IRON MAIDEN Singer On 'Flight 666': 'The Audience Are The Stars Of This Documentary'

JAM! Music recently conducted an interview with vocalist Bruce Dickinson of British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

JAM! Music: Flying every day and playing every night seems like a heck of a schedule.

Bruce: Well, it would be if I did that. The documentary ["Flight 666"] might give that impression, but that's just something people have read into it. If we did an aviation documentary, you'd see how it actually works. I'm not allowed to fly after doing a show — I have to wait 12 hours. That's a regulatory issue. So when you see me flying, we've had a rest day after the show and then left the next day. And at all times on the airplane, we had three pilots as an insurance policy against one getting sick. In fact, one did get food poisoning and I had to take over. If they'd shown that, you'd have seen me flying in shorts and a T-shirt.

JAM! Music: Are there similarities between being a pilot and being a rock singer?

Bruce: Well, the image of the pilot is somebody who is always in control. And the image of a rock star is somebody who is always out of control. The truth is, as a pilot, you're not as in control as some people think. You're constantly managing risk. Doesn't mean the airplane's not safe; but the amount of control you have over nature is not absolute. Now flip to your rock-star head and you're running around on stage salivating like a maniac, yelling, screaming, snarling. But in fact, the show is quite tightly controlled. If it weren't disciplined, the band would fall apart. So the appearances are different. But under the surface, they're not so different. A pilot has to be aware of his environment and all the things that might affect the airplane. As a singer, you're juggling the audience's emotions and you've got to be aware of all the things that might affect that evening's proceedings.

JAM! Music: Tell me about working with Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen. How did you pick them?

Bruce: They kind of picked us, really. When we met them, we were a little suspicious at first. We're always suspicious of people with cameras. We've trusted people in the past who have been rather vile. Our worry was that we were going to end up with (METALLICA's) "Some Kind of Monster". Which is not us, but I know how the cutting room works. But then we got to trust them. And what they came up with was great. It wasn't a live performance; it wasn't about big egos; it wasn't blowing smoke up everybody's ass; it was about the fans. The audience are the stars of this documentary. They just did a fantastic job. They got under all of our skins without getting on our nerves.

JAM! Music: You've got so many oars in the water — singing, flying, fencing, writing, hosting TV programs. How do you juggle all those balls?

Bruce: I just do loads of interviews. It makes it so easy; I don't have to do any of that. I just talk about it.

JAM! Music: If you had to only do one thing, which would it be?

Bruce: I'd have to sing. You can train people to fly. But there must be something to what I do that's special to a lot of people. And you have to go with the thing that's the most special.

Read the entire interview at JAM! Music.