IRON MAIDEN frontman Bruce Dickinson has opened up about the personal cost of a touring life spanning nearly five decades, reflecting candidly on the time he missed with his three children.
Speaking in a new interview with the "Pad Wives Unfiltered" podcast following a visit to RAF Odiham airbase in Hampshire — where he holds the honorary rank of Group Captain — the 67-year-old singer was asked about the hardships of raising a family while touring the world. "For half of their life I was not there because I was on tour," Dickinson said. "Part of me will always regret that."
Dickinson has three adult children — Austin, Griffin, and Kia — from his marriage to Patrice "Paddy" Bowden, whom he wed in 1990. The couple separated privately in 2018, a split that was made public in November 2019. Bowden died in May 2020 following a tragic accident at the family's former home in Chiswick, London. Dickinson has since remarried, tying the knot with French fitness instructor Leana Dolci in the fall of 2023.
The singer has been remarkably open in recent years about the personal battles behind IRON MAIDEN's decades of stadium-filling success, including his 2014 diagnosis of stage 3 throat cancer. Dickinson underwent chemotherapy and radiation before being declared cancer-free in May 2015, a fight he chronicled in detail in his 2017 autobiography "What Does This Button Do?"
Despite the sacrifices, Dickinson remains one of metal's most active frontmen, continuing to balance IRON MAIDEN's ongoing "Run For Your Lives" 50th-anniversary tour with his RAF ambassadorial duties and solo pursuits. His comments add a rare personal dimension to a year otherwise dominated by career milestones for the band, including their upcoming Knebworth "Eddfest" celebration, as IRON MAIDEN continues marking half a century since its 1975 formation.