Location: Meymandi Concert Hall, Raleigh NC.
Date: 1/23/2022
Bruce Dickinson, the lead singer of the highly successful heavy metal band Iron Maiden, has taken to the road once again, but not in his usual way. Dickinson brought his spoken word tour to North America. From his days in boarding school and his time in Samson to joining Iron Maiden and his battle with cancer, Dickinson had more than enough stories to share with devoted fans.
The phrase “Spoken Word Tour” seriously undermines what actually goes on at one of these shows. From the second Dickinson walked out on stage he was bursting with energy. They would have been better off advertising this as Bruce Dickinson’s One Man Show. Dickinson was greeted by thunderous applause and a standing ovation as he entered the concert hall. He wasted no time in making the crowd laugh. He began his show where every good story starts…birth. To be more specific, how he did not want to be born, which he refers to as his first act against authority.
Dickinson quickly moved up the time line to his time in Oundle, an English public school, which to Americans is better known as a private school. Here Dickinson had his second brush with authority and was kicked out for peeing in the headmaster’s dinner, but not before falling in love with music. Believe it or not he did not always want to be a singer, but instead he wanted to sit behind the drum kit. Dickinson continued telling the story of his first band where he played the bongos. It was here however that he treated the audience to their first taste of his a-cappella singing. He belted out a quick rendition of the chorus to Let It Be by the Beatles, which happed to be the song that made him realize “maybe I should be a singer”.
He then went on to talking about his time in the band Samson. He brought the audience to tears describing the hysterically funny adventures he went on with the band; including his purchasing of a life size plastic goose for no reason other than he wanted to. Dickinson’s transition from stories of Samson to Iron Maiden was seamless. Fans roared with cheers as pictures of Iron Maiden flashed onto the screen. Those cheers became even louder as Dickinson began to talk about the ever so famous Rock in Rio.
While Dickinson did his best to keep things light hearted and funny there is no escaping the seriousness that is cancer. He explained what it was like for him to get chemo therapy and radiation. In the end he still had to make the audience laugh by making fun of his own beard, which he grew during his cancer treatment, and then how he lost pieces of it at the most inconvenient times. As Dickinson left the stage for intermission, they played The Writing on the Wall Music video on the big screen for fans to enjoy.
After intermission came the question and answer portion of the night. Before the show, fans were able to write a question to Dickinson and have the opportunity to have him answer it on stage. He brought a nice stack of them out on stage and began to answer different things about flying, accidents on stage with Iron Maiden, and other personal yet appropriate topics. If he did not want to answer a question he just threw it behind him. For the very last question he was asked to sing a bit of the song Tears of the Dragon. As he finished his last note he thanked the audience and left the stage once again being met with thunderous applause.
It is one thing reading about Dickinson’s show and seeing little videos from it, but it is a whole other world being there and experiencing it in person. You can feel the passion that Dickinson has for everything he does and he expressed it well with silly voices, funny faces, and one or two self deprecating jokes which makes him that much more relatable.
Tanis Enos
Metal Odyssey > Heavy Metal Music Blog 
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