IRON MAIDEN’s Bruce Dickinson reveals how cancer affects the last album
IRON MAIDEN vocalist Bruce Dickinson told to behind story for the band’s latest album. He also reveals his 2015 cancer diagnosis and how this illness affects his voice.
In 2014, Dickinson announced that IRON MAIDEN was planning a 16th studio album. ‘The Book Of Souls’ album was recorded at the end of 2014. However, the album release date was delayed to allow Bruce Dickinson’s time to recover from the removal of a cancerous tumor. After that recovery and his returns band’s Steve Harris prior to ‘The Book Of Souls’ was released in September 2015. He also revealed that the album had been recorded before Bruce had been diagnosed due to cancer.
During a new interview with Kerrang!, IRON MAIDEN’s Bruce Dickinson revealed about his 2015 cancer diagnosis and how affects his voice:
“There was no inkling of any of it. He’d finished all his vocal bits completely anyway, and then there were some other bits and pieces we were doing. Really, we didn’t know anything – he didn’t show any signs at all. I mean his singing when you hear it… He’s singing better than ever. But I put it to the back of my mind until we’d finished the album.
Yeah, or I thought, ‘What if this changes your voice to such an extent you can’t sing like you used to?’ But you know, I thought, ‘If The Book Of Souls is the last thing I ever did that has that voice, I’d be a very happy bunny.’ I would be happy with this album being my voice’s last statement.”
Dickinson also added:
“In a way, it was purely accidental because we didn’t have any idea about the album order until we finished it. So we got to about track six and I went downstairs [in the studio] to Steve and went, ‘We either stop now or it’s a double album.’ We kind of had to shut Bruce Dickinson off because he was going off on one with it. I think it’s a masterpiece – I think I can say that because I didn’t write it!
It sounds like Maiden but it’s totally different from what we’ve done before. It’s certainly not boring, let’s put it that way! And there are still other long songs also. I was pinching myself for the first few shows back because none of us knew how it was going to sound, my voice.
I’d left it for 10 months or so, to let it rest and try to heal itself up. Unquestionably there were some things that had changed and it was difficult. You want to know what the deal is… you just had to open your gob and see what came out. If a bag of spanners fell out you’d think, ‘Oh shit.’”
You can listen to IRON MAIDEN – “Speed Of Light” song below.