Everyone who listens to Iron Maiden knows who
Bruce Dickinson is. Some of those fans must have read his autobiography
What Does This Button Do? An Autobiography. Some must have read
Run to the Hills: Iron Maiden The Authorized Biography by Mick Wall. Some of these fans must have read everything they could soak up about the band behind "Up the Irons!" But, there may or may not be facts about their front man that you may or may not have known.
BTW, some of the facts mentioned are repeated in different orders
1. He is a fully licensed commercial pilot. He's been flying his own planes since the late 1990s, early 2000s. This started around the time of his album The Chemical Wedding. He mentioned that he had family in the RAF (Royal Air Force for those who may not know) and since finding out that, he developed an interest in aviation
2. His birth name was Paul Bruce Dickinson. Paul is his proper first name. The "Bruce" part came from his father, Bruce Dickinson Sr. In school, he obviously went by his proper first name of Paul, but when he went into music, he simply went by Bruce.
3. He was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England. For those familiar with the Legend of Robin Hood, this area is where the notorious Sheriff of Nottingham was said to be from. This area is actually a pretty big industrial area, lots of factories and mills and coal mines.
4. He has a Bachelor's Degree from the University of London. What his book, What
Does This Button Do? An Autobiography also mentions is that he attended Queen Mary College in London and received a degree in English and History.
5. Fans of Iron Maiden gave him the nickname "The Air Raid Siren" because of his incredibly powerful vocals, that, when he gets those vocals high enough, sounds like an air raid siren
6. He was married twice. His first wife was his college sweetheart Jane. His second wife, Paddy Bowden is the mother of their three kids: Austin, who is the lead singer of a successful metal band called As Lions, previously known as Rise to Remain, Griffin is the lead singer of a metal band called SHVPES and Kia Dickinson.
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| Griffin Dickinson, SHVPES |
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As Lions
Austin Dickinson is the one in the middle. Notice how much he looks like his father? |
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| Kia Dickinson and her proud father, who has apparently been dubbed "The World's Most Embarrassing Parent" by his son Austin |
7. In addition to being a highly qualified commercial airline pilot, he is more than qualified to fly passenger airplanes. Just imagine if there was a plane of people going somewhere on vacation and those people are Maiden fans and they hear Bruce Dickinson announce himself as one of their pilots taking them to their destination. That would probably make those fans' lives complete.
8. In 1977, he joined the band Speed, with a multi-talented musician named Paul "Noddy" White, who earned the nickname "Noddy" because of his resemblance to Noddy Holder from Slade
9. He goes by several nicknames: Air Raid Siren (because of his high-hitting vocals), Bruce Bruce (a result of a miscommunication between him and then Samson guitarist Paul Samson. Paul had asked Bruce what his second name was, you know, a last name. Bruce misheard it and thought Paul was asking his first name, so he said Bruce. Paul thought he said Bruce Bruce. Of course, Samson's management signed checks in that name to Bruce, making it near impossible for him to cash them).
10. 1990 saw the release of his first solo album, Tattooed Millionaire. Things at that point were going downhill since the 1986 album Somewhere in Time was released. Bruce was frustrated with the fact that he was writing just as many songs as bassist Steve Harris, yet his songs were being ignored because they were Bryan Adams-type songs and Spanish guitar type songs that Steve felt didn't belong in the band. At that point, he thought long and hard about a solo album. And to his luck, he was able to help his good friend Janick Gers, who was seriously thinking about selling his musical gear to go back to school to pursue a degree in humanities. He told Janick not to sell his stuff because an album was in the process and his services were required.
11. Bruce's first experience with music was when his parents bought him a small record of Chubby Checker's "The Twist"
12. Bruce worked on his pilot's license by flying commercially in Florida in the late 1990s, early 2000s
13. His mother Sonia was only 17 when she gave birth to Bruce. She was on a scholarship to a prestigious dance school, but got pregnant with Bruce, so she went to work in a shoe shop to support him. His father, Bruce Sr, was 18 had lost his driving license due to many incidents but had gotten it back after becoming a mechanic in the Army
14. Prior to singing, Bruce wanted to play drums like Ian Paice of Deep Purple, who is, to this day, still one of Bruce Dickinson's all time favorite bands
15. He is sometimes made fun of because of his height, which is 5'7''
16. At age five, he became a fan of The Beatles
17. In 1987, he attended the wedding of Marillion front man Fish
18. In his spare time, he wrote two adult-type graphic novels called
The Adventures of Lord Iffy Boatrace and
The Missionary Position19. He was recently upgraded to the position of Captain for flying the Boeing 757 series of jets for Britain-based airline Astraeus Airlines
20. 2011 saw him being awarded with an honorary music doctorate from Queen Mary College in London, for recognition of his "contribution to the music industry"
21. His 1997 album Accident of Birth was ranked #338 on the 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time by Rock Hard. The song "Accident of Birth" he sort of uses to describe himself because that's what he feels he is, an accident of birth. He said that his parents never meant to have a child, but he was born. Five years after he was born, his sister Helen was born and he says that "she was planned, I was an accident"
22. In 2015, Bruce underwent chemotherapy treatments for cancer of the head and neck, a very rare type of cancer. He had just finished recording his vocals for Iron Maiden's then album The Book of Souls. He had gone to the doctor and found out he had cancer after a growth was found on the back of his tongue
23. His first autobiography, written completely by him, called What Does This Button Do? An Autobiography, was released on 10/19/2017
24. From 2002-2010, he had his own rock and metal radio show on BBC Radio 6 Music
25. At age 13, his parents, now in a more financially stable position, had enrolled him in the private boarding school Oundle. It was here that he developed a love of heavy rock, specifically Deep Purple, after hearing it coming out of a speaker in a fellow student's room
26. He left the band Samson, then considered leading lights of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement, to join Iron Maiden in 1981. His first album with Iron Maiden was 1982's The Number of the Beast
27. When not flying around the world in airplanes, touring heavily with Iron Maiden or keeping his fencing skills up to par, he can be found hanging around West London, specifically the coffee shops of West London
28. When he first met Ian Gillan of Deep Purple, he was so nervous he threw up. One of his Samson bandmates had given him a drug to help him relax, as this had been Dickinson's first singing job. When he heard that Ian Gillan was around, he was so nervous that, due to a combination of nerves and side effects of drugs, he ran to the bathroom to throw up. Ian apparently, to this day, never lets Bruce forget it
29. In 1992, Bruce recorded a cover of an Alice Cooper song with TV character Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson)
30. When Bruce first joined Iron Maiden, he and bassist Steve Harris didn't get along. Bruce and Steve would battle for room on the stage and at one point Steve wanted Bruce out of the band.
