"I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure." Steve Harris had his doubts over Bruce Dickinson's 1999 return to Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris says he wasn't convinced bringing Bruce Dickinson back into the band in 1999 was a good idea.

Dickinson joined the British metal heroes in 1981, replacing Paul Di'Anno. He enjoyed a prolific spell with the band and featured on seven albums, including The Number of the Beast and Fear of the Dark in that first spell.

In 1993, he walked away to pursue a solo career and was replaced by Blaze Bayley. When Bayley was dismissed in 1999, Dickinson was convinced to reunite with Maiden and they have continued to go from strength to strength ever since.

But primary songwriter Harris admits he had his doubts about whether Dickinson's return was the right move as he wasn't sure if he could trust him again after his 1993 departure.

Harris tells MusicRadar: “When Bruce came back it was a wonderful thing to certain degree. But I wasn’t a hundred per cent sure of the reasons behind it. So I was like, ‘Well, okay, let’s see.’

"And it was great. We did a great tour, and from then on it was alright. It’s been great ever since. But at the time, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure.”

The bassist says he got over his doubts and any tensions with Dickinson by learning to put the past behind him.

He adds: "You have to put things to one side. I think the older you get, the easier it is to deal with, in the sense that you just bite your tongue and get on with it. You don't let things get bogged down where they might have done a few years before.

"You know, people are tough to live with anyway. I mean, everyone is. So you just have to work out what works for everybody. And I think with a band, you just learn when to leave people alone.

"Bruce is unusual, put it that way. Which is probably what makes him so good. He’s got an unusual quality to his voice. But it’s difficult to talk about other people and analyse what they are or what they're not.”

Maiden's first album in Dickinson's second spell was 2000's Brave New World, which also helped prove it was the right decision to welcome the singer back into the fold. It was also the first album of guitarist Adrian Smith's second spell.