In a wide-ranging, career-spanning interview in the new issue of Classic Rock magazine, Bruce Dickinson revisits his decision to rejoin Iron Maiden in 1999, and states that, at the time, he promised the band that they would "sweep away the past by doing an amazing future."
It was Maiden's manager Rod Smallwood who first proposed the idea of Dickinson rejoining the band following Steve Harris' decision to part company with Blaze Bayley in January 1999. The singer made it known that he would be open to discussing the idea, and agreed to meet with Harris, Smallwood and his former bandmates at Smallwood's home in Brighton for exploratory talks. Harris has subsequently admitted that he wasn't initially convinced that welcoming the group's prodigal son back into the fold was the way forward - "Rod was being his bombastic, bullying best, ’cause he knew I wasn’t into it at all" he confessed - and, as Dickinson tells Classic Rock's Mark Blake, the bassist made little attempt to mask his scepticism.
"Steve was very suspicious," the singer admits. "He said: 'Why do you wanna come back?' I actually said [laughing], I want to come back, Steve, because, in the words of my mates, ‘the world needs Iron Maiden’, and secondly I think we can make amazing music."
