Bruce Dickinson has admitted that he “lost his temper” after calling a fan a “fucking cocksucker” for bringing a flare to an Iron Maiden gig in Greece two years ago.
In July 2022, the frontman stopped a concert at the Olympic Stadium in Athens after a fan lit a flare during ‘The Number Of The Beast’.
During the performance, Dickinson sang the lyric “What did I see?” before he shouted: “A c**t with a fucking flare!”
The incident prompted him to launch into an angry rant. “The c**t with the fucking flare, I’ve gotta sing up here,” he shouted. “You fucking cocksucker. You Greek c**t. All right. I’ve gotta fucking sing. All right. Fuck you.”
In a new interview with Rock Hard Greece (per Blabbermouth), Dickinson reflected on his response to the incident. “Oh, the guy swinging his thing and everything else. You know what? I probably got his nationality wrong,” he laughed. I just lost my temper.”
“That activity that a very, very small minority of people do is so selfish and so disturbing. They think it’s really cool. Actually, it’s not about the band. It’s not about the audience. It’s about them drawing attention only to themselves and damaging the people around them who have this thing, this extremely toxic thing flying around.”
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He continued: “Of course, if you happen to be asthmatic, if you haven’t been having any lung conditions, ‘Oh, we don’t care about them. We’ll just fill the place with smoke, ’cause it makes me feel important,’ is their attitude. It just annoys the hell out of me. Anyway, yeah, I lost my temper. I shouldn’t have called him a Greek c**t; I should have just called him a c**t.”
Dickinson was speaking ahead of the release of his new album, ‘The Mandrake Project’ (out March 1) his first solo record in nearly two decades.
In a statement about the album, the musician said said: “This album has been a very personal journey for me and I am extremely proud of it. Roy Z and I have been planning, writing and recording it for years, and I am very excited for people to finally hear it.
The solo artist will also head out on a UK and European tour this year.
Elsewhere, Dickinson recently spoke out about why he feels so few new rock and metal bands are making it to arena-level.