BRUCE DICKINSON Was 'Done' With The Lockdown After The First Year

In a new interview with Las Vegas Weekly, IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson was asked how he handled lockdown. He responded: "I had just done two spoken-word show in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and that was the weirdest experience, because they were doing simultaneous translation of a semi-comedic show. You'd say what approximates to a punchline and get no response. Then you go, 'Anyway, on Tuesday,' and they'd bust out laughing. There was a 30-second lag on the laughter.

"I went from there back to Paris where I was staying with my partner, Leana," he continued. "I got back on Saturday, and then the president of France comes on the TV and says, 'Tonight, midnight, all bars are shut.' I went, holy cow, let's go out and get a beer quick. So we all go out to all the bars and then we went home. We were like, this is weird. I guess this is lockdown.

"The weather was nice," Bruce added. "I scrubbed our little balcony and started cooking and we would make breakfast on the balcony. It was sunny and we were doing little workouts and moving the furniture and watching TV, so life kind of slowed down. At first, I was, like, "I'm going to be bored,' but then I was, like, 'No. I kind of like life slowing down. It's not so bad.' Then, after a year of it, I was, like, 'I'm done with this now.' And now I'm really done with it. I've been vaccinated, had COVID, been boosted. Enough. Let's get on with it."

Dickinson, who tested positive for COVID-19 in August after being fully vaccinated, told the 103.5 The Fox radio station that he doesn't believe "people should be forced to have vaccines. Maybe in hospitals and stuff like that — people who work there," he said. "But honestly, it's a personal decision. But I just think people are nuts not to take protective action against something that really could kill them.

"It's not a nice bug," Bruce added. "It's not the flu — trust me. I've had it, and I had two vaccines, and I'm really glad I had the two vaccines. And I'm kind of glad I had [COVID-19] as well 'cause now I've got more antibodies and all the rest of it. But it is not a nice bug. And I know a lot of people who have had it and who've still got long COVID — like, 22, 23 [years old]. Fit people — none of this, 'Oh, yeah, he died 'cause he was 85 and he was sick anyway.' Well, yeah, there is that. But there's a lot of people getting it. It's not a nice bug. And it's not the flu — it's way more contagious than that."

Long COVID is described as symptoms continuing for more than 12 weeks after an infection — severe or mild — which can't be explained by another cause.

Dickinson previously told Rolling Stone magazine that he doesn't personally believe that fans attending concerts should be required to get vaccinated, calling it "a personal choice," However, he said that he hopes everyone will get the shot. "Personally, I think people are just very badly advised if they don't go and get themselves double jabbed as quickly as possible, not for the reasons of going into concerts, but for their own health," he said. "Having said that, even if you've had a double jab, you can still get COVID, and therefore you can spread it to other people who might not have been vaccinated and they might get very sick and die. Now you cannot legislate against mortality. There are many things in this world that kill people and they're not illegal but are unfortunate. Cancer kills a lot of people. Heart attacks kill a lot of people. Obesity kills a lot of people. Malaria kills a shitload of people every year… So at some point, we have to just go, 'We're probably going to have to live with this. And if we're going to live with it, then you have your vaccination.'"

Bruce's two-month North American spoken-word tour kicked off on January 17 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and will run through the end of March.

Dickinson, who had a golf gall-size tumor on his tongue and another in the lymph node on the right side of his neck, got the all-clear in May 2015 after radiation and nine weeks of chemotherapy.

Bruce will hit the road with IRON MAIDEN for a new North American leg of the band's "Legacy Of The Beast" tour in September.