“I was not going to betray the confidences of people whose book it was not,” Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson tells the San Francisco Chronicle in regards to his new autobiography, What Does This Button Do?. “This is not me unburdening myself and having therapy by writing a book. I’ve always been private. I loathe the cult of celebrity. It’s gone out of control.”

In regards to heavy metal’s enduring appeal, having been superseded by rap and country music, Bruce says: “I can speak about what Iron Maiden’s enduring appeal is: We exist in our own world. Our fan base is a little bit like plywood. It’s formed of lots of layers of different age groups. Every layer sticks to the layer underneath it and doesn’t detach. People come to a show expecting to see people of my age, and they get a whole bunch of kids between 15 and 28. I don’t want to go onstage and look out at a bunch of crumblies my age. People of my age go along to shows, but you never see them in the mosh pit - mainly they’re standing by the toilet, waiting to get their prostate problem solved. We like seeing rabid kids leaping around. That’s what makes our hearts pump onstage. Our music is still fierce. It’s still in-your-face.”

Read more at San Francisco Chronicle.

Hear Bruce read from his autobiography, talk about the experience of writing it (and no doubt many other things) and answer questions from the audience.

US events:

October
30 - Huntington, NY - Book Revue - 7 PM
31 - New York City, NY - Hudson Union Society - 12 PM
31 - Brooklyn, NY - Saint Vitus Bar, Hosted by Word Bookstore - 7:30 PM

November
1 - Los Angeles, CA - The Regent Theater, Hosted by Book Soup - 7 PM
2 - Menlo Park, CA - Kepler’s Books - 7:30 PM
3 - New York City, NY - Gramercy Theatre, Hosted the Strand Bookstore - 6 PM
4 - Ridgewood, NJ - Bookends Bookstore - 1 PM

Heavy metal pioneers since their formation in 1975, Iron Maiden have sold over 90 million albums and played over 2000 shows in 63 countries, making them one of the most successful and globally influential bands of all time. One of the world’s most storied musicians, Bruce Dickinson has been the band’s internationally-acclaimed lead singer for more than 30 years, and quite aside from the decades spent delivering high-octane performances with his larger-than-life persona, Bruce has lived an extraordinary off-stage existence too. A true polymath, Bruce is, or has been, an airline pilot and captain, an aviation entrepreneur, a beer brewer, motivational speaker, film scriptwriter, twice-published novelist, radio presenter, TV actor and a world-class fencer.

Over the last couple of years, and throughout Iron Maiden’s The Book Of Souls World Tour, which has covered 39 countries and 117 shows since February 2016, Bruce has turned his unbridled creativity to writing his memoirs, longhand (in seven A4 notebooks no less).

In What Does This Button Do?, Bruce (a man who famously never gives interviews about his personal life) shares, for the first time, the most fascinating recollections, including his thirty years with Maiden, the early days, his childhood within the eccentric British school system, going solo, realising his dream of flying jumbo jets and his recent battle with tongue cancer. Bruce Dickinson is so much more than the frontman of one of the biggest bands on the planet. A rock icon, a true renaissance man, Bruce has been, and remains, a man of legend.

Bold, honest, intelligent and very entertaining, What Does This Button Do? is the long-awaited window into the life, heart and mind of one of our most adventurous and multifaceted sons.