On February 8th, Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson brought his What Does This Button Do? spoken word event to Sala Radio in Bucharest, Romania. During the Q&A session with random audience members, he took on a question about what will happen to the band after the current members retire. Dickinson responded in trademark fashion:

"I like that. There's always hope. 'After the current members retire...' there'll be a whole load of Iron members. We won't even have to have fucking holograms. You know what I mean? You can actually have real Iron Maiden members that kind of look like us but are not us. That's good. I like that. It's not a bad idea. Then we can just sit back and collect royalties and do no work. Good idea! It'll never happen, because we're never going to fucking retire."

Check out the complete event below.

Dickinson recently revealed that he has been in discussions about bringing Iron Maiden’s epic “Empire Of The Clouds” (from 2016's The Book Of Souls) to the live stage along with other Maiden classics, in complete with orchestral setting. Dickinson, a huge Deep Purple fan whose Jon Lord recorded the Concerto for Group and Orchestra in 1969, made the revelation during a Q&A, at his spoken word event in Dublin on December 14th, 2019.

The idea, Bruce revealed, sprang from a conversation he’d had while taking part in the 50th anniversary concert celebration of late Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord's ‘Concerto For Group And Orchestra, at the Palais Montcalm in Quebec City, Quebec on November 21st.

The show, which saw Bruce perform the Purple classic “When a Blind Man Cries” also featured long time Jon Lord collaborator Paul Mann, who worked with the composer on his 2020 studio recording of the work.  

Said Bruce: “I did talk to the conductor Paul Nann, and we just very tentatively said; 'wouldn’t it be great if we could do something that might involve some Maiden songs, but only Maiden songs that are really appropriate for doing [with] an orchestra? ‘Empire Of The Clouds’ is one of them.' So yeah, you never know.”