In a recent interview with Sakis Fragos of Rock Hard Greece, Bruce Dickinson discussed his forthcoming solo album, ‘The Mandrake Project,’ and expressed regret over his choice of words towards an Iron Maiden fan at a past concert, stating he should have chosen his insult more carefully.
The incident happened on July 16, 2022, during an Iron Maiden concert at the Olympic Stadium. Dickinson got upset when he saw a flare go off while they were starting their tenth song, ‘The Number of the Beast.’ He worried the smoke might harm his ability to sing and said:
“The c*nt with the f*cking flare, I’ve gotta sing up here. You f*cking c*cksucker. You Greek c*nt. All right. I’ve gotta f*cking sing. All right. F*ck you.
While his bandmates played the start of ‘The Number of the Beast,’ Bruce quickly left the stage, hoping the smoke would go away. But when he came back and started singing again, he was noticeably out of sync with the band. Addressing this incident, he shared the following in a new chat:
“Oh, the guy swinging his thing and everything else. You know what? I probably got his nationality wrong [Laughs]. I just lost my temper because it was such… That activity that a very, very small minority of people do is so selfish and so disturbing. They think it’s really cool. Actually, it’s not about the band. It’s not about the audience.”
The vocalist continued, further explaining his discontent about the situation:
“It’s about them drawing attention only to themselves and damaging the people around them who have this thing, this extremely toxic thing flying around. Of course, if you happen to be asthmatic, if you haven’t been having any lung conditions, ‘Oh, we don’t care about them. We’ll just fill the place with smoke, ’cause it makes me feel important,’ is their attitude. It just annoys the hell out of me. Anyway, yeah, I lost my temper. I shouldn’t have called him a Greek c*nt; I should have just called him a c*nt [Laughs].”