Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson, known for his soaring vocals and energetic stage presence that won him the nickname of the "air-raid siren", recently revealed the Maiden song that pushes him to his vocal limits during their live performances.
In an interview with SongFacts, the 65-year-old singer discussed his new solo album, The Mandrake Project, and also delved into the demanding aspects of his extensive career. When asked about the most challenging Iron Maiden song to sing live, Dickinson's answer may shock some fans.
"The song I find the most challenging to sing in the Maiden repertoire would be 'Aces High'. That's not just because I'm 60-something years old," he confessed. "Trust me, when I was 26, it was equally challenging. I always said, "If we're going to do 'Aces High,' can we put it towards the front of the set please?"
"But we still do all the songs in the original key. I'm sure it would be easier if we dropped the key, but then it wouldn't sound as good. That's the most challenging Maiden song to sing."
While "Aces High" might be the most vocally demanding song for Dickinson in the Iron Maiden repertoire, he finds his solo material generally less challenging due to his involvement in the songwriting process.
"Solo-wise, I don't know. Because I wrote the vocal parts, I'm pretty comfortable with it all. It's not that the songs are necessarily difficult to sing," Bruce explained. "I think if you've got a good, decent sound, and decent monitors, then you can pretty much pull off all the solo catalog. If you've got crappy sound, you've got to be a little careful when you start doing things like "Darkside Of Aquarius" and "Book Of Thel" so you don't blow your voice out if you're not getting all the required feedback from the monitors."
