He’s an iconic heavy metal singer, both with Iron Maiden and on his own. He’s a commercially licensed pilot whose air exploits are documented on film (2009’s Iron Maiden: Flight 666). He’s hosted award-winning radio shows, published books and graphic novels, and been part of beer brands.
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But Bruce Dickinson is nonplussed when all of these accomplishments are placed before him.
“Yeah, it kinda crept up on me,” Dickinson tells Billboard via Zoom from France. This Friday (Aug. 22), he kicks off a North American tour in Anaheim, Calif., supporting 2024’s The Mandrake Project and following this year’s More Balls to Picasso, a fresh reimagining of Dickinson’s second solo album, Balls to Picasso, which came out in 1994.
“When I did Mandrake I looked back at all this stuff I’ve done and I went, ‘I’m actually proud of all this stuff. It’s really good!’” he continues with a laugh. “I tend to discount stuff that I’ve done once I’ve done it. I don’t revisit it. Maiden’s the same way. The artist in me wants to move on, move on, move on and keep pushing, but sometimes it’s just nice to sit back, roll in it all and go, ‘This is really cool.’ It’s great to discover I’m a fan of the stuff I did — isn’t that weird?’”
The Mandrake Project, Dickinson’s first solo outing in 19 years, is a continuing conceptual fantasy piece that’s allowed Dickinson to combine a few of his creative ambitions. In addition to the music — 10 songs on the album, all by Dickinson and six with producer Roy Z — it’s slated to be a 12-volume comic book series, written by Dickinson with Tony Lee for Z2 comics, illustrated by Staz Johnson. The first four issues are out and have been packaged together, with the other eight in progress and another album of Mandrake-inspired music set to start recording early next year.
“Mandrake, the story, is constantly unfolding and constantly teaching me things about writing,” Dickinson explains. “Episodes five, six and seven are scripted and we’re in the middle of the artwork for that now, getting those done. It’s a long process. It’s a really fascinating process as well. It’s not like a book. It’s not like a film. It really is a complete hybrid art form. So I’m aiming high here; the holy grail in all this is sort of the Watchmen-type comic. And if I even get halfway there, I’ll be very happy.”
Dickinson took Mandrake to the stage last year, mostly in Europe, between legs of Iron Maiden’s successful The Future Past World Tour. He plans to add more of the album’s songs into the North American shows (as well as a side trip to The Town festival on Sept. 7 in Sao Paulo), mixing them with songs from his other solo albums and perhaps something from the Maiden catalog (he included part of “Alexandar the Great” in Europe). He’s been working on some fresh visuals, too, and promises a re-set of the stage from what he did before.
“We have a reasonably varied repertoire,” Dickinson says, “because the band is so flexible, and because it’s not like a Maiden tour where we’re locked into that set with the show and the lights and everything. With this (solo tour) we can vary it. We can say, ‘Hey, what do we fancy doing tonight? Let’s do this one as an encore’ and so on. It’s fun. It’s nice to have the flexibility of being a little bit random.”
More Mandrake music to accompany future volumes of the comic is in motion as well, according to Dickinson, who plans to take his touring band into the studio during January with producer Brendan Duffey, who also worked on More Balls to Picasso. “In April we convened and had a massive, collective brain dump in the studio and came up with 18 song demos, maybe two or three that are connected to (Mandrake),” he says. “Now we’re refining the demos.”
Writing for Mandrake, he explains, is like “having a conversation in your head with a thing you’ve already written. In a way you’re interviewing the character you’ve created by saying, ‘Why are you like this? Tell me about yourself, and I’m gonna write a song about you.’ Very interesting.”
A Mandrake movie might seem like a logical future project as well, but Dickinson cautions fans not to hold their breath. “I’m not even gonna think about that,” he explains. “I’m involved in writing the story and getting it to episode 12 and a conclusion. At that point we can sit back and look and everything. I think a lot of people rush into (a film). It’s a huge commitment making a film or a TV series. So I want to finish the story the way I want it before anybody else tries to get their hands on it.” He also laughs out loud at the notion of a Mandrake stage musical before offering a firm “no.”
Dickinson is also ready to continue Maiden’s Run For Your Lives World Tour, which ran through Europe this summer and featured Simon Dawson, bassist Steve Harris’ bandmate in British Lion, taking the place of the retired Nicko McBrain. More concerts will be taking place during 2026, though dates have not yet been announced, and Dickinson is looking forward to continuing his creative juggle.
“This new tour of ours, which will be coming Stateside, is the most incredible thing we’ve ever done, and people will be blown away by it,” he says. “This tour has been revelatory, really, in how much fun we’re having on stage. It’s evident in everybody’s playing, and, for what it’s worth, all the reviews and things are off the charts. You can never make everybody happy, but by and large, it’s doing great. We can only guess how great it’s doing in people’s hearts and minds from the reactions we get every night, which are amazing.”
Dickinson’s upcoming The Mandrake Project tour dates are as follows (asterisk signifies a festival date):
Fri, Aug 22 Anaheim, CA House of Blues
Sat, Aug 23 Las Vegas, NV House of Blues
Mon, Aug 25 Phoenix, AZ Marquee Theatre
Tues, Aug 26 Albuquerque, NM Revel
Thurs, Aug 28 Houston, TX House of Blues
Fri, Aug 29 Dallas, TX House of Blues
Sun, Aug 31 Pryor, OK Rocklahoma*
Tues, Sept 2 New Orleans, LA House of Blues
Thurs, Sept 4 Fort Lauderdale, FL Revolution
Sun, Sept 7 Sao Paulo, Brazil The Town*
Wed, Sept 10 Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Paramount
Thurs, Sept 11 Boston, MA House of Blues
Sat, Sept 13 Pittsburgh, PA Stage AE
Sun, Sept. 14 Silver Spring, MD Fillmore Silver Spring
Tues, Sept 16 Toronto, ON HISTORY
Thurs, Sept 18 Montreal, QC MTELUS
Sun, Sept 21 Louisville, KY Louder Than Life*
Tues, Sept 23 Philadelphia, PA The Fillmore
Thurs, Sept 25 Detroit, MI The Fillmore
Sat, Sept 27 Chicago, IL Riviera Theatre
Sun, Sept 28 Minneapolis, MN Uptown
Tues, Sept 30 Denver, CO Summit Music Hall
Fri, Oct 3 Sacramento, CA Aftershock*
Sun, Oct 5 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern
