IRON MAIDEN Singer Interviewed In New Zealand; Video Available

February 19, 2009

IRON MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dickinson has told New Zealand's 3 News that he has seen three generations of fans grow up on their music.

"These are all young kids," he says. "Yeah, I'm sure there's guys my age down the back saying ''Number of the Beast', I saw that in '82 mate,' but for most of the kids down there it's brand new and it's really exciting, and that's what makes it really exciting for us. 'Cause frankly, if we went out on stage and saw mirror images of us staring back at us, we'd be going, 'God, who are all these old codgers, who let these guys in?' but you see a bunch of 16-year-old kids and it's musical Viagra, you know."

IRON MAIDEN touched down in Auckland last night in the band's own private 757 airliner, personally piloted by Dickinson. Flying planes is Dickinson's day job. When he is not fronting IRON MAIDEN, he is a commercial pilot for Astraeus Airlines.

"The one thing I liked when I started flying aeroplanes, when you walk away from the aeroplane and you close the door, that's it — job done, your job is over," says Dickinson. "Nobody follows you up and says you've got an interview at three, and I thought wow, amazing people have lives like that. The one thing with rock 'n' roll is that you're never off-duty."

Dickinson's wake up call came back in 1982 after IRON MAIDEN's first hit album.

"Last night of the tour in Japan and I was really drunk, and I was crawling on my hands and knees down the hotel corridor and I was really hungry, and there was those old room service trays outside doors...I thought, 'What are you doing? You've turned into some feral critter,' and I thought, 'Is this the rest of your life? Is this like groundhog day?' And I thought, 'If you're gonna survive the next 10 years with something intact, you've got to figure out some alternative outside of this world.'"

But being in the band is what keeps this 50-year-old on top of the world.

"That's life," says Dickinson. "You definitely know you're alive when you're on stage in front of 12,000 people."

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