Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson says he loves Metallica - even though he dissed them when he rejoined Maiden in 1999.
Dickinson had left Iron Maiden in 1993 and had six years as a solo artist before returning to the band along with guitarist Adrian Smith.
As he tells MusicRadar, he wanted to make sure that Maiden got as much publicity as possible - even if that meant trash talking about a band he greatly admired!
“I was perfectly relaxed about the whole thing,” Dickinson says now. “I said, ‘Of course we’re gonna be better than Metallica!’ And I love Metallica to death, but I said that to wind everybody the fuck up, like, ‘You’re gonna fucking pay attention to this!’
“The message was: ‘When we get back together, the album is gonna be special, it’s not going to be like a time-serving repetition of a bunch of cliches.’ And thank God it wasn’t. That album, Brave New World, was a real band effort.”
Brave New World, Maiden’s 12th studio album, was released in 2000 and was the band’s first recording as a six-piece with three guitarists in Adrian Smith, Dave Murray and Janick Gers.
Now, as Iron Maiden celebrate their 50th anniversary this year with the Run For Your Lives tour, Dickinson says: “We're still pushing - still pushing to make it better, and that is the way it has to be.”
He continues: “We're never going to be our own karaoke band. The way we're going to do the tour, it’s so crucial that we really deliver on little moments where people go, Wow! None of us want Maiden diminished.”
And in contrast to those controversial comments he made back in 1999, Dickinson now insists: “The only band I compare us with is ourselves. And as far as I'm concerned, we're only as good as our last gig. That’s it.”
