Bruce Dickinson reveals 2027 solo album plans, says Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris loves it: “He told me, ‘That’s the best stuff you've ever done!’”

Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson hopes to release his next solo album in 2027 – and bassist Steve Harris already loves the new material.

Talking exclusively to Metal Hammer, Dickinson, who released his latest solo album The Mandrake Project in 2024, reveals that solo LP number eight will be out in two years’ time, after Maiden have played their as-yet-unannounced live dates in 2026.

The vocalist tells us: “We’ve got, like, 18 tracks demoed, which I did in April. We’re going to do a new album – not for next year, obviously. We’re busy next year with other things, obviously Maiden things and everything, which is great, but ’27 that’s when it will come out.”

The singer goes on to describe what we can expect from his next release, teasing “bone-crushingly heavy” songs as well as moments that “are just like tugging at the heartstrings”.

“If it’s heavy, it’s heavy,” he adds, “but if it just happens to be acoustic, it’s acoustic. That’s the deal, you know?

“It’s whatever the song dictates, whatever the story is you’re trying to tell, but it’s really exciting. I’m so stoked about these tracks. I played the demos to a few people in the record label and stuff, and everybody is like, ‘Wow!’”

Another fan of the upcoming music is Harris, who founded Maiden in 1975 and has served as the band’s de facto leader and primary songwriter ever since. According to Dickinson, the bassist just so happened to overhear some of the new stuff, catching it as the singer played it for some of Maiden’s team in the next room over.

“I was playing the demos to the team, the management, because I’ve got it on a little tablet,” Dickinson remembers. “So I said, ‘You want to hear some new stuff?’

“I didn’t realise Steve was having his physio in the room next door. And he came out and he went, ‘Is that your new stuff?’ I went, ‘Yeah.’ He goes, ‘That’s the best stuff you’ve ever done. That’s the best stuff I’ve ever heard from you!’ I went, ‘Well, thank you very much, boss!’”

The three-year wait for new Dickinson music will be nothing compared to the gestation period for The Mandrake Project, which was released 19 years after its predecessor Tyranny Of Souls. The singer explained the wait during an interview with Classic Rock.

“It’s been on the boil since 2014,” he said. “Then I got diagnosed with throat cancer [in late 2014], then we had fucking Covid, so there were two years when I couldn’t go to the USA. So by the time I reconvened with [guitarist and producer] Roy Z, everything had moved on.”

Last week, Dickinson reissued his second solo album Balls To Picasso, originally released in 1994, with the new title More Balls To Picasso. The reissue features remixed overhauls of the original recordings, as well as live-in-the-studio takes of the songs God Of War and Shoot All The Clowns. Listen below.

Meanwhile, Maiden recently wrapped up the European leg of their 50th-anniversary tour, Run For Your Lives. The trek is expected to extend into 2026, but no upcoming dates have been revealed at time of publication.