Speaking with UK-based Kerrang!, Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson looked back on the band's 2015 album, Book Of Souls, which was recorded before he was diagnosed with throat cancer. 

Asked by Kerrang! if he feared that he might lose his ability to sing, he revealed, "Yeah, or I thought, 'What if this changes your voice to such an extent you can’t sing like you used to?' But you know, I thought, 'If The Book Of Souls is the last thing I ever did that has that voice, I’d be a very happy bunny.' I would be happy with this album being my voice’s last statement."

The tour itself was something that Bruce wasn’t quite sure would happen – or how it might go if it did.

"I was pinching myself for the first few shows back, because none of us knew how it was going to sound, my voice," he said. Having been through gruelling radiation treatment and chemotherapy he was still left with an agonising wait. 

"I’d left it for 10 months or so, to let it rest and try to heal itself up. Unquestionably there were some things that had changed and it was difficult. You want to know what the deal is… you just had to open your gob and see what came out. If a bag of spanners fell out you’d think, 'Oh shit.'"

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The Book Of Souls debuted at #1 in 24 territories : Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, Czech Rep, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary,  Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. PLUS #1 in a further 19 territories where physical/retail charts are no longer published, only Digital ones: Bolivia, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Nepal, Nicaragua, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Slovakia. The album also debuted at #2 in Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland and New Zealand, #3 in Turkey and #4 in the USA and South Africa.