Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson recalled in an interview with Chris Jericho (Transcribed by Ultimate Guitar) the experience he had in the early days when he was the vocalist of a band in the university where they made a show and only one person appeared and watched the concert. Bruce Dickinson recalls concert in the early days that had only one fan watching: “I had one, one show, I was in a band at university. There was one... In the old days, it would have been called a disco. Except there was nobody there. It was like the phantom disco, and there was like mirror balls and lights. And there was also the stage.” “And there was nobody, nobody there. But we were getting paid like 50 bucks to go and play. So then, the door open. And one person walked in. Looked a bit shocked that there was somebody actually on stage. And so he got a chair and he put it right in the middle of the dance floor, and sat down on this chair. And I thought, 'This is great!'” “So I got off the stage. And I went up to him with a microphone. I said, 'Excuse me, sir, I got to know, what's your name?' And he was like, 'Oh, I'm so-and-so.' I said, 'Can I buy you a beer? Because we're about to do this performance just for you. The least I can do is buy you a beer. You may hate it, you know what I mean?'” Bruce Dickinson continued: “And, and then we kind of relaxed and we had this... We actually had a relationship, we had an audience of one who didn't know who we were. But actually, we had a great time. Nobody cared, nobody knew. But we had a great time.” “And I think you have to take that there's always a way in to a bad situation. You just have to think outside the box. A pet peeve of mine is when a band goes on in what is obviously a toilet with two beer crates at one end of the stage. They go on there, and they pretend that they're in Madison Square Garden.” “And it's like 'Hello, Cleveland!' And I'm just like, 'No, it's not Cleveland, you're in a toilet with two beer crates.' If you just said to people, 'Hey, we're all in the toilet with two beer crates,' everybody would go 'These guys are great! I love these guys!' But instead they go, 'Ah, yeah, just a bunch of poses.' So you've got to be real with it.” Dickinson’s 2022 Spoken Word tour https://youtu.be/R9jfm-9L0q4 January 26 Jan – Nashville, Polk Theater 27 Jan – Columbus (OH), Jo Ann Davidson Theatre 29 Jan – Pittsburgh, Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead 30 Jan – Detroit, The Fillmore February 01 Feb – Buffalo-Niagara Falls, Buffalo State Performing Arts Center 02 Feb – Albany, The Egg 04 Feb – New York City, The Town Hall 05 Feb – Boston, Schubert Theatre at the Boch Center 07 Feb – Philadelphia, The Fillmore 08 Feb – Washington DC, Warner Theatre 10 Feb – Cleveland, MGM Northfield Park 11 Feb – Chicago, Vic Theatre 13 Feb – Minneapolis, Pantages Theatre 14 Feb – Milwaukee-Racine, Pabst Theater 16 Feb – Des Moines, Hoyt Sherman Place Theatre 17 Feb – Oklahoma City, Rose State College Hudiberg Chevrolet Center 19 Feb – Kansas City, Uptown Theater 20 Feb – Denver, Paramount Theatre 22 Feb – Dallas, Majestic Theatre 23 Feb – Houston, Stafford Centre 24 Feb – Austin, Paramount Theatre 26 Feb – Phoenix, Mesa Arts Center 28 Feb – San Diego, Balboa Theatre March 01 Mar – Los Angeles, Orpheum Theatre 03 Mar – San Francisco, Palace of Fine Arts 04 Mar – Portland (OR), Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall 06 Mar – Seattle, The Moore Theatre 12 Mar – Las Vegas, House Of Blues 14 Mar – Vancouver (New Westminster), Massey Theatre 16 Mar – Victoria, Royal Theatre 18 Mar – Edmonton, Winspear Centre 20 Mar – Winnipeg, Burton Cummings Theatre 21 Mar – Calgary, Jack Singer Concert Hall 23 Mar – Montreal, MTELUS 26 Mar – Ottawa, Algonquin Commons Theatre 27 Mar – Quebec City, Palais Montcalm 29 Mar – Hamilton, FirstOntario Concert Hall 30 Mar – Kitchener, Centre in the Square