Metal Monday: What If Bruce Dickinson Never Joined Iron Maiden?
posted in: Features • Rock
Many years ago in a galaxy known as metal, some stuff happened that would change the course of the genre forever (but you probably knew that already). We’re here to ponder things like what if that never happened in regard to some of metal’s most momentous events and happenings”What might the metal world be like today?
Metal vocalist, professional pilot, author and even part-time actor”Bruce Dickinson is a man of huge talent and even larger personality. Anyone with a serious passion for metal probably already knows that Mr. Dickinson was not the original vocalist for legendary metal band Iron Maiden, but what if Bruce never joined the band at all, and the vocalist remained Paul Di’Anno, who performed on the first two Iron Maiden albums?
Di’Anno’s vocal style isn’t too far removed from what Dickinson would ultimately bring to the fold, and there is definitely a sect of people who preferred Di’Anno’s vocals to Dickinson’s. That being said, there is a certain quality of Dickinson’s voice that placed him at legend status above Di’Anno. Perhaps it’s the overwhelming force behind his wails, the power and charisma he delivers with every single word, or his larger-than-life stage presence and live performance. Di’Anno was definitely great, Dickinson is one of the greatest ever.
When Dickinson joined the band in late 1981, leaving his gig with Samson, Iron Maiden’s popularity rose from being rather successful, with the release of Killers, to being one of the biggest metal bands on the planet, with the subsequent release of Number Of The Beast (which captured their first No. 1 spot in the UK). Coincidence or otherwise, that most certainly set Iron Maiden and Bruce Dickinson’s fate in stone. All the credit can’t be attributed solely to Mr. Dickinson”Steve Harris and Dave Murray aren’t exactly inept and play a huge part in Iron Maiden’s iconic sound as well.
The big question here is what would Iron Maiden have done without Bruce? Di’Anno was on his way out either way, and without someone as talented or better, would Iron Maiden have gone anywhere? Murray and Harris are undoubtedly too talented to have let the band fail completely, but Bruce’s shoes are huge ones to fill. Without a voice and personality as large as Bruce’s there is certainly no way that Iron Maiden could have become the iconic band that we now know.
In the end, without Iron Maiden, there would be a lot of power and traditional heavy metal bands playing very different music today, since Maiden at least appears to be a major influence on those genres of music (among countless other sub-genres). Not that it needs to be said, but we’re glad Bruce and the rest of the Maiden crew found each other. Even those of you who prefer Di’Anno, can we at least agree that Maiden + Bruce is better than no Maiden at all?