BRUCE DICKINSON On IRON MAIDEN's 2025 Tour: 'We're Gonna Be Doing Stuff We've Never, Ever Done Before'

British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN have released a video message from singer Bruce Dickinson in which he says goodbye to 2024 and "The Future Past" tour and says hello to 2025 and the "Run For Your Lives" tour.

He says (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Hello folks. This is my tour pass for 2024. That'll get me anywhere in 2024, but I don't need that anymore now because 2025 is gonna be something special. Not just because of the tour pass. Honestly, we are pushing the boat out with the tour. Not that I need to tell anybody, 'cause basically the tour is sold out already. So for those of you who have bought tickets, which is like all of you, it's gonna be really, really cool. I'm really looking forward to it. We're gonna be doing stuff we've never, ever done before, and it'll be a setlist for the ages. So, I'll see you there. And it's not gonna stop in 2025. It's gonna roll into 2026 'cause there's parts of the world that we need to get to that we can't get to in 2025. So there you go."

This past September, IRON MAIDEN promised fans "a spectacular and elaborate new show" on its 50th anniversary tour in 2025 and 2026.

The "Run For Your Lives" world tour starts in May 2025 in Hungary, with dates announced so far going through July 2025 in Germany.

Dickinson said IRON MAIDEN's 50th-anniversary tour will see him and his bandmates giving "fans a once-in-a-lifetime live experience. This is a tour that's gonna put a smile on your face and a cheer in your throat. If you've seen us before, then get ready to take that experience to a whole new level. If you've never seen us before, then what the hell have you been waiting for? Now's your chance to find out what you've been missing! IRON MAIDEN's definitely gonna get ya!"

MAIDEN said it will "cover classics and fan favorites from the first nine albums, from 'Iron Maiden' to 'Fear Of The Dark', many of which we haven't played in years and many we will likely never play again in the future. We have already been hard at work for months putting together an even more spectacular and elaborate new show which will bring the songs to life more than we have ever been able to do before."

"Fear Of The Dark" marked Dickinson's last album before he exited MAIDEN and then later returned in 1999.

Earlier this month, IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris spoke to Music Radar about the "Run For Your Lives" world trek. He said: "It's amazing that this band's been going for 50 years. When you really think about it, it's insane. How many songs we've done, how many albums, how many tours… it's outrageous. And it's fantastic to see so many young people in the audience now. A couple of shows that we did recently, we had youngsters, real youngsters, like nine or ten years old, and then some others like teens or early twenties. So we're still generating new fans all the time. And I think that's because we put on a good, entertaining show. We're still playing really well. And for all those young people turning up, I think a lot of them — dare I say it — I don't think they've seen anything like it. We're seeing all these young people in the front row, and they must think we're ancient now. Well, we are, I suppose. You know, when I was 17, I thought that 25 was old."

IRON MAIDEN's longtime drummer Nicko McBrain played his last-ever gig with the band earlier in the month in São Paulo, Brazil.

The 72-year-old British musician, whose real name is Michael Henry McBrain, announced his retirement on December 7 in a statement on MAIDEN's web site and social media. He also said that night's concert at Allianz Parque in São Paulo, Brazil would mark his final show with the iconic heavy metal act.

Despite the fact that he is stepping away from touring, McBrain said that he will remain closely connected to IRON MAIDEN and continue to be involved in "a variety of projects" with the band, while also focusing on personal ventures and his existing businesses.

On December 8, IRON MAIDEN announced Simon Dawson as its new touring drummer. Dawson is a former session drummer and Harris's longtime bandmate in BRITISH LION.

Back in 2019, Harris told SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" that there has been no talk of MAIDEN retiring anytime soon, despite the fact that all the members are in their late 60s.

"We all feel that if we feel we're not cutting it anymore, then we'll discuss it and that will probably be the end of it," he explained. "But at the moment, we don't feel like that. We feel that we definitely still are pulling our weight, so to speak. We're just doing well. So far so good. I don't wanna tempt fate, but we are doing good."

In 2022, Dickinson told Full Metal Jackie's nationally syndicated radio show about MAIDEN's longevity as well as the group's multigenerational appeal: "We're not planning to retire at all, really. I think we'll probably drop dead onstage. I can think of worse places to drop dead. But no, we're not planning on retiring. We're all still firing away [with] loads of energy and loads of enthusiasm.

"With respect to our fans, we've got generations of fans now," he continued. "Even at [my] spoken-word shows, I can crack jokes about the age of the audience only because half the audience is, like, my age, but the other half of the audience is often way, way younger. So it's brilliant. We've got this whole intergenerational thing going. And, obviously, at the MAIDEN shows, it's even bigger, the emphasis on that. And huge numbers of women. It's fantastic. 'Cause it always used to be cliché, back when I was starting in the early '80s, that heavy metal was just, like, misogynist, male-dominated stuff… But no, it's not true. There's loads and loads of heavy metal fans who are girls."

The São Paulo performance marked the final show of "The Future Past" world tour, which began in May 2023.