Maiden frontman's dilemma over Bruce Chickinson

Bruce Dickinson has recalled the “weird” experience of seeing all-female tribute band the Iron Maidens performing live.

Maiden saw the tribute act in Mexico and the frontman turned to bassist Steve Harris to ask whether he fancied the female version of himself.

The LA-based Iron Maidens are fronted by Kirsten Rosenberg, aka Bruce Chickinson, and Alice Cooper’s guitarist Nita Strauss made her name in the lineup.

Dickinson tells Classic Rock: “I’ve seen the Iron Maidens in Mexico. We all went. We were watching them and I said to Steve, ‘This is a really weird question, but looking at them, would you fuck yourself?’ And he went, ‘I don’t know, but we’ve all been thinking it.’ It was very, very weird.”

Maiden released their 16th album The Book Of Souls this year. It won Album Of The Year at last month’s Classic Rock Roll Of Honour and Dickinson says creating new music for their live audiences to enjoy is vital if the band are to remain relevant.

He adds: “The only difference between us and and Iron Maiden cover bands is that we do new Iron Maiden albums. Funnily enough, while that’s a joke, it’s also a good point.

“Without doing new albums, you just become a karaoke band of yourself. And that’s not a good enough reason for me to give up a big chunk of my life to go on tour. Hey, the money’s great. It’s not enough. There needs to be more than that, because this band is so important to so many people.”

Maiden head out on a world tour in 2016 onboard a new-and-improved Ed Force One, piloted by Dickinson.

Read the full interview in issue 218 of Classic Rock magazine, out now and available in print, digital and via TeamRock+.

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.