How Jimi Hendrix "Inspires" Bruce Dickinson To Fly With Iron Maiden

Bruce Dickinson (Instagram @ironmaiden)

JAKARTA - Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson is one of the most interesting characters in rock music. He may be a metal genre giant, complete with his distinctive coating, but he is a Renaissance man. Even though he has made a lot of effort, including writing, making beer, and competing in fencing, his most famous out-of-music activity is that he is a qualified commercial pilot.

His love for the world of aviation is so strong that it blends into his position as Iron Maiden's frontman. In particular, after working side by side as a pilot for Astreeus Airlines who is now no longer operating, Dickinson has captained the transformed Iron Maiden chartered plane, Ed Force One, on their world tour which is an extraordinary achievement. What makes this aspect of his career even more interesting is, according to Dickinson, he was inspired to fly the band none other than the late Jimi Hendrix.

This was expressed by the metal vocalist when speaking at the Campus Party festival in Brazil in 2019, as reported by Brazilian Iron Maiden fan club website Iron Maiden 666. In the conversation, he explained that it was Jimi Hendrix' book that 'inspired' him to fly Iron Maiden anywhere easily.

I read a book about Jimi Hendrix when I learned to fly and found that at the start of his career, people in America used to travel with the old version of DC-3, something a little faster than walking, but couldn't be relied on. Then Boeing 727 came and suddenly America was full of jets. Traveling is easy because the fuel is so cheap that tickets are also very cheap and remember, before '9/11', if there is time before '9/11', when there is no TSA, you can bring your dead heart, a lighter fluid can or gasoline, a chain or whatever you want on the plane because no one cares," Dickinson explained.

Then the manager Hendrix said: 'Hey! Why don't we take a pair of guitars, some drum sticks, and suddenly, you can be in San Francisco one day and New York the next day? It's only going to cost about $500! Wow!' Okay, but of course someone asks: 'What are we going to do with amplifiers and PA?' Then the manager says: 'You can just rent it out, it's simple!'

Drawing how this anecdot 'inspires' him, Dickinson realizes that flying Iron Maiden everywhere will remove the obstacles other bands face and help them play for as many fans as possible. He said: 'I read this and was inspired because basically I'm a 60-year-old big boy, so I thought, very romanticly, I can also fly with the band and perform shows because I'm going to fly a plane and I can do it while singing. But of course, it's not going to be that easy because it never happened like that.'

"The accountants said we couldn't do it, we didn't have the money to go to South America, Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa," he added. So what will we tell our fans? That we didn't meet them because our accountants said no? What happens if we don't show up there? Let's turn our fans into customers, and they will become Metallica fans! We can't let that happen!

The Iron Maiden frontman concluded: "I got this crazy idea because I worked as a pilot on an airline, and I know that in winter in Europe, plane leases were much cheaper. Why not have my own magic carpet? Then the accountant sees you and says you must have taken too much medicine. Nothing like that; I just got bitten by a creativity bug. With our own plane, we can bring some equipment, our team, and travel the world faster. And this is what happens.