Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson Says Song Was Inspired By, But Not A Tribute To Robin Williams

While few things may drive Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson to violence, Axl Rose is apparently one of them and, as Loudwire reports, the Guns N’ Roses frontman may have deserved a little smack down from Dickinson.

The incident that Bruce recently revealed stemmed from a concert in which the Axl Rose-led band opened for Iron Maiden at the Coliseum in Quebec City, Canada. As Guns N’ Roses took the stage on May 16, 1988, Axl Rose was disrespectful and hostile to the audience, apparently because the audience spoke in French.

“I should have come onstage and given him a punch,” Dickinson said. “How could he dare speak to my audience in that way? I always regretted not having done so.”

Dickinson also commented on Iron Maiden’s song “Tears of a Clown,” which Bruce admitted was inspired by the suicide of comedian Robin Williams.

“But beware, this is not a tribute to Williams,” Mr. Dickinson said. “I would say a lament about the sadness behind the face of the clown. This is a very touching song. ”

https://youtu.be/khEQRKfEpts

According to Journal De Montreal, Dickinson faced one of the hardest times in his life, when throat cancer threatened his ability to sing, and it wasn’t until he’d received the good news from his doctor that the cancer had been defeated that Dickinson was able to feel relief.

“A huge relief, I was unable to speak. I did not know what to do. Should I scream my joy? It was the biggest news I had ever received in my life,” Iron Maiden’s Dickinson said. “Right now, I’m at the stage of healing, so I have not sung except sometimes at home. Fortunately, the power is still there. Notes too. We will rehearse intensively in January. ”

Happy to be back in the swing of things, Bruce Dickinson is taking the lead, as Iron Maiden prepares to head out on a world tour to celebrate and promote the release of their double CD The Book of Souls.

“You would be really unlucky if you were in Montreal and you to miss us,” Bruce said of the tour’s stop in Quebec.

“This is a special album because of the events surrounding it. There is a whole drama with my diagnosis. But more than that, I think that the music lives up to expectations. This is one of our most moving albums, with stuff we’ve never done before. As the song ‘Empire of the Clouds,’ which lasts about 20 minutes and on which I play for the first time on a piano piece Maiden. ”

[Featured image courtesy of time-news.info]