BRUCE DICKINSON Says IRON MAIDEN Doesn't Rely On 'Established Media' For Support

Hudson Union recently conducted an interview with IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson. You can now watch the entire chat in 12 parts on YouTube.

Asked how IRON MAIDEN became one of the most successful bands in the world with very little radio and TV support, Bruce said: "The only I'd add to that is 'today.' Because we're more successful now than we have ever been.

"Everybody asks me, 'What is the secret?' Like there is a secret. And actually, there is no secret," he continued. "The secret is hiding in plain sight. What you do is you take your fans and you add to them. And the way you add to them is by engaging with them, by going out and touring, and then you do whatever you do with integrity, you tell them the truth, and you do your best to deliver interesting, new music, which keeps things alive. And then that's what you do. Simples. That's it. That's all there is. You develop a relationship with your fans.

"Okay, how do you have a relationship with 20,000 people? Well, you go out and you play to them a few times, and so they feel they know you. Social media, actually, in the case of IRON MAIDEN, helps us to maintain that relationship. And, in fact, they're maintaining the relationship within the fan community, 'cause they all talk to each other about, 'I saw them at this show and they did this,' and, 'Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was different to when I saw them last week. They didn't do that.' So they talk frequently — we know that, because every time we screw up, they tell us — and you take it on the chin when you do screw up. So if you decide to go and sell a t-shirt which falls apart the first time you wash it, you know about it pretty soon. We don't do that, by the way, but there are people that do, and they're not as big as IRON MAIDEN, and there's a reason why. But that's what we do."

Dickinson added: "We don't rely on established media and haven't done for some considerable period of time. Because established media, by and large, is only looking after itself and its own ratings, so it has no altruistic intent at all by and large. That's a big change from 30 years ago when radio stations had DJs who actually were interested in the music that they played as opposed to being interested in the ratings and the advertising that the station generated. There's a big difference between those two things. And the same thing with public broadcasting and television and things like that. It's quite a rarity to find a journalist that's actually interested in the intrinsic quality of the band or the music. There tends to be an agenda somewhere."

Dickinson's autobiography, "What Does This Button Do?", last month landed at No. 10 on the New York Times "Hardcover Nonfiction" best sellers list. It was released in the U.S. on October 31 via Dey Street Books (formerly It Books),an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Following the massively successful global tour of 2016-17 in support of its 16th studio album, "The Book Of Souls", IRON MAIDEN will take to the road again in 2018 with a series of arena and festival shows in Europe on the "Legacy Of The Beast" world tour, opening in Tallinn, Estonia on May 26 and finishing at the O2 Arena, London on August 10.