Bruce Dickinson - Singer, Iron Maiden HARDtalk

their gas fields. Now it is time for HARDtalk.

Iron Maiden is one of the most successful heavy metal bands ever.

They have sold more than 80 million albums and a renowned for their

live shows, tickets which now sell faster than at any time. My guest

today is their lead singer, Bruce Dickinson, the only member who has

lopped off his long hair. When he is not on stage in front of

thousands he can be found in a cockpit. He is a commercial pilot

who has set up his own aviation business. How can you mix the hard

rock lifestyle of a metal head with the clean-living required of a

Bruce Dickinson, welcome to HARDtalk. You seem to have

something of a double life. Which one is it that feels like more of a

front? The heavy metal lead singer or the pilot and entrepreneur?

is strange because they both are, really. In a sense, yes because

when you are performing on stage to all those people you are performing

and I liken it to blowing up an enormous bubble, balloon. As you

start off in small clubs and things like that it seems intimidating and

then you get two theatres and that seems intimidating and then

basketball arenas and then you get used to work. What is happening is

your awareness of how far your reach can go in terms of touching,

communicating, it is like blowing up a balloon and filling the space.

To that extent it is a front, it has to be. You couldn't possibly

come off stage after being in a fund of 50,000 people and the like

that, in that state. -- in front of. Some people have gone bonkers.

about the pilot? Lots of people are nervous flyers are so Bayview

pilots as having certain characteristics. -- so they view.

Pilots are fallible and just as prone to human weakness as

everybody else. I always think that the image people have of perfection

and things like that in pilots, which is what they want to believe,

it is not strictly correct at all. When people on your aeroplanes had

heard that the pilot is Bruce Dickinson, what reaction have you

had? That is the worrying thing. There was a recent case with the

pressure -- depressurisation. The oxygen masks fell down and most

people missed the information about pulling it down and they forgot how

the pilot was and what the weather was. But Bruce Dickinson is quite

well known and you are well known as a pilot. Had you had people try

to get into the cockpit or have you had people nervous? No, I have

never had anyone nervous. I have thrown people off because of being

drunk. Have you ever been recognised? Yes. It is very strange.

We used to operate a lot going to Sierra Leone and I was further

flying there, over the course of about eight years. -- was forever.

I met a guy who was a classmate at school with me he was going there

and he was a vicar. He might have been Kenyan, Nigerian, I think,

originally. He had a tremendously long name and I remember it to this

day. It was a fantastic name. When somebody passed me the information

and said he is on the flight, can he have a quick word? I have had

about 3-4 guys who went to school with me and I have learned them on

holiday. People who know you have these life on stage, a phenomenal

life for 30 years. I want to play a quick to remind people what you do

on stage. This is a club, a song that you wrote.

# It is getting close to midnight. # Lipstick on Your Lennon. -- linen.

# You had better know that I am the one.

# Fray -- Bring Your daughter to the slaughter. You have changed a

bit since then. Back in the day you have a beard and look like a

misplaced version of Jesus but not any more. It is grey. I have to

shave on a regular basis. He did not have to cut your hair, D du?

ICloud Iron Maiden for about five years. -- I quit. I embarked on a

solo career which initially had variable success and towards the

end, got quite satisfactory. I had a very young band with me, their

early 20s, and I recall a publicity shot we did. I was looking at it

thinking it was a great shot and I thought, who is that old geezer in

the middle? In his knee. It doesn't look quite right. I decided to have

a bit of a chop. Not as short as it is now. Somebody said you look ten

years younger. I said you may be right. The other thing, which I

found curious and disappointing, people treated me in an entirely

different manner. Strangers, people like that, they would smile at me

more. When you walk around a supermarket I realised that before,

people were looking at me as if I was about to steal something and

now they didn't. It was a curious and disappointing discovery about

human nature and the assumptions people make. It comes back to your

earlier questioned about the front. Assumptions people make. They

assume that entrepreneurs and businessmen are going to be

honourable people and in fact, you only have to read newspapers to

realise that just because you are wearing a suit and a tie does not

mean you are honourable. phenomenal success that Iron Maiden

has had, 80 million plus albums, and the ban and the band it is without

help from the mainstream media. Probably it has actually been of

assistance, not having help some of the mainstream media, certainly in

terms of the longevity of our career. The mainstream media, as in

Simon Cowell's show and that sort of stuff, it assimilates whatever

talent is available and then tries to swallow it and regurgitate it in

its own image. The media likes to own things and it likes to play God.

It builds things up and knocks them down, create drama. In a way that

fans do not want to do. They want to follow a story. A band does have

peaks and troughs, and it makes good albums, some albums not as

good as before. Like a football team, if you're a fan of Chelsea,

you are a fan of Chelsea. Win or lose, you are still a fan of the

football teams. Is that true of all media? Cat might we have three

generations coming to see us in the UK but sometimes we might get a

nice ride from the press. A couple of years ago they said we were

national treasures. You won a Brit Award. Yes, and that is nice, that

is great. We won another award that meant more to me because it was

genuinely from our peers, if you like. The Brit Award, again, it was

voted for by the people. One of the last times that was allowed to

happen. What was it down to, the earlier Sixers? -- success. Down to

touring? You survived the 1980s and were pretty clean living as a band.

You are about as clean living as a bunch of 25-year-olds let loose in

America with as much beer as he and have a great time the way a

sport group are going to. It is what comes as your primary focus

and we would never let the show, what we were doing suffer as a

result of the extra-curricular activity. That is why we were there.

