Bruce Dickinson has offered a characteristically self-deprecating account of his surprise guest appearance in San Diego last week — and he is not making any great claims for it.
The IRON MAIDEN frontman joined THE COVERUPS, the covers outfit fronted by GREEN DAY's Billie Joe Armstrong, at the annual Fandom and Z2 party on July 23 that kicked off San Diego Comic-Con. Together they played "All The Young Dudes", the MOTT THE HOOPLE classic written by David Bowie — a song Dickinson had recorded himself for his 1990 solo debut "Tattooed Millionaire".
Speaking to On The Red Carpet, Dickinson explained that he was operating on no sleep whatsoever. "I'd done the song before. I did the song as… it was a single off my very first solo album," he said. "It was 6:00 o'clock in the morning for me — 6:00 o'clock in the morning and I'd not been to bed all night because I was obviously jet-lagged and all the rest of it. But Billie Joe had asked if I could get up and do 'All The Young Dudes'. And I was, like, 'Yeah, I could probably do that.' So hopefully I did. Not too sure I remember much about it, really, but it's all preserved on YouTube in all its awful, awful splendor."
The party took place at FLOAT in the Hard Rock Hotel, presented by Xbox's "Halo: Campaign Evolved". THE COVERUPS have built a reputation on high-energy club shows built entirely from other people's songs — punk, power pop, new wave and classic rock deep cuts — rather than GREEN DAY material.
The cameo comes as Dickinson works toward his ninth solo album. In April he revealed he had recorded 16 songs over a three-week stretch earlier this year at Dave Grohl's Studio 606 in Northridge, California, working with his touring band: keyboardist Mistheria, drummer Dave Moreno, bassist Tanya O'Callaghan and guitarists Chris Declercq and Philip Näslund. The record is not expected before 2027.
It will follow "The Mandrake Project", released in March 2024 via BMG, which Dickinson made largely at Los Angeles's Doom Room with his long-term co-writer and producer Roy "Z" Ramirez handling both guitar and bass duties. Mistheria and Moreno also appeared on that album, as they had on 2005's "Tyranny Of Souls".
Dickinson also recently revisited his own back catalogue with "More Balls To Picasso", a reworked version of his 1994 solo album "Balls To Picasso".