Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson is already hard at work on his next solo album.
During a recent conversation with Ryan J. Downey as part of the Musicians Institute’s M.I. Conversation series, the singer, who released his long-anticipated seventh solo outing The Mandrake Project last year, reveals he’s demoed many songs for his next album.
“I’ve just been in the demo studio with everybody [in Dickinson’s solo band] for the last three weeks, and we ended up with 18 tracks in 15 days,” he reveals (via Blabbermouth). “It’s gonna be a really cool album.”
Dickinson adds that Brendan Duffey, who mixed The Mandrake Project, will be the new project’s producer, and that he hopes to properly record it “early next year”.
“I’ve got some gaps,” he says, referring to his upcoming tour schedules between his solo band and Maiden. “January, February, March, April is kind of a free zone for me next year.”
If Dickinson’s eighth album is indeed recorded in 2026, it would represent a much quicker production process than The Mandrake Project’s. The album was the vocalist’s first in 19 years, following 2005’s Tyranny of Souls. He explained the long gap between solo releases during an interview with Classic Rock last year.
“It’s been on the boil since 2014,” he said. “Then I got diagnosed with throat cancer, 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 [producer and guitarist] Roy Z, everything had moved on.”
Dickinson released his first solo album, Tattooed Millionaire, in 1990. It was a stripped-back pop-metal effort, intended to contrast with the progressive and expansive music Maiden deal in. He released further albums after leaving Maiden in 1993, and sustained his solo career after rejoining in 1999.
Maiden are currently gearing up for the Run For Your Lives tour, which kicks off with a European leg from May to August. The band will celebrate their 50th anniversary by playing material from their first nine albums, from 1980’s Iron Maiden to 1992’s Fear Of The Dark.
In a statement on New Year’s Eve, Dickinson promised the new shows will feature “stuff we’ve never, ever done before”. See the full list of confirmed dates below.
Iron Maiden 2025 tour dates:
May 27: Budapest Aréna, Hungary *
May 28: Budapest Aréna, Hungary *
May 31: Prague Letnany Airport, Czech Republic *
Jun 01: Bratislava TIPOS Arena, Slovakia *
Jun 05: Trondheim Rocks, Norway ≠
Jun 07: Stavanger SR-Bank Arena, Norway *
Jun 09: Copenhagen Royal Arena, Denmark *
Jun 12: Stockholm 3Arena, Sweden *
Jun 13: Stockholm 3Arena, Sweden *
Jun 16: Helsinki Olympic Stadium, Finland *
Jun 19: Dessel Graspop Metal Meeting, Belgium≠
Jun 21: Birmingham Utilita Arena, UK ^
Jun 22: Manchester Co-op Live, UK ^
Jun 25: Dublin Malahide Castle, Ireland *^
Jun 28: London Stadium, UK *^
Jun 30: Glasgow OVO Hydro, UK ^
Jul 03: Belfort Eurockéennes, France ≠
Jul 05: Madrid Estadio Cívitas Metropolitano, Spain **
Jul 06: Lisbon MEO Arena, Portugal **
Jul 09: Zurich Hallenstadion, Switzerland **
Jul 11: Gelsenkirchen Veltins-Arena, Germany **
Jul 13: Padova Stadio Euganeo, Italy **
Jul 15: Bremen Bürgerweide, Germany **
Jul 17: Vienna Ernst Happel Stadium, Austria **
Jul 19: Paris Paris La Défense Arena, France **
Jul 20: Paris Paris La Défense Arena, France **
Jul 23: Arnhem GelreDome, Netherlands **
Jul 25: Frankfurt Deutsche Bank Park, Germany **
Jul 26: Stuttgart Cannstatter Wasen, Germany **
Jul 29: Berlin Waldbühne, Germany **
Jul 30: Berlin Waldbühne, Germany **
Aug 02: Warsaw PGE Narodowy, Poland **
* = Halestorm support
^ = The Raven Age support
** = Avatar support
≠ = Festival date
