As we grieve the passing of one of the greatest voices in heavy metal, it's wise to savor those who still rock among us.
Few frontmen in metal loom as powerfully—and as instantly recognizable—as Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, who joined the band in 1981, replacing original singer Paul Di’Anno just as the British group’s galloping riffage and dystopian storytelling were poised to stand out from their peers.
With The Number of the Beast in 1982, Dickinson helped catapult the ferocious band to international stardom, thanks to his operatic tenor, which soared above Steve Harris’ nimble bass lines and the dual guitar attack of Adrian Smith and Dave Murray.
Despite the tight commotion behind him—and the unrelenting beats of Nicko McBrain—it was Dickinson’s voice that became the signature of the group's sound: commanding, precise, and theatrical.
“Scream for me, Long Beach,” the birthday boy demanded during the band’s four-night stand in March 1985, captured in Live After Death. And indeed, we screamed.
Born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England, on August 7, 1958, Dickinson has for decades been compared to the short list of hard rock and heavy metal frontmen who could truly bring it vocally: Ronnie James Dio, Rob Halford, Klaus Meine, Brian Johnson, and James Hetfield.
In many ways, he’s an amazing amalgam of all of them. But could any of them fly a widebody commercial jet?
Proving it's never too late to pick up a new hobby, Dickinson began learning to fly in the early 1990s and earned his commercial pilot’s license around 1999, when he was about 41 years old.
He first piloted Maiden’s tour plane—dubbed “Ed Force One,” after the band’s iconic half-dead mascot—during their 2008 Somewhere Back in Time world tour, a Boeing 757 for Astraeus Airlines, where he also worked as a captain.
The singer flew the group by day and rocked the stage at night with the same rigor and curiosity that led him to become a competitive fencer, a radio host, a beer brewer, and an author.
As he explained in his memoir, What Does This Button Do? “I was out of my comfort zone, a fish out of water. … You are never so alive as when learning something new and overcoming adversity.”
And because that wasn’t enough for his LinkedIn, Dickinson bested another challenge in 2015 when he was diagnosed with tongue cancer.
He beat it—naturally—and returned to the stage with no discernible loss in vocal power.
“I’d barely considered the question of whether I would sing again, which surprised me. I realised that I loved life above all else, and if singing was the price to pay then so be it," he wrote.
If anything, he sang with even greater fire in his belly and revenge in his eyes.
Happy birthday to one of the living legends of heavy metal: Bruce Dickinson.
