In a recent interview with Kerrang!, Bruce Dickinson talked about his foolish moment at Iron Maiden performances.
When asked about the dumbest thing he has ever said during a show, the frontman replied:
“‘Who is that Greek c*nt waving a flare?’ In Greece. There was a degree of sympathy from people in Greece who said, ‘He shouldn’t have said Greek c*nt,’ and yeah, maybe not, but he probably was Greek. And he probably was a c*nt. But it really pissed me off.”
Dickinson went on to explain why he had got so angry:
“There I am, trying to sing, and there’s all these people waving these phosphorous naval distress flares, and nobody in the whole place can f*cking breathe. I find it really, deeply inconsiderate. But I shouldn’t have called him a Greek c**t because I wasn’t sure of his nationality. I lost my rag and I shouldn’t have done.”
What Did Bruce Exactly Say In The Greece Show?
The incident he mentioned happened in July 2022 during an Iron Maiden concert at the Olympic Stadium. Bruce got mad when he saw a flare go off as they began their tenth song, ‘The Number of the Beast.’ He was worried the smoke might affect his singing and said:
“The c*nt with the f*cking flare, I’ve gotta sing up here. You f*cking c*cksucker. You Greek c*nt. All right. I’ve gotta f*cking sing. All right. F*ck you.”
Dickinson Reflected On The Incident Before
While the rest of the band began playing ‘The Number of the Beast,’ the vocalist left the stage, hoping the smoke would clear. But when he returned and started singing, he was offbeat compared to the rest of the band. Speaking about this incident in a February 2024 chat with Sakis Fragos of Rock Hard Greece, he said:
“It’s about them drawing attention only to themselves and damaging the people around them who have this thing, this extremely toxic thing flying around. Of course, if you happen to be asthmatic, if you haven’t been having any lung conditions, ‘Oh, we don’t care about them. We’ll just fill the place with smoke, ’cause it makes me feel important,’ is their attitude. It just annoys the hell out of me. Anyway, yeah, I lost my temper. I shouldn’t have called him a Greek c*nt; I should have just called him a c*nt [Laughs].”
During a show at Opera Hall in Brasília on April 27, 2024, Dickinson again addressed fans for smoking and allegedly using pepper spray. He urged them to smoke outside and criticized whoever used pepper spray. It was later explained that a vape pen explosion caused the issue, not pepper spray. The affected people showed symptoms like throat irritation, not pepper spray effects. It didn’t directly affect Dickinson and the band, but a member experienced discomfort.