Although Iron Maiden is widely regarded as one of the greatest Heavy Metal bands of all time and has Bruce Dickinson, one of the most influential singers in the genre, the group has never drawn inspiration exclusively from heavy music. Steve Harris and Dickinson are both longtime fans of Progressive Rock, an influence that can be clearly heard in Iron Maiden’s albums, especially those released over the past two decades.
However, their tastes in Progressive Rock developed along different paths, as they were drawn to different bands while growing up. Over the years, Bruce Dickinson gave his opinion on many groups, including Genesis.
What is Bruce Dickinson’s opinion on Genesis
Although Progressive Rock inspired Bruce Dickinson a great deal, he was never a big fan of Genesis, unlike his bandmate and “boss” Steve Harris, who is a massive admirer of the band’s early era with Peter Gabriel. Over the years, whenever Bruce mentioned the Progressive Rock group, he usually said that he was more of a fan of the lesser-known Van der Graaf Generator than Genesis. However, he does enjoy Peter Gabriel’s solo work.
“Steve is a big fan of prog, as am I. I was talking to somebody else about this, about the different bands that we both liked. Steve, for example, is a big fan of Jethro Tull. I’m also a big fan of Jethro Tull. He loves ‘A Passion Play’ and ‘Think As A Brick’; I’m more ‘Aqualung’ and the early stuff. But nevertheless, we both meet in the middle there. He’s a big Genesis fan — the Peter Gabriel Genesis, ‘The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway’; he loves all that. Me, I’m not crazy about Genesis. But I loved Peter Gabriel’s, I think it was his third solo album.(It had songs like) ‘Intruder’, ‘No Self Control’.”
“(They are) scary, dark, really moody stuff. There was a band called Van Der Graaf Generator, who were contemporaries of Genesis, and in a way, they were even a bit more out there than Genesis. Well, I loved them. And I borrowed bits of Peter Hammill, their vocalist’s vocal style. So we both have this prog thing spinning around our heads, along with Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple, Sabbath. He’s a great fan of Nektar and Scorpions (too),” Bruce Dickinson said in an interview with Eddie Trunk in 2021.
Bruce Dickinson said Van Der Graaf Generator was better than Genesis
Dickinson was deeply inspired by Van der Graaf Generator and believed they were far better than Genesis. Peter Hammill’s lyrics and vocal style influenced him greatly and he felt the band deserved far wider recognition. “It’d sound really fucking heavy… I mean, can you imagine “A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers” done by a real prog metal band, it’d be amazing.”
“(…) Peter Hammill was one of my childhood lyrical heroes. It’s such a shame (They are not that well known). Because they had so much more to them, I think, than Genesis. They were a bunch of pansies compared to Van Der Graaf, really,” Bruce Dickinson said, using a derogatory term, in an interview with Henrik Johansson in 1996.
Interestingly, besides the fact that Genesis and many other Progressive Rock bands were a big influence on Iron Maiden’s music, the two groups share another “connection”. They were among the few bands in the world that became even more successful after replacing the vocalist from their early albums.
After two acclaimed records, Iron Maiden fired Paul Di’Anno and replaced him with Bruce Dickinson, who took the band to another level with the release of “The Number of the Beast” in 1982. A few years before, Genesis had gone through a similar change when Peter Gabriel left the band and Phil Collins took over lead vocals. That change was crucial to transform Genesis into one of the best-selling groups of all time.
Bruce thinks Peter Gabriel’s third album is a masterpiece
Although Dickinson is not a big fan of Genesis even with Peter Gabriel, he loved the musician’s solo career. One of his favorite ones is the third record, released in 1980. “One of the albums I referenced (to my producer in the 90s) was Peter Gabriel’s third album, which I regarded, and still do, as a masterpiece,” he said in his autobiography “What Does This Button Do?”.
He had also praised that record in an interview with Metal Hammer in 2025. “One of my favourite albums is Peter Gabriel’s third solo album. Emotionally, it’s so dark and heavy. I thought, ‘Can I get that level of heaviness?’ (For solo album ‘Balls to Picasso’). We kicked out the Heavy Metal cliches and the crass stuff because I’d done it all,” he said.
That album has songs like “Intruder”, “No Self Control” and “Biko”. It had many other special guests like Robert Fripp (Guitar – King Crimson), Phil Collins (Drums – Genesis), Paul Weller (Guitar – The Jam) and Kate Bush (Backing vocals).
Genesis and Peter Gabriel, as a solo artist, have already been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Like Phil Collins, Iron Maiden have still not been inducted, even though they have been eligible for decades.
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