Bruce Dickinson on Iron Maiden's new album, coming back from cancer and life in the pandemic.

Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson talks with Lyndsey Parker about the band's new album, making music in the pandemic and recovering from tongue cancer.

Video Transcript

LYNDSEY PARKER: So I'll just jump into it. So I know that this album, your 17th album, "Senjutsu--" am I pronouncing it right? "Senjutsu?"

BRUCE DICKINSON: Yeah. You can say it how you want.

LYNDSEY PARKER: Well, I know you recorded it, like, in early 2019, you know, obviously, before the pandemic and whatever. And I'm wondering if any of the-- the songs kind of resonate more now, you know, now that it's coming out, you know, almost two years later in 2021. Because you know, there's songs like, you know, "Days of Future Past," "Darkest Hour," "Hell on Earth," you know-- titles that are, you know, kind of appropriate for the world we're in now.

BRUCE DICKINSON: So-- so yes, there are some songs. I mean, obviously, you know, you mentioned "Hell on Earth," I think Steve sometimes feels very kind of alienated by some of the things going on in what purports to be the modern world, you know? So the sentiment of that song very much, you know what? This kind of sucks, this place. So if-- if I end up kicking the bucket and departing this-- this-- this planet then, you know, maybe when I come back, it'll be another time, a parallel universe, and everything is going to be cool again, you know?

LYNDSEY PARKER: I understand you had a positive COVID-19 diagnosis. Obviously you're OK. You wouldn't be doing this interview with me now, you know?

BRUCE DICKINSON: I'm absolutely fine.

LYNDSEY PARKER: Which I'm so happy to hear about.

BRUCE DICKINSON: I'm absolutely fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I never doubted I would be. I mean, it's like, you know, look, everybody I know has had both jabs, right. I'm quite happy about it. You know, none of us have started growing extra heads, suddenly wanting to sidle up to 5G phone masts, or expressed a willingness to go down on Bill Gates, so all of these things, you know, I think is largely a myth. And yeah, so I'm-- I'm absolutely fine, and--

LYNDSEY PARKER: Good to know.

BRUCE DICKINSON: I do honestly find it incredible that some people are still resistant, but that's OK. You know, they-- it's a personal-- it's a personal--

LYNDSEY PARKER: Resistant to getting vaccinated, you mean, or wearing masks, or--

BRUCE DICKINSON: Resisting getting vaxxed-- oh yeah, resistant-- I mean, the mask thing I genuinely do not understand. It doesn't mean you have to go wear masks everywhere all the time, but it's just that kind of awareness. Clearly, you know, they-- they-- they do help. And if they do help, then why not? I mean, what is this craziness about it? I don't understand it. Not a big deal, quite frankly. You know, there are much more weird things you could get upset about, which are probably quite serious, you know?

LYNDSEY PARKER: So you-- you were vaccinated, and I know that obviously--

BRUCE DICKINSON: Of course, yeah.

LYNDSEY PARKER: Yeah. But-- so I think it's an important message that even though you did have a breakthrough case, it could have been quite serious had you not been vaccinated.

BRUCE DICKINSON: Yeah. I mean-- right. So-- and most people that have been vaccinated and get a case and-- what is almost certainly the, you know, the Delta variant, because it's 100% the dominant variant pretty much everywhere, right? So the people who are, you know, these-- these skeptics will go, oh yeah, yeah, but you still got it! I said, yeah, I did still get it, you know.

My belief is, and I stress, you know, it's a belief, because I can't prove that I wouldn't have been more sick if I'd not taken the vaccine. There's no proof of that. The only reason I'd prove that is if I didn't take the vaccine and got very, very sick, and then I'd be able to go to all these vaccine skeptics and go, there you are.

You see? I told you I was right. I'm really sick. You know? I mean, there's no arguing people like that, because their facts are based on different facts to the rest of us. I don't think it's anything to do with politics. I don't think--

LYNDSEY PARKER: I was about to say that.

BRUCE DICKINSON: No.

LYNDSEY PARKER: I think it's interesting that some people politicized it, because I don't understand how it could be a political issue which-- regardless of where your politics are.

BRUCE DICKINSON: No, I don't think it's-- I don't think people believe things like this because of politics. I think it's-- they believe it because of their psychological makeup. They have a need to believe in these things. And in fact, it's the same as people who go and sit on top of a mountain every year and wait for the world to end.

LYNDSEY PARKER: [LAUGHS]

BRUCE DICKINSON: And-- and-- and the world doesn't end, but do they modify their beliefs? Actually, no. It strengthens them that yep, we were right all along. It is definitely going to end, just not this year. You see? The rest of the world-- the rest of the world is against us. You know?

LYNDSEY PARKER: Mm-hmm.

BRUCE DICKINSON: And that's the way that some people think. It's their mentality. And you're probably not going to change that, you know, but for the rest of us, I would say, just get vaccinated. And if you do get sick, you won't get very sick. It'll just be like a mild case of the flu.

