IRON MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dickinson admitted to becoming enraged when he criticized a fan as a “Greek c*nt” and a “f**king c**ksucker” for igniting a flare at the band’s concert in Athens, Greece, less than two years ago.
The incident occurred on July 22, 2022 as MAIDEN launched into “The Number Of The Beast”, at the Olympic Stadium. After singing the opening line of the track, Bruce noticed the flare lighting up and immediately burst into an angry rant.
Dickinson then 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.”
Dickinson momentarily exited the stage, hoping the smoke would dissipate while his bandmates carried on playing. Nevertheless, upon Dickinson‘s return to sing the song, it was evident that he was off time and out of sync with the rest of the band.
During a recent interview with Sakis Fragos of Rock Hard Greece regarding his forthcoming solo album, The Mandrake Project, Dickinson discussed the incident. When asked about his reaction to the flare during the concert, Bruce responded: “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. 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]”
Dickinson will release his new solo album, The Mandrake Project, on March 1 via BMG. Alongside the album, Bruce also announced an exciting collaboration with Z2 for an upcoming comic series. To the delight of the international comic community, 2,000 exclusive versions of the comic were unveiled at CCXP, adding to the excitement surrounding this extraordinary project.
With ten captivating and innovative tracks, The Mandrake Project promises to be a definitive rock album of 2024, showcasing Bruce Dickinson’s exceptional vocal prowess and his long-standing partnership with co-writer and producer Roy “Z” Ramirez.
