Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson reflected on some of his favorite albums in a new interview, going so far as to call one particular late ’80s album “just perfect.”
Sitting in a record store surrounded by classics such as Deep Purple‘s In Rock, AC/DC‘s Powerage, Soundgarden‘s Badmotorfinger and a pair of his own records, one from Maiden and another from his Samson days, Dickinson chats with Qobuz about some LPs that have left a major impact on him.
While most of the discussion is centered around albums that pre-date when he joined Iron Maiden, Dickinson singles out Queensryche‘s 1988 concept album Operation: Mindcrime, branding it a perfect record.
Bruce Dickinson on Queensryche’s Operation: Mindcrime
Before briefly heaping praise unto Queensryche’s classic LP, Dickinson playfully sings the word “mindcrime” the way Geoff Tate does on the title track.
“For me, this was one of those records that is unique. Other people have tried to do similar things, but Mindcrime is just perfect and so intelligent,” the singer assesses.
“And the weird thing is the guitar player who wrote pretty much most of that record, I think he did one more album and then he just left and disappeared,” Dickinson continues, though he’s a bit off on the timeline for Chris DeGarmo’s departure. DeGarmo remained with Queensryche through 1997, playing on the Operation: Mindcrime successors Empire, Promised Land and Hear in the Now Frontier. He even returned as a session guitarist on 2003’s Tribe.
READ MORE: Bruce Dickinson Names the Most Challenging Iron Maiden Song to Sing Live
Dickinson also notes that DeGarmo became pursued a career as a pilot after leaving Queensryche. He did err again, however, stating that DeGarmo was a commercial pilot when he’s actually a pilot on private/chartered flights.
Bruce is a busy, busy guy so we can all forgive him for not being the most up to speed on mid-to-late ’90s lineup changes in big metal bands.
Other Albums Bruce Talked About
Elsewhere, Dickinson shares his excitement over classics such as Deep Purple’s In Rock, Rainbow‘s Rising, Judas Priest’s British Steel, Black Sabbath‘s Sabbathy Bloody Sabbath, The Crazy World of Arthur Brown’s self-titled record, Jethro Tull‘s Aqualung and ACDC’s Powerage.
It turns out that the singer wasn’t a huge Judas Priest fan before touring with them as the bands were promoting Screaming for Vengeance and The Number of the Beast. He admits to sometimes being confused by Priest’s album covers, but that British Steel is unmistakable metal, just at first glance. Within Iron Maiden, Dickinson says that guitarist Adrian Smith was the huge Priest fan back in the day.
And, if you’re wondering, Bruce much prefers the Bon Scott era of AC/DC. Perhaps a bit surprisingly, he thinks the rock powerhouse has been writing material that’s better suited for Brian Johnson‘s voice now than on Back in Black and For Those About To Rock (We Salute You).
Watch the full video below.
Bruce Dickinson Talks About Influential + Impactful Albums
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