Iron Maiden‘s legendary vocalist, Bruce Dickinson, faced a throat cancer diagnosis last decade, fearing he might never sing again. While battling the disease, he thought that if he couldn’t continue, he’d help find his own replacement, believing that the music is more important than any individual member. He talked about that in an interview with Rich Roll.
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Bruce Dickinson says he’d help find his replacement if he lost his voice
“When I had throat cancer (a decade ago), the last thing on my mind was, would I ever sing again? The first thing on my mind is, am I gonna get through this and be alive? And the last thing on my mind was would I ever sing again? And I thought, ‘Well, we’ll get to that stage when I’m done and we start trying to sing.'”
“I was quite prepared to accept that I might not be able to sing with Iron Maiden again. I might be able to sing, I might be able to vocalize, I might be able to sing in a different way, but if I couldn’t sing the way I have to sing with Iron Maiden, I’ll help them find a great replacement. Because the music is sacrosanct.”
“The manufacture bit comes from only in the sense that we didn’t all grow up on the same street. And in actual fact, bands that all grow up in the same street together, or families that play together, that could be a recipe for implosion. I mean, I know Oasis have just gotten back together and doing it, but my God, how difficult was that?”
He continued:
“The two brothers and… So we all get together, but the music is the single point of contact that is the most important thing for all of us. If I couldn’t do it, if I couldn’t do what I do now effectively, I would be the first one to say, ‘You know what? It’s time I retired from singing for Iron Maiden and did something else.’ Stack shelves or something. Because I have too much pride on the line to go out there…”
“I was speaking to a fan the other day, and they said, ‘Oh, it’s great you guys are all still back together.’ I said, yeah, we’re all still back together because we’re fierce and the music is still as good, if not better in some respects, than we played it 20 or 30 years ago,” Bruce Dickinson said.
Iron Maiden is currently doing the last shows of the Future Past tour and in 2025 they will celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary.
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