Heavy metal legends Iron Maiden have reflected on their blockbuster, 50-year career in a new interview ahead of the release of their imminent, feature-length documentary, Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition.
Speaking to The Guardian, the band dig into their deep history, from their early days in East London to the arrival of frontman Bruce Dickinson and the metal superstardom that followed.
Dickinson, who had made his name fronting fellow British metallers Samson and joined Maiden in 1981 following the dismissal of previous singer Paul Di'Anno, recalls the huge step-up his new role entailed. By that point, Maiden had already established themselves as one of the most exciting and fast-rising bands in the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal.
"It was like being a striker for the Conference and they say, 'Go and play front and centre for Man City,” Bruce says. “But I was grossly overconfident because I was 21 years old: ‘Of course I’m going to get the gig, because I can do exactly what you want and a whole lot more.’ I knew how ambitious Steve [Harris, Maiden bassist and band leader] was, and where he wanted to go with the music. It was obvious the band could be absolutely immense. I loved the fact that they were technically so accomplished as musicians...there were no limits, musically.”
Bruce's first album with the band, 1982's The Number Of The Beast, was a roaring critical and commercial success, and has since been widely recognised as one of the greatest metal albums of the 80s. While Steve Harris is nonchalant about the album's legacy, Bruce insists he knew immediately they were onto something special.
“When you go in with a batch of songs, you don’t necessarily think you’ve made a classic album,” Steve says. “I just think: well, we’ve made a bloody good album and people will either like it or they won’t.”
“Did we know it was special? Yeah, we did!" offers Bruce. "We’d stay in the studio afterwards listening back. We’d sit there drinking [80s beer brand] Watneys Party Sevens. We built a wall of those bloody things and we’d get home at four in the morning after we’d stopped recording at eight or nine. The rest of the time we were just sat there pinching ourselves going: 'Fucking hell, isn’t this great?'”
Iron Maiden will resume their Run For Your Lives world tour next month in Athens, Greece, hitting venues across Europe, North America, South and Central America, Australasia and Asia as the year rolls on, finishing up in Japan in November before taking a year off.
Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition hits cinemas on May 7. You can read more from Iron Maiden in a special edition issue of Classic Rock magazine featuring exclusive interviews with Steve Harris, Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith. The magazine comes with the official movie poster and an exclusive EddFest Eddie sticker, on sale Wednesday April 29.
