IRON MAIDEN's BRUCE DICKINSON: 'I Don't See Any Reason Why We Should Ever Retire'

IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson was recently interviewed on "Late Motiv", the Spanish late-night talk show hosted by Andreu Buenafuente. You can now watch the chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On whether IRON MAIDEN is thinking about retiring:

Bruce: "As far as I'm concerned anyway, I don't see any reason why we should ever retire. As an airline captain, I was always told that nobody ever dies on an airplane. Even if the guy's head is severed from his body, he's not dead, because if the boss, the captain… If somebody says, 'The guy's head has fallen off.' 'Well, is he dead?' 'Well, he's not dead until somebody legally says he's dead.' So, nobody dies until somebody stands up and says, 'Yup. He's definitely dead.' 'Ha! You're responsible then. You killed him.' So, it's the same with rock and roll bands. We will never die. Even if we are actually dead, we will still never actually die."

On the legend that he was invited to join the British Olympic fencing team but declined due to IRON MAIDEN's touring commitments:

Bruce: "When you're a pop star, rock star, whatever, people like to make up stories about you that are not a hundred percent true. I was okay as a fencer. If you want the reality of it, I was No. 7 in the country. The Olympic team is No. 1, 2 and 3. No. 7 is not No. 3. So to say that I was gonna be on the Olympic team — no. It's not gonna happen. Would I like to be on the Olympic team? Yeah. Sure. The blazers look really nice. The tracksuit is pretty cool."

On flying IRON MAIDEN around on the band's own plane:

Bruce: "Everybody thinks that… When we had the big airliners with IRON MAIDEN, they say, 'Where is the IRON MAIDEN plane today?' And I say, 'Well, we haven't got an IRON MAIDEN plane.' There's an expression: if it flies, floats or fornicates, rent it. And we rented it. We rented the airplane. And I worked for the airline for nearly 10 years that we rented the airplane from. 'Cause I worked as a full-time airline pilot. I had six and a half thousand hours of jet flying, taking people on holiday. They never came back. [Laughs]

"By the time I was flying the band around, I had already been flying lots of other people around. I flew the British government around, I flew the heads of various African countries around, I flew two hundred and 20 people on holiday going wherever. So if it was okay with them, it was pretty much okay with the band, I think. And it kept me away from drinking myself to death as well. Tea and coffee — that's about it, really."

On IRON MAIDEN's lyrics:

Bruce: "We write songs about death, resurrection, war, famine, plague, but it makes everybody happy. What could possibly go wrong? I mean, you come along and see one of our shows, and you get everything on display. The most recent tour we had took place in three acts, if you like, during the show. We had war, which brings out both the best and the worst aspects of humanity. There's all the drama there in war. And then we move on to religion, which brings out the best and the worst aspects of humanity. And then we go to, after religion, of course, you end up in hell, which brings out all the best and all the worst aspects of humanity. 'Cause let's face it: where are all the really cool people gonna be? If you're gonna have a party, where is it gonna be? It's gonna be in hell. Anybody who's had any fun is gonna be down there… As AC/DC said, 'Hell ain't a bad place to be.'"

IRON MAIDEN will embark on the next leg of the "Legacy Of The Beast" tour in July. MAIDEN's 2019 North, South and Central America tour comprises 41 shows in six countries, which, combined with the band's 2018 European dates, means that by the end of this tour, the band will have taken the "Legacy Of The Beast" show to over one and three quarters of a million fans around the globe.