LYNDSEY PARKER: As a-- as a cancer survivor, were you concerned about your immunity? Do you have compromised immunity? Is that a concern when you go out on tour for "Senjutsu?"

BRUCE DICKINSON: No.

LYNDSEY PARKER: Do you have to take special precautions?

BRUCE DICKINSON: No, no, no. No, I don't. No. I mean-- I mean, the first thing that happened when I got done with my chemo and radiotherapy-- incidentally, one or two people I've met-- I've no doubt that these are probably, you know, anti-vaxxers-- but one or two people when they found out that I was having chemo and radiotherapy for my, you know, for my cancer, they went, oh my god.

You're not doing that. [INAUDIBLE] Oh, you're really taking a chance there. I went, actually, no. I'm really taking a chance-- what, do you think I should like, eat more cabbage? You know, I mean, that's going to get rid of it? And I went, no. So medical technology worked really well for me.

LYNDSEY PARKER: Your voice sounds amazing on this record, and a lot of the songs on "Senjutsu" are super long. They're like, 11 minutes, 12 minutes, eight minutes. Your voice sounds amazing, peak of its powers as always. It's like 1981 all over again.

BRUCE DICKINSON: It's a bit worrying, isn't it? I waited 63 years to get to the peak of my powers. I must be [BLEEP] [INAUDIBLE]

LYNDSEY PARKER: You've been-- no, you've been steadily there--

BRUCE DICKINSON: [LAUGHS]

LYNDSEY PARKER: --for 40-some years. It's just never-- but-- but I mean--

BRUCE DICKINSON: Sorry, no. I'm taking the piss.

LYNDSEY PARKER: No, I appreciate it.

BRUCE DICKINSON: I'm fishing for compliments, you know?

LYNDSEY PARKER: I'm giving you them.

BRUCE DICKINSON: [LAUGHS]

LYNDSEY PARKER: I'm taking the bait. I don't, obviously, know much about tongue cancer, but I guess, just, I would assume that would affect one's vocals. So tell me about that.

BRUCE DICKINSON: You know, it's [INAUDIBLE]. I had a-- just a three and a half centimeter-- basically a golf ball living down the-- the base of my tongue, right down the base, you know. You can't sort of see it, you know. So that-- that was-- that was sitting there for-- I really don't know how long. I don't know if it grew quickly, slowly or whatever. But by the time it got big enough to notice, you know.

But I did a whole album with that sort of sitting there. When it went away, there's-- I guess there's a lot more space for the sound to come out. [LAUGHS]

LYNDSEY PARKER: Oh, OK.

BRUCE DICKINSON: Not to put too fine a point on it, you know? There's no more obstruction in the way, you know, so yeah. The high notes, it was like, wow. Wow, there's a, you know, a lot more horsepower in some of the high notes, you know. It's quite interesting.

LYNDSEY PARKER: So am I understanding you correctly that there was a silver lining to this, that it actually like, in the long run, like, helped your singing?

BRUCE DICKINSON: Yeah. I mean, obviously, I would have preferred it had it not happened.

LYNDSEY PARKER: Not happened, yeah. I can understand that.

BRUCE DICKINSON: But yeah, there's-- there's-- you know, there's-- there's always-- there's always-- somewhere there's always-- there's always a way you can turn things into being a positive. I mean, even if the worst had happened to my-- you know, it had completely messed with my voice to the extent that it had, you know, changed completely, you have to take that and go, well, what am I?

Am I just like some squeaky toy that makes-- makes noises? And if I don't make those noises, then I can't be an artist anymore. Or you sort of go, well, take a look at some great singers who have very unconventional voices. I mean, I'm thinking of somebody like, sort of like Leonard Cohen.

LYNDSEY PARKER: I was about to say, like Leonard Cohen?

BRUCE DICKINSON: Yeah, exactly like Leonard Cohen. I'm thinking, you know, there's a man who self-confessed, he was like, I have like, virtually no voice. He said-- yeah, but because you're such a great communicator, because you're such a great-- the content of what you do is-- it comes through your voice. You know, you don't have to be an opera singer, you know, to go do that, you know. And so there's-- there's ways that-- there's ways and means, you know? Like the line in the-- the line in "Jurassic Park," you know? You know, "nature will always find a way."

LYNDSEY PARKER: Was that something you were, at one point, concerned about? That you would have to retrain things or sing in a different way?

BRUCE DICKINSON: Sort of like, early May, and I started trying to sing, and it sounded absolutely terrible.

LYNDSEY PARKER: Aww.

BRUCE DICKINSON: And I sounded like some wounded beast. I was just like, oh my god. So I waited another two, three months, where I was like, wandering around the kitchen waiting till everybody had gone out and just started to give it a bit of a-- give the voice a bit of a workout.

I went, OK, let's have a go at the top of that-- actually, "Run to the Hills," I went, oh, oh, oh, there they are. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Oh my god, it's going to be OK. And then just relax, because I'm not in a hurry now.

LYNDSEY PARKER: That's awesome.

BRUCE DICKINSON: You know, I know it's all there. It's come back. It's all there.

[MUSIC PLAYING]