Ex-Iron Maiden Singer Clarifies Relationship With Bruce Dickinson: ‘Everyone Thinks We Hated Each Other’

“[Our conversation was] private, so I say no more.”

Ex-Iron Maiden Singer Clarifies Relationship With Bruce Dickinson: 'Everyone Thinks We Hated Each Other'

Ex-Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di’Anno reflected on his recent meeting with Bruce Dickinson, noting how the two musicians’ relationship is nowhere near as antagonistic as it’s made out to be.

After recording two stellar albums with the NWOBHM giants — 1980’s “Iron Maiden” and 1981’s “Killers” — where he lent his voice to classics such as “Wrathchild”, “Phantom of the Opera”, and “Charlotte the Harlot”, Paul Di’Anno left Iron Maiden following 1981’s “Killer World Tour”, and has had very limited contact with his former bandmates since.

Moreover, he had never met the man who had replaced him, Bruce Dickinson, until this summer. The two met in Zagreb, where Di’Anno was receiving treatment after undergoing a knee surgery, while Dickinson arrived in the Croatian capital to perform with his solo band, as part of the promotional tour for his latest LP, “The Mandrake Project.”

In a new interview with SDTV – Stonedead Festival, Di’Anno didn’t reveal the details of his talk with Dickinson, but noted that the two enjoy a cordial relationship (transcription via Blabbermouth):

“[Our conversation was] private, so I say no more. Everyone thinks that we hated each other, which is bullshit. That’s the press for you. But we’ve known each other, obviously, from when he was in Samson and all that. So, yeah, it’s all good.”

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The meeting with Dickinson isn’t the only wholesome new development in the story of Di’Anno and his former band. As the vocalist explained last year, Steve Harris & Co. jumped in to cover a part of the costs for his surgery:

“The last part of it they did, ’cause I ran of money. [Laughs] It’s been very expensive. ‘Cause when I first got sick, I had to get medevaced from Argentina, which cost me a lot of money, ’cause I had to [be transported] in a private medical plane and all that stuff back. When I arrived in England, I only had 45 minutes to live, with sepsis and that. So they pumped me full of antibiotics. I spent eight months in hospital. So the last bit of the treatment, the band was really cool — they paid for the last couple of months’ worth of treatments, which was good. I’ll be forever grateful for that.”