Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson took some time out of the band's show on Tuesday, October 22 to pay tribute to former Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di'Anno, who died earlier this week at the age of 66. Di'Anno sang on Iron Maiden's first two records – Iron Maiden in 1980 and Killers in 1981 – before moving on to various projects over the years, including a handful of solo releases.
Right before playing "The Time Machine", Dickinson addressed the masses saying: "So, this next track is actually called 'The Time Machine'. And I was watching Back To The Future last night on TV and it's true. It is 1.21 gigawatts of power that you need to put a DeLorean through the portal of time itself. I normally tell a story about that [and] we have a bit of fun. But tonight is — I don't wanna put a downer on the proceedings at all, because our friend, our bandmember Paul Di'Anno passed away, as you are probably aware. And if you're not aware of that fact, you are now."
"Paul was instrumental in the first two albums, groundbreaking with Killers and the first album. An amazing voice, devoted to rock and roll right up till the last minute of his life. So… for those of you who were born and still remember those early albums, when obviously I wasn't in the band and he was, and those of you who were fans of the stuff he did with Battlezone and his own projects afterwards, and for anybody else that fancies having a listen to tracks like 'Remember Tomorrow' and stuff like that, which are absolutely awesome, I'm just gonna ask everybody to just take like a few seconds to just close your eyes in silence and say, just internally, mentally — if you believe in God, if you don't believe in God, it actually doesn't matter; just believe in what you believe in and just say, 'Thanks, boss, for doing what you did.'"
Dickinson added after the silence: "So, Paul, if you're listening, this is a little message from Minneapolis to wherever you are, upstairs or downstairs, Minneapolis, for Paul Di'Anno, scream for me."
