Bruce Dickinson Reveals An Unheard Truth About Iron Maiden’s Legendary Album For The First Time

Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson, who is a member of the band since 1981, appeared on Metal Hammer to talk about Iron Maiden‘s legendary album, “The Number of the Beast,” and revealed an unheard truth about it for the first time.

During the conversation, when he was talking about Iron Maiden‘s classic album, he made flash comments on it.

“I had a vision for ‘The Number of the Beast’: my voice glued on to Maiden equals something much bigger. We did it fast – four or five weeks. We’d be in the studio till five or six in the morning.

“The one mistake we made was putting ‘Gangland’ on the album instead of ‘Total Eclipse.’ We picked ‘Gangland’ because it was the first thing we ever recorded together properly.

“But the rest of the album was fantastic. ‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’ was a precursor to ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner.’ That song, and the whole album, took Maiden to a different level.”

Bruce continued to his words by remembering the reaction they earned for the album when they’re on the tour. He also said that they liked the success of the album and revealed how they deal with it.

“We were on tour in Winterthur, Switzerland when we got the news about ‘The Number of the Beast’ album. We got a telegram on Sunday morning going: ‘Your album is number one!’

“And we went, ‘Fantastic!’ But at the time, we were pushing a 30-seat coach to jump start it, because the driver had let the battery go flat.

“We were young and we were all chucked into this huge shit-storm of success and we dealt with it in different ways. To a certain extent, you make a Faustian deal when you join a successful band.

“There is a price that gets exacted upon you, and there’s very little you can do about that except hope to come out the other end of it right-side up.”

Iron Maiden released “The Number Of The Beast” on March 22nd, 1982.

Click here for the conversation.