Bruce Dickinson first achieved fame as the vocalist of Samson, band in which he was known as “Bruce Bruce”. He was the frontman of the group from 1979 until 1981 when he left them to join Iron Maiden. But he already knew Steve Harris’ band for years and the first time he saw them was when Samson and Maiden played on the same bill.
In an interview with Record Collector, the singer recalled the experience of seeing Maiden live and gave his opinion on Paul Di’Anno‘s singing in the early 80s. Di’Anno was their vocalist from 1978 to 1981 and recorded two studio albums: “Iron Maiden” (1980) and “Killers” (1981).
Bruce Dickinson’s opinion on Paul Di’Anno live in the early 80s
“The first time I saw Maiden was at what was then the Music Machine in Camden. Samson were headlining because our management had bankrolled the gig and said, ‘We want the top slot,’ although we didn’t really deserve it. That became obvious when Maiden came on, because the whole place was rammed.”
“I’d heard rumors about how good they were, and I thought I’d better see them. When they came out, I thought, ‘I’ve never seen Deep Purple, but this is what it must have felt like to see Deep Purple in their prime, rocking up a storm.'”
Bruce Dickinson continued:
“(Paul Di’Anno) he was okay, but he didn’t have a lot of flex to his voice. I thought his voice had come as far as it was going to get. I saw what the rest of the band were capable of straight away, and I remember thinking, ‘Good God, I’d love to front that band.’ And as soon as they finished playing, everybody in the venue left and we were headlining to about three people,” Bruce Dickinson said.
Bruce fronted Iron Maiden from 1981 to 1993, when he decided to leave to group to focus on his solo career. He rejoined the band six years later, in 1999 and never left again.
He never had a problem in performing songs from the Di’Anno era and also from the time Blaze Bayley replaced him in the 90s. The track “Iron Maiden” is especially one he performs frequently with the band.
Bruce recently released “The Mandrake Project”, his seventh solo studio album, the first one in almost two decades.