BRUCE DICKINSON Wants IRON MAIDEN To 'Replace' Him If He Is No Longer Able To Sing

IRON MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dickinson says that he wants the band to replace him if it turns out that he can't sing anymore.

He told the Daily Star 's "Wired" column: "If tomorrow I don't feel able to sing more than four songs a night, I'd like the guys to continue and I should be able to choose my replacement. I would stick my head in from time to time and the other singer would do the rest.

"When you look at Keith Richards, who suffers from arthritis, he's not on top form every night but he’s supported by other guitarists," he continued. "It's THE ROLLING STONES. I don't think it upsets anyone. In any case, everything I've said isn't going to happen."

Bruce also dismissed the idea of one day performing as ABBA-style hologram replicas.

"That's hell on earth," he said. "I really don't understand the point of it."

When Dickinson left IRON MAIDEN in 1992, the job went to WOLFSBANE vocalist Blaze Bayley, an odd choice considering that Blaze's singing voice is quite clearly a baritone in contrast to Bruce's tenor/alto range.

Bayley recorded two studio albums with IRON MAIDEN — 1995's "The X Factor" and 1998's "Virtual XI" — before Dickinson returned to the group. The MAIDEN albums Blaze appeared on sold considerably less than the band's prior releases and were their lowest-charting titles in the group's home country since 1981's "Killers".

Five years ago, Dickinson told the "Do You Know Jack?" radio show that he was surprised when MAIDEN chose Bayley as his replacement.

"I really like Blaze," he said. "I like him just as a human being. He's a lovely guy. I remember going to the management offices and there was a guy, he doesn't work for management anymore, but he was telling me how great this whole thing was and how brilliant it was going to be. I said, 'Look, he's got this great gig. Of course, he's going to take the job. He's been offered the job. Of course, he's going to take it.' I said, 'Has anybody given any thought to where he's going to go with the old stuff? Has anyone given any thought to how he is going to manage it? Not just singing, but how are you going to deal with the fan reaction?' Because I was surprised it was Blaze. I was delighted for Blaze, but there was a whole bunch of other really good singers out there. I thought 'Wow, they could have picked somebody with a voice that could do what my voice did.' But they picked Blaze. Obviously, they picked somebody different, but that came with its own set of challenges. I just wondered whether anybody in the management was really giving anybody any serious words of truth on how hard this could be."

IRON MAIDEN kicked off the 2022 leg of its "Legacy Of The Beast" world tour on May 22 at the 22,000-capacity Arena Zagreb in Zagreb, Croatia. It marked the band's first live appearance in 31 months.

MAIDEN opened the set with "Senjutsu", the title track of its latest studio album, and followed it up with two more songs from the same LP, "Stratego" and "The Writing On The Wall".

Other tracks aired during MAIDEN's performance included "Revelations", "Blood Brothers", "Sign Of The Cross", "Flight Of Icarus", "Fear Of The Dark", "Hallowed Be Thy Name", "The Number Of The Beast" and "Iron Maiden".

MAIDEN also played two encores, consisting of "The Trooper", "The Clansman", "Run To The Hills" and the closing track of the night, "Aces High".

Prior to the Zagreb concert, IRON MAIDEN hadn't performed live in two and a half years — since the completion of its South American tour in October 2019.