It was after joining the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden in 1981 that the life of vocalist Bruce Dickinson changed forever. He had already been the frontman of Samson for a few years, but teaming up with Adrian Smith, Dave Murray, Steve Harris, and Clive Burr to record The Number of the Beast (1982) clearly took both Maiden’s career and his own to another level. Over the years, he became one of the most influential singers in music history and also had the chance to pay tribute to bands he likes and that influenced him. Rock and Roll Garage selected five hard rock bands that Bruce said he likes. 5 Hard Rock bands that Bruce Dickinson said he likes Deep Purple https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF--clMvNFc&pp=ygUbZGVlcCBwdXJwbGUgYnJ1Y2UgZGlja2luc29u The first one of course is Deep Purple, the Hard Rock band that inspired him the most when he was growing up. The vocalist Ian Gillan is his biggest hero when it comes to singers and even chose him once as his "Rock God". "So there I was as a young spotty teenager — just a teenager, I should hasten to add — and there was this noise coming through somebody's door (at school)." "And I opened it, and I (went), 'What on earth is that?' And it was 'Speed King' by Deep Purple off 'Deep Purple In Rock'. And that was what got me started. Having said all that, I met Ian Gillan. Not only did I meet him, I actually went on tour with him when I was in a band called Samson." "I'm in a studio. We've done an album in Ian Gillan's studio. We've all been at the pub and had a few pints. In walks my god Ian Gillan and goes, 'Hey, what a great vocalist. Who's the singer?' At that moment, I felt the sudden urge to vomit. I ran out of the room, puked up for about 45 minutes in the toilet when in comes my idol, kicks the door and goes, 'C'mon, mate. Out you come. Let's get you wiped down with a towel.' He put me in a taxi and sent me home. I've never forgotten that, and he's never let me forget it either," Bruce Dickinson told BBC. Over the years Dickinson performed with many members of Deep Purple singing their song live. Besides "Deep Purple In Rock" (1970), other albums from their discography that he loves are "Made In Japan" (1972) and "Fireball" (1971). Led Zeppelin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQpVjjOgngE&pp=ygUjY29tbXVuaWNhdGlvbiBicmVha2Rvd24gaXJvbiBtYWlkZW4%3D The second is Led Zeppelin, the band that caused a real revolution in Hard Rock music in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Dickinson, who was born in 1958, was still a teenager when the band was touring all over the world. So he was very influenced by the band and even told Metal Rules once that in his opinion, Plant was one of the vocalists who were the bases for the Heavy Metal singing style. “There are basically 3 bases for the metal style of singing. If you join aspect of these 3 singers, you have everything. These 3 singers are Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin), Ian Gillan (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath) and Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Company). If you join them in various combinations you have everyone was always talking about well,” Bruce Dickinson said. One of his favorite Led Zeppelin songs He praised many times especially the first two albums of the band and even revealed to Metal Hammer that "Ramble On" was one of his favorite songs by them. “Zeppelin were adopted by American radio big-style. But I’ve got to confess that the thing I loved most about Zeppelin was their English folk roots. Not their copies of American blues tracks. Also ‘Ramble On’ is one of my favourite Led Zeppelin songs. But that’s just me,” Bruce Dickinson said. What impressed him the most about them are some live performances on Danish TV in the early days as he told Loudwire. “The early Robert Plant stuff. Really early Zeppelin was unbelievable. My favorite stuff from that era, they did like Danish TV shows and they did live. Wow, it is like completely unedited. Raw as it was and it’s just astonishing. It’s primal,” Bruce Dickinson said. The frontman had the chance to cover Zeppelin when Iron Maiden covered "Communication Breakdown" as the b-side of the single "Bring Your Daughter To the Slaughter”. Rainbow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVXy1OhaERY&pp=ygUHUmFpbmJvdw%3D%3D Since Bruce loves Deep Purple, he certainly would also like Rainbow, the band formed by the guitarist Ritchie Blackmore in 1975. But of course, he doesn't like them only because of the guitarist, but also for their original frontman, the legendary Ronnie James Dio. He even said once that his debut album with Maiden "Number of The Beast" (1982) was mainly inspired by what Dio did in Rainbow's "Rising" (1976) and Black Sabbath's "Heaven & Hell" (1980). Curiously, before Dio's death, they talked about creating a supergroup called The Three Tremors. It would also feature Rob Halford, but sadly, the project never came to fruition. However, that's not the only era of Rainbow he enjoys. He is a good friend of Graham Bonnet, who was the frontman on "Down To Earth" (1979) and praised that record. “I loved Graham Bonnet on ‘Down to Earth’. I mean, ‘Eyes of The World’ is one of my favorite Rainbow songs. ‘Lost In Hollywood’, ‘Eyes of The World’, I mean. ‘Since You Been Gone’ hum… yeah okay (doesn’t like that much). But ‘Eyes of The World’ to me it’s just fantastic, you know,” Bruce Dickinson told Qobuz (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). AC/DC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmIVcCEc4OE It's not easy to meet someone who doesn't like AC/DC and like millions of Rock fans, Bruce is also a big fan of them. He likes both eras of the band, the first with Bon Scott and the current one with Brian Johnson. He even praised their most recent albums, like "Power Up" (2020), for example. But first, he explained why he loves the record "Powerage" (1978), he even covered "Sin City" on his 1990 solo album "Tattooed Millionaire". “Oh God, wow ("Powerage"). It’s AC/DC, what can I say? With Bon Scott! I got to say, I like what AC/DC are doing right now with Brian Johnson with the latest albums. I like that more than ‘Hell’s Bells’ and definitely more than ‘For Those About to Rock’.” “They’ve kind of taken back control of their sound and changed it slightly to suit Brian’s voice. But their first years with Bon, up until the end of ‘Highway To Hell’, wow. That live album ‘If You Want Blood You’ve Got It’, God! That’s just incredible. So yeah, that line-up… and Bon was just a tragedy, when that happened, it shouldn’t have happened.” “‘Sin City’ is ok, some of them are hard to sing, because Bon had a kind of interesting voice. But it was a very, very flexible voice. It was a strange mixture of styles in his voice. But there was some Blues in there, he could really do good Blues.” “One of my favorite AC/DC songs is called ‘Ride On’ and it’s got this heartbreaking guitar solo. It sounds like it’s channeling Paul Kossoff from Free in the guitar playing. I mean, it’s great, I love that song,” Bruce Dickinson told Qobuz (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). Alice Cooper https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJv-HmIaG4M&pp=ygUaYnJ1Y2UgZGlja2luc28gYmxhY2sgd2lkb3c%3D The fifth one is Alice Cooper, the godfather of Shock Rock music, who is an artist influenced by Arthur Brown, British musician who Bruce also likes. He was influenced especially by Cooper's storytelling as he told with Loudwire in 2024 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). “Alice was (the full package when it comes to storytelling). What I love about Alice, obviously, apart from just being who he is, is that he is absolutely open about who set him on that path. (It is) Arthur Brown and he is like ‘Yeah, Arthur was doing this stuff before anybody was doing it. (…) Musical textures is one thing, storytelling with words is another thing. Hopefully you can get them so they all mesh together in a way that tickles your brain and your ears equally,” Bruce Dickinson said. He first discovered Alice Cooper's music in 1974, when he was still a 16-year old teenager. Dickinson was at a gas station when "School's Out" was played on the radio. “I was pumping gas at a gas station, aged sixteen years old, when “School’s Out” came on the radio. Alice was not so much in the singing stakes. (He was) more of just whole attitude thing at the time when you’re fifteen-sixteen years old." He continued: "Alice is much a focused rebellion. He’s a fantastic cartoon character almost, if you like, and therefore he’s still successful today. My kid, eleven years old, loves Alice Cooper. (Laughs.) And Alice’s character – you see him in the Marylin Manson thing, and all the things related,” Bruce Dickinson told Let It Rock in 2001. The Iron Maiden vocalist had the chance to cover Alice Cooper on the tribute album "Humanary Stew", where he sang on "Black Widow". Were also part of the track the guitarist Adrian Smith, Bob Kulick (Guitar), Tony Franklin (Bass) and Tommy Aldrige (Drums). When asked by Let It Rock why he chose that one he replied: “I think it was the only one left. Actually, it surprised me, because I didn’t know how it was going to sound. But I think it’s done OK in the end. And certainly people who bought the record seem to like my version. And there obviously Adrian was on the record. But everybody else, all things was put together by Bob Kulick. The backing tracks were already done,” Bruce Dickinson said.
