Iron Maiden - Fear Of The Dark

Kerrang! magazine, while interviewing singer Bruce Dickinson, quoted the Iron Maiden biography Run To The Hills, in which Steve Harris professed that Bruce "made very little effort" on the Fear of the Dark Tour. Bruce's response: "I've got my version of events and he's got his. It all comes down to how you see the world. For Steve, Maiden's more important than anything. To me, there are some things that are more important than the band I'm in. I didn't know it was going to be that much of a big deal when I left, but as soon as I walked out onstage and looked at the audience I thought 'Sh**! If I run around grinning like a fool, the audience is going to think, "What a wanker! If he's so happy, why is he leaving?".' And if I wander around looking miserable as sin, they'll wonder why they paid £20 for a ticket to see this tosser. I was stuffed. Some nights the audience was hostile. It was like doing a gig at a wake! Some nights I enjoyed it, but on others I was thinking, 'I wish I wasn't here!'. The moment I left Maiden I made a deal with myself that I wouldn't do anything that I didn't believe in ever again. Steve and myself always used to clash. He wanted to fire me after the first month of the 'Number Of The Beast' tour - because I kept getting in his way onstage! I had an extra six inches added to the base of my microphone stand so I could trip the bastard up! I got fed up of him standing in front of me when I was singing. I got all these chips in my teeth where he used to elbow me. After a gig in Newcastle in '82 we were going to go outside, sleeves rolled up. But we learned to live with each other. And if Steve hadn't had that personality, Maiden would never have existed."