Bruce Dickinson



""Sometimes you're the pigeon, sometimes you're the statue.""

Full name: Paul Bruce Dickinson. He's possibly the biggest example of The Workaholic you'll ever find. Dickinson is known as the singer of Iron Maiden, yet he's also an airline pilot, fencer, broadcaster, author, director, screenwriter, actor, marketing director, entrepreneur and songwriter. Phew... Has a voice so powerful, he's been nicknamed the "Air Raid Siren".

Not The Bruce Dickinson, so hold your cowbell jokes.

With Samson

 * 1980 - Head On
 * 1981 - Shock Tactics

With Iron Maiden

 * 1982 - The Number Of The Beast
 * 1983 - Piece Of Mind
 * 1984 - Powerslave
 * 1986 - Somewhere In Time
 * 1988 - Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son
 * 1990 - No Prayer For The Dying
 * 1992 - Fear Of The Dark
 * 2000 - Brave New World
 * 2003 - Dance Of Death
 * 2006 - A Matter Of Life And Death
 * 2010 - The Final Frontier

Solo

 * 1989 - Tattooed Millionaire
 * 1994 - Balls To Picasso
 * 1996 - Skunkworks
 * 1997 - Accident Of Birth
 * 1998 - The Chemical Wedding
 * 2005 - Tyranny Of Souls

"RUN! FOR! YOUR! LI-IIIIIIIIIIII-IVES!"
 * Eighties Hair: In The Eighties, natch.
 * Badass Bookworm: Well-versed in history and an airline pilot, also very physically fit and talented.
 * Ballad of X: "Ballad Of Mutt", from the Tattooed Millionaire single.
 * Berserk Button: He's very protective of his voice - understandable, since its how he earns his living. So when he catches a wiff of someone in the concert smoking, he'll drop everything to yell at them.
 * Captain Morgan Pose
 * Careful with That Axe: His scream in Maiden's "The Number of the Beast" was the result of pure frustration at the sound engineer forcing him to redo the opening for hours, which was thrown in.
 * Carpet of Virility: This way.
 * Catch Phrase: He often shouts to the audience, "Scream for me, [insert name of country/city]!" when playing live. The best moment of this Catch Phrase is before the appearance of Eddie himself in Maiden's concerts, generally in the Self-Titled Song.
 * Cluster F-Bomb: Swearing is generally not something he goes all out on, but should you hurl things at him (or the band for that matter), abuse the fans or commit unspeakable atrocities, don't be surprised when he belts out one your way. See Berserk Button on this page too.
 * Creative Differences: How he left Iron Maiden in 1993.
 * Evil Laugh: He does this in a lot of songs. "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter", "The Evil That Men Do", "Can I Play With Madness" and specially "Fear Of The Dark" come immediately to mind. Of particular note, "Moonchild" climaxes with a bone-chilling, prolonged evil cackle from him.
 * Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!: He's 52 and looks amazing.
 * Greatest Hits Album: The Best Of Bruce Dickinson.
 * Large Ham
 * Mean Character, Nice Actor: By day, Iron Maiden vocalist and more metal than a block of steel. By night, part time airline pilot and occasional fencer.
 * Metal Scream: He's a master of these. Particularly when it crosses with Punctuated! For! Emphasis!.


 * Name's the Same: He shares his full name with a Columbia Records manager/producer whose involvement with Blue Oyster Cult lead to Spell My Name with a "The" Bruce Dickinson on Saturday Night Live (as "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" wasn't actually produced by that Dickinson).
 * One Steve Limit: He shares his "Paul" name with Paul Day, and Paul Di'Anno, both also former vocalists of Maiden.
 * The Power of the Sun: The eponymous sun, from Tyranny Of Souls.
 * Precision F-Strike: Considering how Hot-Blooded he is, the live performances go into this, sometimes in rants, or during songs ("alright, fucking scream it!").
 * In a heartwarming moment, in tribute to deceased Ronnie James Dio, "You are the fucking rainbow in the dark!"
 * Renaissance Man: He has been described as this.
 * Shown Their Work
 * Signature Style: His Metal Scream and operatic voice.
 * Stage Names: He was known as "Bruce Bruce" during his Samson years.
 * Start My Own: His solo career started while he was in Maiden. After he left the band, the project went full-time for the rest of The Nineties. Even today, said career is still on.
 * Take That: "Tattooed Millionaire", the song, seems to be directed at Nikki Sixx.