Why Bruce Dickinson Won’t Talk Much on Iron Maiden Tour
Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson said he won’t be talking to audiences during shows on their next tour as often as he did on the last one.
The metal icons have announced European dates for their Legacy of the Beast run, with U.S. dates expected soon. The run follows their two-year Book of Souls World Tour in support of their 2015 album of that name.
DIckinson said the change in performance approach was partly because the band isn't promoting a new album but performing material from throughout its career instead. “When you do a show like we’re planning to do, I want it to be really slick, but awesome,” he told Kerrang in a new interview. "I want people to go, ‘Wow! Fucking hell, you’ve gotta see this show!’ I want people to be surprised as well. I want them to go home going, ‘Fucking hell, I can’t believe they played that song!’ That’s the reaction I want."
He explained that when the band is on the road promoting an album, "You can take time to be a bit goofy with people and for them to digest it and what have you. On the Book of Souls tour there was quite a lot of chatting with the audience. I’m not planning that on this tour because we’ve got so much to do and there’s so much going on. The show and the music is gonna carry the whole bloody thing. I’m pretty intimately involved in the show. There’ll be a couple of moments of chat with the audience, but it should be completely self-explanatory what’s going on – the drama should be in the transitions of the stage and the music.”
Dickinson predicted Maiden would deliver some surprises that would create “social media madness after the first show.” “I’m looking at the show as something that should certainly exceed what we did on the Book of Souls tour, and I’m approaching things a slightly different way. I’m approaching some of the songs a slightly different way. I’m conscious that over the years we’ve fallen into a little groove with some songs, so I want to try to shake that groove up a little bit. … I’m already walking through it in my mind and going, ‘Where can I input those moments of meaning? To shift people’s perceptions?’”