do I do?' If it all just happens like this for the rest of my life it's going to be one endless Groundhog Day. I determined that I was not prepared to submit to this regime so I thought I had to do something about it."

Of course Bruce did end up quitting the band in 1993, rejoining in 1999 after releasing several solo albums and publishing a series of novels.

He says: "Iron Maiden is an institution and I'm delighted that I'm involved in it but there was a time that I wasn't delighted so I quit. I enjoy making solo albums because over the years it's evolved into more of a genuine personal expression of story-telling and day dreams, and I work in a way that has more control."

So what does Bruce like to do when he's not on stage? "Well I fly aeroplanes, go down the pub, go to the gym, read - I like military history, social history, occasionally arty books." Quite a different image you're portraying to the long-mulleted spandex-trousered metaller of old! "I only ever had one pair of Spandex trousers!"

So why on earth did you wear them? "I don't know, I guess it's just something that adolescents do, in your imagination you think that you'll be a hit if you display your k*** and b******s." And was it a hit? "Yep!".

Such adulation will have led to strange encounters with groupies and fans. After commenting that men under 30 are "unguided missiles" he continues to tell us about the oddest thing a fan wanted him to sign: "I was asked to sign a bunny, a real one!"
Really? BBC Berkshire exclaims. What colour? "White. All bunnies are white aren't they?" Err no, I think you'll find some are tawny brown. "Well I'm not an aficionado of bunny rabbits!"

Glad to hear it Bruce, you stick to being a rock god.

More pics from the special BBC Reading website:

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