Bruce Dickinson

At 66 years old, Bruce Dickinson has this physical status:

Solo career

Zomba begged Dickinson to write a track for the film A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child in early 1989, giving a budget, a camera, and a producer, Chris Tsangarides. Dickinson took up the opportunity to call an old friend of his, former Gillan guitarist Janick Gers, and they had "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter" on the studio floor right away, later assisted by bassist Andy Carr and drummer Fabio del Rio. "I wrote it in about three minutes," Dickinson says, "I't know where the word 'Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter' came from, but it just clicked into my head." 'Bloody hell, straight out of AC/DC,' I thought.' And here's a 'nightmare on Elm Street,' I thought. That'll be fine,' he says.' Zomba, who was empressed by the results, asked Dickinson if he'd be able to record a complete album as well. Dickinson's solo debut, Tattooed Millionaire, was written and released in May 1990, followed by a supporting tour.

Dickinson appeared on "Smoke on the Sea" as part of the international group Rock Aid Armenia later this year. He created a cover version of Alice Cooper's "Elected," backed by band Skin, which was released in 1992 for Comic Relief and five years later on Bean Soundtrack.

Dickinson obtained Keith Olsen's support for his second solo venture, but he decided to leave Iron Maiden while on the radio in Los Angeles. Dickinson began working with Tribe of Gypsen guitarist Roy Z and started the album from scratch, unsatisfied with his progress with Olsen. Balls to Picasso was released in 1994 as the backing band for Tribe of Gypsies. Dickinson's cover version of "Sabbath Blood Sabbath" was released by the band Godspeed for Black Sabbath's tribute album Nativity in Black in 2001. After Tribe of Gypsies departed to work on their own terms, Dickinson found another band, including his current writing partner and guitarist Alex Dickson. Dickinson appeared in Sarajevo and then under siege during the Bosnian War; a documentary film based on the concert entitled Scream For Me Sarajevo completed filming in December 2015.

On the heels of the Balls to Picasso support tour, he began working on a new studio project, Skunkworks. Dickinson decided that Skunkworks would be the band's name as well, but the record company refused to release the album without his name on the front page. Dickinson recruited Jack Endino, who is best known for releasing the first Nirvana album. When the tour ended, the "Skunkworks" group had ceased to exist. "I was devastated by the Skunkworks thing," Dickinson wrote. "Skunkworks was a record that I couldn't make and no one seemed to give a shit," Dickinson said.

Dickinson teamed up with Roy Z and Tribe of Gypsies again to record Accident of Birth, his second album; 'It's actually Roy that pulled me back to some assassination;' And I wasn't thrilled because I wasn't entirely positive that I had anything to offer... Then he gave me some back-tracks on what was supposed to be Accident of Birth down the phone, and I thought, "There's something there." Adrian Smith, a former Iron Maiden guitarist, was invited to attend, but he stayed as a full member of Dickinson's solo group. Dickinson's return to heavy metal on Saturday was a "somny." Sputnikmusic remarked, "The album's heavy feel is very satisfying, and it certainly fills the void left by Maiden during the 90's." The Chemical Wedding was a semi-concept album on alchemy that devolved from William Blake's books; with some songs, such as "Book of Thel," being the same as some of his poems; and the cover art depicting one of his paintings. "Bruce had shattered all hopes to produce an album that might even be better than the previous one," Sputnikmusic wrote. The live album, Scream for Me Brazil, was released in S.o. Paulo, after which Dickinson and Smith returned to Iron Maiden in February 1999.

Dickinson performed vocals on the song "Into the Black Hole" for Ayreon's Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight of the Migrator in 2000. For Halford's debut, Resurrection, he collaborated with Judas Priest's front-man, Rob Halford, on "The One You Love to Hate" later this year. In late 2001, a compilation named The Best of Bruce Dickinson was released, which included two new songs and a bonus disc of rarities. Tyranny of Souls, his latest solo album, was released in May 2005. While on tour with Iron Maiden, Roy Z and Dickinson were split, and several songs were written by Z sent recordings of riffs to Dickinson. Dickinson's complete solo discography was re-released on June 21, 2005, with bonus discs featuring rare and remastered tracks. Dickinson recorded the song "Beast in the Light" on Tribuzy's album, Execution, and their subsequent live album in the same year. On June 19, 2006, a three-DVD box set named Anthology was released, including live and promotional clips from his solo career as well as an old Samson video entitled "Biceps of Steel."

Dickinson appeared in Monty Python's Almost the Truth in 2009: A Monty Python fan (Lawyers Cut). For the sixth and final episode, he also recorded a new version of Monty Python's Life of Brian's Theme Song. Dickinson said in December 2017 that he has preliminary plans for his next solo album, titled "If Eternity Should Fail," the same song name from Iron Maiden's album "The Book of Souls, in which he confirmed that it was originally intended for a solo project, but that it will be released as a solo track. I did write it, but it was the first track that I wrote about. So, yeah, I'd probably still have that song on the playlist. But it will be different – not much, though – from the Maiden version's version.

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