Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson, never one to censor himself, has reportedly taken a couple of potshots at Metallica and Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford.
According to Loudwire, the singer recently chastised Halford for apparently using a teleprompter to help him remember lyrics during live shows. “People pay good money and you can’t even remember the sodding words,” exclaims Dickinson. “The daftest one I ever saw was Breaking the Law.”
Also, back in 2011 Dickinson told Metal Hammer that Iron Maiden were a much better band than Metallica.
“I got into trouble for saying that we’re better than Metallica … and, it’s true!” Dickinson added, “They might be bigger than us and they might sell more tickets than us and they might get more gold-plated middle-class bourgeoisie turning up to their shows but they’re not Maiden. I did say it’s a bit of a wind-up. I thought, if I’m going to turn into an a–hole, I might as well, you know, go for it!”
In a new interview with the Guardian, Dickinson’s comments were brought up to Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, who offered a humble response. “I will never argue with that,” says Ulrich. “I will always support Bruce Dickinson in whatever nonsense he says. That’s part of the fun. So go Iron Maiden! It’s fine.”
additional source: loudwire.com
153 Responses
Iron Maiden are a better band than Metallica for a few reasons. One, Bruce is a much better vocalist and showman than James. Two, they have better lead guitarists. Dave Murray’s leads are far more memorable and ferocious than Kirk’s, not to mention the fact that they have better songs overall. I like Metallica, but let’s be real here, everything Maiden did up through Powerslave was excellent, with the exception of “Losfer Words”, which was a joke song anyway. The last really great album Metallica did was Master. I know I will be beheaded for this by the Metal Militia, but I really can hand pick their great tunes after Master. The melodic factor is bar none miles past Metallica as well. Stage performance, hands down Maiden. No metal band can touch them.
True…great points
No. Your post is 100% rubbish. Metallica is obviously the far superior band. Maiden’s music is quite ridiculous and nearly impossible to take seriously. Also, it’s pretty pathetic that little man Dickinson has to lash out at other bands/musicians to get attention.
In Rob’s defense, he is considerably older than Bruce and if I’m not mistaken had been diagnosed with some type of memory condition making the teleprompter needed. I thought it was insane when I first saw him using it because he would cower over it and wasn’t the old Rob interacting with the audience from all over the stage. I saw Priest in Nashville about 4 years ago and from what I could tell Rob wasn’t using a prompter. Maybe his memory condition comes and goes? Regardless, he’s still out there rocking at 60+ years old…we’ll see if Bruce can keep going that long.
As far as Maiden being better than Metallica, they always will be. They came first and helped to inspire Metallica. Seems like Bruce’s point is a moot one and he’s just trying to stir the pot.
For as much as I like Maiden’s music…Dickinson should be careful who he takes shots at..Rob is 10x the singer he is and 10x more humble..uncalled for..I bet Steve cringes every time he opens his mouth
Go home Bruce, nobody’s interested mate.
And….he flies the Iron Maiden jet…….this edges out the other hacks in my book. 🙂