I used to read articles when I was a lad and you would read about

contemporary rock stars and they would say the reason I got involved

in rock'n'roll was so I could get laid. That is a silly reason to get

involved, I got involved because I wanted to sing and create stories

in people's heads, fantasies and explore that. That is why I am

still doing it. That and the fact that I am grateful for still being

here with all my marbles in my head. The BBC has a programme which is

pleasure pleasure in turning it down. I

think it is demeaning. When I was a kid there was a show called

Opportunity knocks. It was cheesy and the presenter would talk about

a scene in Bulphan. To me it is exactly the same. If people have

got something to say they should say it, do it and be it. Stop

frames. You cannot tell me that the people who select the people, the

ridiculith ridiculous names, will.i.am, who is

that? You cannot say they don't industry. I know he is. Have you

ever heard somebody from one of those shows and thought, actually,

he is OK? Have you listened to ballads? Yes, the odd Joni Mitchell

song or something. What do you listen to? BBC Radio 4. Speech?

Speech, documentaries. I tried to avoid this and into music and

Messiah really, really consciously want to listen to it. And listen to

it all the time. I prefer to write the think it up or creatives. Every

now and again, you hear something and you think, that is nice, who is

that? I have to ask my kids. does sound order. Euro music-lover,

presumably. But you don't listen to music except for what you create

yourself. By and large. But having created it, I don't listen to it

subsequently. But too deeply it. You move on and get new fence who

are hooked on your new albums. You do go back and played the old songs.

Yes, we're having great fun rediscovering some of the stuff

that we did on one of the recent tours. We are going to do it in the

States. Do you ever feel a need to change? When you look at what is on

YouTube now, or what the publicity that goes on, it has hardly changed

in 30 years. You have still but you must cut. They rub the cartoon

drawings. Stuff you would see on teenage posters. You were in your

50s. De you'll have a look at it and think, maybe we should update

it. It is a mature image. Why? Inside this 53-year-old exterior,

is... A 17-year-old. The middle- aged, slightly younger. That is the

core of why you do this. When you're a kid, and you experience

something. Whatever it is that makes you feel, wow, walking on air.

The first song you right. The first experience. You have to reinvent

that and gardens against what I can describe as the cynicism of the

world. -- guard them against. The world eats people and destroyed his

hopes and dreams. It is those things that people caught toll

bridge. Those of the things that motivate us. It keeps a creativity.

They lose it at their peril. We have seen people that have lost it.

It is really sad. I listen to Radio 4 and it's not because I hit the

western world of music, it's just that I have got the confidence that

I have this little thing inside me. If I see think this and say, love

that, I know what is real. The reality is the emotion. And you now

can be heard on Radio 4 because of your other love, which is flying.

You have said you get as much of a buzz out of flying as you do have a

performance. It comes down to that feeling. Recall that the light ball

perfect. Great take it all back to trialled it. Somebody somewhere in

everybody's life has said something, done something, inspired somebody

to do something, or been inspired. And they have praised them. And

that has made them feel amazing. Cling on to that feeling, that

curiosity. When I had my first experience flying an aeroplane,

actually falling it as opposed to thinking about it or trying to

understand it, it was overwhelming. It was amazing. You are putting �1

million of foreign money into Cardiff Aviation, which aside from

doing maintenance will be training other pilots. Absolutely. The whole

point of the project is it's a multi-faceted Organisation. It's

not just about spanners and airplanes. It's about training

pilots. It is about recalling components. Possibly -- overhauling

component. Possibly starting airline operations as well. The

facility can encompass all of those things. But it is the heretical at

the moment. You'll have to get the contract. We get the keys in July.

Are you able to attract business? am absolutely confident. I was off

attracting some business this morning. Successfully? Well yes,

one does hope so. You hope to create 1,500 jobs in 18 months.

What it said was, that is at the top end of expectations after three

or four years. What do said was Eve in 18 months we haven't created a

couple of hundred jobs, we will probably be out of business. A

couple of hundred jobs is what is going to be required. It is what

People who are going to create jobs. Would it be easier if the

regulations on business were reduced? Of course it would. I

think that this is a time at which people need to really need to think

outside the box. Governments have to take really courageous actions.

If you look at the recent report that came out about the tax system.

I am not a tax expert. My tax bill makes my eyes water. Now, if I knew

where that money was going, I wouldn't be whingeing about it. But

actually, I would rather, then give that money to the government, I

would rather say, if you're going to tax me, fantastic - I will spend

that money, not on me, but doing stuff that I want to do to create

jobs. Waikato do that? If you could do that, I think a lot of people in

business would start businesses. It takes the risk arrest. If you are

going to lose the money anyway, and you have always wanted to start a

corner shop or something, what the government give you the money to do

that rather than put it into the plaque hall which is the government

offers. Would you describe yourself as a conservative and a Euro-

sceptic? Absolutely. Your grandfather was a miner. Yes, I was

born in the front room upstairs, I went to the local pit school.

would he feel about that? He didn't have a very high opinion of Arthur

Scargill. His opinion? He was the miners' leader. Yes, and he thought

he was in it for himself. Sadly, the quote unquote alternative

miners' union also appeared to be in it for themselves because of the

absolute scandal, my grandfather died of black young -- black wrong.

You go into this strange mix that some people say, this Iron Maiden

lead singer who is a Conservative Euro-sceptic. Yes, but nobody

should think that people are just caricatures. I think that munched

working-class people are up by their nature conservative. They are

by their very nature conservative. They don't believe in... They rose

agree to line in one of my favourite films. Blast off. A

fantastic film. It didn't... Theories and great long. It

recruits that Hoare mining by up. At the end, the Korea comes up and

they have won the Cup. The Gurkhas, you will be giving us the cup back

now, when the? Don't be daft, he says. Common sense. Tell me, if

there is a campaign that you be knighted. What? There is an online

petition. If you were so Bruce Dickinson, would it be the cat --

Iron Maiden lead singer or the businessman that would been at it?