Dickinson is focusing on his solo career for the remainder of 2025
Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson is prepping his first extensive North American solo tour in nearly 30 years. The run, which kicks off on August 22nd in Anaheim, California, will support his 2024 solo studio album, The Mandrake Project. In a recent interview on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation, Dickinson tells host Eddie Trunk that he’s working on the project’s follow-up.
“The band is incredible. I mean, they’re on fire. I mean, so we are gonna do a new album. We are recording the new album, rather in January next year, here in LA. So this is a great way of just getting the band locked into the mentality of that. In fact, we were in the studio, what, just yesterday for three or four days doing updates on the demos that we did with the drum machines and things like that. Well, we’ve done them with the whole band now, and that just takes the songs to another level for the new album,” he tells Trunk.
He confirms that the new album will not be conceptual like The Mandrake Project.
“Well, Mandrake was kind of semi-conceptual. I mean it was conceptual in its visual approach, you know, more than the music, you know, there were elements of the music that were connected with the comic, and we’ve actually just published the book, the first book of the first four episodes of the comic. So that’s something that people can get that’s got some solidity to it, you know, they can look at it and go, “Oh yeah, I get what this is all about.” But the albums have always got to be standalone units. And the stuff we’ve got, 18 tracks demoed for the album. And we won’t record 18 tracks, but we, you know, I think we’ve probably settled on, you know, 9, 10, 11 of them are absolute bangers. And the other ones, we’ll just see where we go with them and what it ends up like. But, band is on fire. It will be a different feel to the album because this is gonna be recorded live,” he says. “So we’re not gonna be doing the, you know, I mean, Mandrake was a bit like stitching together, Frankenstein’s Monster because it was stuff from 2014 and then it was stuff from, you know, after COVID, and all of it glued together. So sonically it was a little bit all over the place.”
Dickinson also claims Maiden, which is known for its over-the-top theatrics, is not interested in playing the state-of-the-art immersive Sphere in Las Vegas.
“It’s not Maiden. Maiden’s about the relationship between the band and the audience and the show, whilst it’s a show is an enhancement to what we do. It’s, you know, the Sphere, I mean, as far as I can gather, I mean, I appreciate what you’re saying about, it’s all encompassing. It’s this and that, it’s the other. But I think the band would be, you know, very uncomfortable with the idea. I mean, we’d just do a lot of stuff. We run around, we go around and what’s in Sphere? What’s the point? What’s the point? In fact, what’s the point of even being there if you’re a band?”
Trunk comments, “Well, to that end, U2 made a movie of their performance, and now just the movie runs.”
Dickinson, “You’re kidding me?”
Trunk says, “No.”
“Okay. Well, I rest my case,” Dickinson adds.
SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation, hosted by Eddie Trunk, airs daily at 3 pm ET on SiriusXM’s Faction Talk, channel 103.
Iron Maiden recently wrapped the first leg of its two-year Run For Your Lives World Tour, marking 50 years since Steve Harris formed the band in late 1975. During the run, the group asked fans not to excessively film concerts on their phones or tablets, something many artists are enforcing.
“We really want fans to enjoy the shows firsthand, rather than on their small screens. The amount of phone use nowadays diminishes enjoyment, particularly for the band who are on stage looking out at rows of phones, but also for other concertgoers. We feel that the passion and involvement of our fans at shows really makes them special, but the phone obsession has now got so out of hand that it has become unnecessarily distracting, especially to the band. I hope fans understand this and will be sensible in severely limiting the use of their phone cameras out of respect for the band and their fellow fans,” manager Rod Smallwood explains. “We would very much like you to be ‘in the moment’ instead and be fully actively involved to enjoy each and every one of these classic songs in the spirit and manner they were first played. This show isn’t just a celebration of our music; it is, as you will see, also about our years of art, of Eddie and of the many, many worlds of Maiden we have created for you. So please respect the band, respect the other fans and have the time of your lives as you join your Maiden family by singing your heart out, rather than getting your phone out!! It’s really not a lot to ask is it?”
Additionally, there is both a feature-length documentary film coming to cinemas worldwide later this year, via Universal Pictures Content Group, and an official hardback book providing a magnificent visual celebration of 50 years of Iron Maiden, being published by Thames & Hudson.
