In a new interview with Yahoo! Music Editor in Chief, Lyndsey Parker, Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson discusses the band's upcoming Senjutsu album, as well as his recent health challenges. An excerpt follows...

Dickinson quips, “Frankly it pisses me off!” when asked about Iron Maiden being unable to tour during the past year and a half due to coronavirus concerns, saying, “I've just done some theater shows, but it's not the same as a giant, fire-breathing monster in front of 20,000 people.” He actually recently had a breakthrough case COVID-19, which forced him to postpone some of those theater shows, but he notes that because he was vaccinated, he was “absolutely fine. … My belief is — and I stress, it's a belief — that this proves that I would have been more sick if I've not taken the vaccine. … I mean, I had both jabs. Everybody I know has had both jabs. And I'm quite happy about it. You know, none of us have started growing extra heads, suddenly wanting sidle up to 5G phones, or expressed a willingness to go down on Bill Gates. So, all of these things, I think it's largely a myth!”

While Dickinson still feels it’s a personal choice whether to get vaccinated, he does “honestly find it incredible that some people are still resistant [to vaccines] … And I mean, the [anti-]mask thing I genuinely do not understand.” But he doesn’t think vaccine skeptics are politically motivated. “I think they believe [conspiracy theories] because of their psychological makeup. They have a need to believe in these things. It's the same as people that are going to sit on top of a mountain every year and wait for the world to end. And the world doesn't end, but do they modify their beliefs? Actually, no. It strengthens them: ‘Yep, we were right all along. It is definitely going to end, just not this year. The rest of the world is against us!’ And that's the way that some people think. It's their mentality, and you're probably not going to change that. But for the rest of us I would say, just get vaccinated. And if you do get sick, you won't get that sick. It'll just be like a mild case of the flu.”

Senjutsu is Iron Maiden's first album since 2015, the same year that Dickinson underwent seven weeks of treatment for a cancerous tumor on the back of his tongue. Fortunately, the tumor was discovered in its early stages, and Dickinson was declared cancer-free by May 2015. He says despite being a cancer survivor, he wasn’t concerned that his compromised immunity would make him more susceptible to the coronavirus — but he does recall that at the time of his cancer diagnosis, he encountered some medical skeptics that reminded him of the current anti-vax movement. “When [doubters] found out that I was having chemo and radiotherapy, they went, ‘Oh my God, you're not doing that!’ Um, what do you think I should do? Eat more cabbage? That's going to get rid of it? So, yeah, medical technology worked really well for me.”

Read more and watch the video interview at Yahoo!Entertainment.

Iron Maiden’s long-awaited, 17th studio album, Senjutsu, is out globally on September 3 via BMG. For Senjutsu - loosely translated as ‘tactics & strategy,’ the band once again enlisted the services of Mark Wilkinson to create the spectacular Samurai themed cover artwork, based on an idea by Steve Harris. With a running time of a little under 82 minutes, Senjutsu, like their previous record The Book Of Souls, will be a double CD/Triple vinyl album.

Steve says: “We chose to record at Guillaume Tell Studio in France again as the place has such a relaxed vibe. The setup there is perfect for our needs; the building used to be a cinema and has a really high ceiling so there’s a great acoustic sound. We recorded this album in the same way we did The Book Of Souls in that we’d write a song, rehearse it and then put it down together straight away while it was all fresh in our minds. There’s some very complex songs on this album which took a lot of hard work to get them exactly as we wanted them to sound, so the process was at times very challenging, but Kevin is great at capturing the essence of the band and I think it was worth the effort!  I’m very proud of the result and can’t wait for fans to hear it.”

Bruce Dickinson continues: “We’re all really excited about this album. We recorded it back in early 2019 during a break in the Legacy tour so we could maximize our touring yet still have a long set up period before release to prepare great album art and something special as a video. Of course the pandemic delayed things more - so much for the best laid plans – or should that be ‘strategies’!?  The songs are very varied, and some of them are quite long. There’s also one or two songs which sound pretty different to our usual style, and I think Maiden fans will be surprised -  in a good way, I hope!"

Senjutsu will be released on the following formats and is available to pre-order/pre-save at IronMaiden.com.

- Standard 2CD Digipak
- Deluxe 2CD Book Format
- Deluxe heavyweight 180G Triple Black Vinyl
- Special Edition Triple Silver And Black Marble Vinyl (Details to follow)
- Special Edition Triple Red and Black Marble Vinyl (Details to follow)
- Super Deluxe Boxset featuring CD, Blu Ray and Exclusive Memorabilia
- Digital album [streaming and download]

Tracklisting:

"Senjutsu" (8:20) - Smith/Harris
"Stratego" (4:59) - Gers/Harris
"The Writing On The Wall" (6:13) - Smith/Dickinson
"Lost In A Lost World" (9:31) - Harris
"Days Of Future Past" (4:03) - Smith/Dickinson
"The Time Machine" (7:09) - Gers/Harris
"Darkest Hour" (7:20) - Smith/Dickinson
"Death Of The Celts" (10:20) - Harris
"The Parchment" (12:39) - Harris
"Hell On Earth" (11:19) - Harris

"Stratego":

"The Writing On The Wall" video:

"The Writing On The Wall" (SFX Version)

Senjutsu - In The Studio videos:

In a UK first, Iron Maiden are celebrating the launch of Senjutsu with two other unique products for their fans. 226 of the Asda stores will carry a display unit with an exclusive album edition of Trooper’s Sun & Steel Japanese Lager and their very own album T-shirt featuring band icon, Eddie.

“Iron Maiden are an incredible British institution and the best in their field so it’s really exciting for us to be able to reward their legions of fans with some fantastic products for the launch of their hugely anticipated new album, Senjutsu on September 3rd”, claims Andrew Thompson, Asda’s Senior Manager on Entertainment.

“There are few bands in the world that can provide such a breadth of products that their fan base love and we’re delighted that Asda respect music enough to partner with us across several sectors. Every Maiden studio album launch is an event and their fans get behind it like no other. This partnership offers something for everyone all in one place” adds Warner Music’s SVP Commercial, Derek Allen