During a February 25 question-and-answer session at Bio Roy in Gothenburg, Sweden to promote his upcoming solo album, "The Mandrake Project", IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson spoke about the stroke his bandmate Nicko McBrain suffered in early 2023 and the drummer's ongoing recovery. Bruce said...
blabbermouth.net
Bruce is so right about Nicko. We all love him. Some interesting things from this interview:
He mentioned that Roy has a lot of commitments. Bruce's son suggested a 2nd guitarists for the tour. Rehearsals start this week and he mentioned that one of the guitarists learned 14 songs (maybe the whole set?). Tears Of The Dragon won't be on the encores.
He thinks TMP approach is probably the direction for his future. The emotional stuff. According to him, there are not many artists who do this now. Fusion of metal and Pink Floyd. But he doesn't know what he will do for the next solo album, and that's what's exciting. Every album is a moment in time and a journey for him.
^I hope he will write metal songs for Maiden though. It seems he really wants to distance himself from the heavy stuff that made his previous solo albums so beloved. That's really weird, I must say.
They finished the album last April and have some leftovers.
Skunkworks remix is done. Jack Endino loves it. Next is
BTP. Bruce said they have a lot of unused (and recorded) parts for the songs on this album. Some new ideas too - they added an
intro with sounds for Gods Of War and Cyclops.
There was a question from the audience asking him if he will play The Breeding House and he said that he likes to re-record that song to make it sound even better. ''Don't give me ideas'' haha.
Atm, they couldn't find the tapes for
Tattooed Millionaire.
And some Maiden stuff:
His favorite songs to perform live from the current Future Past tour are: TWOTW, CSIT and SIASL. He also said that the set will be the same for the 2nd leg. Expected, unfortunately.
Other Maiden songs he likes to play live again: SSOASS, ROTAM and Wrathchild... oh no! He can't say if they will play them.
The best of all - he said there are many Maiden songs he/they like to play in the future that have never been played live before!!! Don't tease us, Bruce.