A great drummer is often the backbone of a great Rock band, whose playing gives the music its drive and character. Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson agrees with that and originally wanted to be a drummer and admired many of the great players who were in influential bands while he was growing up.
Over the decades, he has spoken about many drummers he admired and named two whom he considers among the greatest of all time. Coincidentally, both played in the two Heavy Metal bands he once said were his favorite ones.
2 of the greatest Rock drummers according to Bruce Dickinson
Bill Ward
The first one is Bill Ward, who Bruce believes he actually is not really a Rock drummer, in his opinion he is a Jazz drummer playing Rock and Roll. “I’m a massive lover of Bill Ward’s drumming style; I think it’s inspired. ‘Cause he’s not really a rock drummer; he’s more like a jazz drummer playing rock. And I love that kind of style; it’s kind of like drums that kind of wander around the rhythm and everything else.”
“But he’s on it; he’s brilliant. And I met him. He’s a lovely bloke as well. Slightly mad, but very nice. But then aren’t we all? All of us are on the madness spectrum a little bit. Does Black Sabbath exists without Bill Ward? Well, it’s not a matter of… I don’t think Black Sabbath exist at all now. I think Sharon’s (Osbourne) made sure of that,” he said during his spoken-word tour in 2022.
At the time, there was no indication that Bill would reunite with his bandmates to perform at the final show in Birmingham in 2025. Dickinson has long said that Black Sabbath is one of his favorite Metal bands of all time and even recorded a cover of “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” with Godspeed for the tribute album Nativity in Black (1994). However, he is not a fan of that version, admitting that he only recorded it for the money.
Some of his favorite Sabbath albums with Bill Ward
In an interview with Qobuz in 2024, Dickinson also praised Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973), along with other Black Sabbath albums such as Vol. 4 (1972) and Born Again (1983). “I was a kid and got this album (Sabbath Bloody Sabbath), and I was still a virgin, which made me open it up and go, ‘Oh, my God. Look at those women.’ But what a great record. What a great album. What a great comeback album.”
“But, yeah, the first two records are amazing. Well, no, I mean, ‘Vol. 4’ was incredible as well. What a consistent band. And it’s Geezer and Tony. I mean, if you look at all the people, all the different vocalists, not just Ozzy, they’ve all been (great). ‘Born Again’ — great album. Everybody goes, ‘Oh, forget that one.’ No, it’s a great album,” Bruce Dickinson said (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). The only Black Sabbath album with Ian Gillan on vocals was also the final studio record to feature Bill Ward, who wasn’t part of “13”, their final one.
Feud with the Osbournes
Bruce has long admired Black Sabbath, but his relationship with the Osbourne family has been strained over the past few decades. The conflict reached its peak in 2005 when Iron Maiden played Ozzfest. According to Sharon Osbourne, Dickinson would “slag Ozzy” on stage every night during the band’s set. Furious over his behavior, she decided to teach him a lesson by hiring people to throw eggs at Iron Maiden during their performance at the festival.
“We’ve known those guys since the 80s and we offered them the show. They were getting paid $185.000 dollars each night. Everything they wanted they got. They would go on stage and Bruce Dickinson, each night would slag Ozzy. (He would) Say really disrespectful things about him and Ozzy is the schmuck that is paying him!”
She continued:
“So I’m thinking to myself ‘Let it go on. Just carry on your little shit’. So on the last night in L.A, I’ve got 200 hispanic kids, loaded them with eggs. They had peanut butter, they fucking pelted the shit out of them. Then I went on stage and I said ‘Look, don’t fuck with us. Don’t be disrespectful, this is what you get.” In the same conversation with Howard Stern she pointed out that she knew for a long time that the Maiden members were “trouble”.
Steve Harris later apologized to Ozzy, and when the Black Sabbath frontman died, Iron Maiden paid tribute to him on social media, writing: “Everyone connected with Iron Maiden sends their sincere condolences to Sharon & the Osbourne Family on the sad announcement of Ozzy’s passing. He helped shape heavy metal as we know it and we will be forever grateful to Black Sabbath for forging the path that so many followed. RIP Ozzy Osbourne.”
Ian Paice
Deep Purple has always been Bruce Dickinson’s favorite band, and he has mentioned vocalist Ian Gillan as his hero on multiple occasions. However, he is also a huge admirer of drummer Ian Paice, once saying that Paice was a “God” to him when he was a kid because he originally wanted to play the drums.
“I don’t know what I was thinking back then (when I was a kid). But I was just really, really, fired up by these bands. When I used to see gigs I used to look on stage and go ‘Oh, I wanted to be up there, you know. I wanted to be up there, doing that’. I wanted to be a drummer. Actually, I wanted to be Ian Paice from Deep Purple. He was like (the) God of drums to me.”
“I had this idea that I was going to be like Ian Paice but the personality of Keith Moon. So I was like: ‘Yeah, I would be like this big crazy guy behind the drums. But I would be able to play drums really, really good as well’. Then reality came crashing in. I thought ‘I can’t afford a drum kit and I can’t drive a car. So how I’m gonna get my drums around? (I was depressed) and then I found out I could sing. So I thought ‘Wow, that’s the answer’,” Bruce Dickinson said in an interview with Gastão Moreira on the Brazilian MTV show Fúria in 1998 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
One of his favorite Deep Purple songs is “Fireball,” a track that is not often mentioned among the band’s greatest. Although he is a huge fan of Ian’s vocals, what really stands out to him on this song is Ian Paice’s drumming.
Bruce Dickinson said:
“It’s just one of those tracks that is not played very often. But it’s got some phenomenal bits in it. And of course, it’s also got – I mean, having been a drummer or at least aspired to being a drummer. I have huge respect for drummers. Ian Paice is simply one of the finest drummers in the world, he really is. And I suppose if you’re going to be a drumming nit-noid type guy, it’s his foot. It’s all down to his foot,” Bruce Dickinson told My Planet Rocks in 2020 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).
Over the years, the Iron Maiden frontman has had the chance to perform with Ian Paice and other members of Deep Purple on multiple occasions. In addition to taking part in special performances with them, he has also toured with an orchestra several times, performing Deep Purple songs. Besides “Fireball”, he is also a big fan of “Deep Purple in Rock” (1970), “Machine Head” (1972) and in his opinion