BRUCE DICKINSON On People Becoming Obsessed With Recording Their Lives On Their Phones: 'It's Like A Failing Of Humanity'

During a recent appearance on the Appetite For Distortion podcast, IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson lamented the fact that so many people have become so obsessed with recording their lives on their phones — to relive it later and receive "likes" and "followers" — that they are not really living in the present anymore. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Look, in so many ways I wish the camera on those things had never been invented. But it has been invented. It's now a kind of infestation, is the way I would describe it. It's like some terrible disease, that people feel the need to look at the world through this stupid little device. And so it's like a failing of humanity, basically. You're surrendering your senses completely to this little fascist in your hand. And put it down, put it in your pocket and look around you. Look at the people, look at the joy, look at the band, feel the emotion, feel the music. What a phone does, it cuts all of that off. And so I feel sad. I also feel pissed off, because as a performer, it's, like, I want to perform for an audience of people that have some emotional feedback — not a bunch of like Android twerps."

Referencing IRON MAIDEN's request for fans to put their phones away while attending concerts on the British heavy metal legends' recently launched "Run For Your Lives" world tour, Dickinson added: "People who are real music fans, I think, understand, and I think they're getting better about it. They understand what's going on. I went to see the GHOST show [in San Diego in early August] and it was a no-phone show [with attendees maintaining possession of their phones at all times, secured in Yondr pouches], and so all the phones are in baggies. Oh my God — the difference. It was astonishing. The atmosphere — it was, 'Wow.' I mean, really, really noticeable. Even the way people behaved with each other, interacted with each other — not looking at the band, just being civil to each other, talking to each other was different."
Other acts, such as TOOL, have also employed a similar approach as IRON MAIDEN, requesting fans stay off their phones until the final song of their set.

In an interview with SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", Dickinson was asked if he noticed, during the recently completed European leg of MAIDEN's "Run For Your Lives" tour, that most MAIDEN fans respected the band's request to put away their phones during the shows. Dickinson said: "Yeah. It depends on different places, different attitudes and things like that. In general, I'd say that the real diehard fans, who are basically all the people who are down the front, respected it and they got it. So, yeah, most of them respected it. And it was blindingly obvious when there was one person or something in the middle of a whole bunch of people and he was having his phone [out and filming], and you could see people going, 'Hey, hey, hey. What are you doing? Come on. Put it away. We're trying to have fun here. It's not all about you.'

"So, yeah, it's one of those things that will go on and on and on, but I think at a certain point, a band becomes too big that it's very difficult to make it work physically," Bruce explained. "You've got fifty thousand people — that's tough to make it work. Fifty thousand people outdoors, it's, like, come on. You don't wanna get to the point where you're feeling like there's some sort of guards at some concentration camp looking to see if the guy's got his phone out. There's that fine line."

In July, Bruce was asked by Charlie Kendall of Charlie Kendall's Metalshop if putting away the phone is "a requirement now to attend" an IRON MAIDEN show. Bruce clarified: "It's not a requirement. It's a request. It's a polite request.  What is the point in paying all this money and turning up and staring at a tiny little box for, like — I don't know — however long. I mean, first of all, MAIDEN's show is two and a bit hours long, so your arm's gonna get real tired."

This past May, MAIDEN manager Rod Smallwood took to the band's web site to share a post titled "Put away your phones and get ready to Run For Your Lives!" in which he urged fans to experience the shows "in the moment" rather than on smaller screens at a later date.

"We really want fans to enjoy the shows first hand, rather than on their small screens," Smallwood wrote. "The amount of phone use nowadays diminishes enjoyment, particularly for the band who are on stage looking out at rows of phones, but also for other concertgoers.

"We feel that the passion and involvement of our fans at shows really makes them special, but the phone obsession has now got so out of hand that it has become unnecessarily distracting especially to the band. I hope fans understand this and will be sensible in severely limiting the use of their phone cameras out of respect for the band and their fellow fans."

Less than two weeks later, Smallwood called out fans for their concert phone etiquette, thanking those who "kept their phones down" and respecting "the band and their fellow fans" and shading those who didn't obey during the opening show of the European leg of MAIDEN's "Run for Your Lives" tour.

"It is so much better when they can see you unencumbered and that drives them on without that distraction," he wrote of the band. "For the selfish few that didn't and just had to keep videoing... I wish you nothing but a very sore arm!"

Smallwood clarified that the concerts don't need to be completely phone-free. "As I said before, by all means take the odd quick pic as a memento of a great night," he added, "but otherwise please keep your phone in your pocket."

MAIDEN's request for fans to put away their phones came just months after GHOST enacted a phone ban for anyone attending shows on their ongoing "Skeletour".