Born in Worksop, England back in 1958, Bruce Dickinson started his musical career in 1976, achieving a small level of fame as a member of Samson and then, obviously, becoming a worldwide Rock star as Iron Maiden’s vocalist. He was influenced by many bands that appeared in the late 60s and 70s, especially Deep Purple, which had his idol Ian Gillan and also the guitarist Ritchie Blackmore.
But that was not the only band with Blackmore that Dickinson loved. He is also a big fan of Rainbow and even revealed which is his favorite album released by the group.
The Rainbow album that Bruce Dickinson chose as his favorite one
Rainbow was formed by Ritchie Blackmore in 1975 after he decided to leave Deep Purple and he recruited the American singer Ronnie James Dio to be the vocalist. Dickinson was also a big fan of Dio and in an interview with Consequence in 2022 he praised the album “Rising”, even revealing it was one of his main inspirations when recording “Number of The Beast” with Iron Maiden.
“I think the last album – well for me anyway – the last album that really was a big influence on me, before ‘Number the Beast’ was born is probably ‘Rainbow Rising’.”
He continued:
“You know, when you got to hear Ronnie in full, full throat. Blackmore playing his pants off, and ‘Stargazer’, and you’re going, ‘Oh, my God. Nobody’s done this in metal before! Wow, this is just incredible! Here’s somewhere to go,’” Bruce Dickinson said.
Released in 1976, “Rising” was Rainbow’s second studio album and is the band’s most famous one. Besides the leader and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, at the time the band was formed by Ronnie James Dio (Vocals), Tony Carey (Keyboards), Jimmy Bain (Bass) and Cozy Powell (Drums). It has tracks like “Tarot Woman”, “Stargazer” and “Run With The Wolf”.
The story of the first time Dickinson heard Rainbow
When Bruce Dickinson first heard Rainbow he had no idea that Ritchie Blackmore had another band. As he recalled in an interview with Qobuz in 2024 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), he first heard the band on the radio. He felt that it sounded like Ritchie Blackmore and then discovered he was right about it.
“For me, that was the record where I discovered Ronnie Dio on vocals. I was like: ‘Who is that voice?’ I was like 16 years old and go ‘What the hell?’ That’s Ritchie Blackmore and I didn’t know that Rainbow existed. It was on a little transistor radio in a garage. So I went ‘That sounds like Ritchie Blackmore’.”
“I waited till it finished and the guy said that was Rainbow and ‘Stargazer’. (I went) ‘Aaah oh my God!’ It’s one of the shortest albums ever made, you know. It’s like 35 minutes long, the whole album, but it’s a classic. I’ll take that over a 90-minute long boring yawnfest. Six really incredible songs that changed the face of music. It really did, that was a game changer. It gets not enough respect from people outside the metal world,” Bruce Dickinson said.
