- album: "Tattooed Millionaire" (1990)
- album: "Balls To Picasso" (1994)
- album: "Skunkworks" (1996)
- album: "Accident Of Birth" (1997)
- album: "Chemical Wedding" (1998)
- album: "Scream For Me Brazil" (1999)
- album: "Best Of Bruce" (2001)
- album: "Tyranny Of Souls" (2005)
Paul Bruce Dickinson (born 7 August 1958) (nicknamed "The Air Raid Siren") is an English singer, airline pilot, fencer, broadcaster, author, director, screenwriter, actor, marketing director, entrepreneur and songwriter best known as the vocalist of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden.
Dickinson performed for some local bands including Styx (not the American band of the same name) in 1976, Speed, (1977–1978), and Shots in early 1979. He then joined hard rock band Samson later in 1979, where he gained some popularity. In this band he went by the name of "Bruce Bruce." He left Samson in 1981, citing musical differences.
Shortly afterwards, in 1981, Dickinson was hired as Iron Maiden's new vocalist, replacing Paul Di'Anno, and debuting for that band with the 1982 album The Number of the Beast.
During his time in that band, they issued a series of high impact releases,] resulting in Dickinson gaining worldwide fame, and becoming one of the most acclaimed heavy metal vocalists of all time.
Dickinson quit Iron Maiden in 1993 in order to pursue his solo career, being replaced by Blaze Bayley. Dickinson's solo work ranged across a wide variety of heavy metal and rock styles. Dickinson rejoined Maiden in 1999 along with guitarist Adrian Smith.
Since then, Dickinson has only released one more solo album, Tyranny of Souls. He is the older cousin of Rob Dickinson, lead singer of British alternative rock band Catherine Wheel. His son Austin Dickinson is the lead singer in Metalcore band Rise to Remain.
(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Solo career
In early 1989, Zomba asked Dickinson to do a track for the movie A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, with a budget, a studio, and a producer, Chris Tsangarides. Dickinson took up the opportunity and called an old friend of his, former Gillan guitarist, Janick Gers.
Shortly after meeting up, they had "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter" ready for the studio. The song was composed with the assistance of bassist Andy Carr, and drummer Fabio del Rio. Later that year, Dickinson participed on a re-recording of Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water", as part of the humanitarian effort Rock Aid Armenia.
His intention now was to release a solo album. His solo debut, Tattooed Millionaire, was written and recorded within weeks, and released in May 1990. Backed by the band Skin, Bruce Dickinson, with Mr. Bean, made a cover version of Alice Cooper's "Elected", which was used in 1992 for Comic Relief, and five years later, on Bean Soundtrack.
For his second solo effort, Balls to Picasso, Dickinson received the collaboration of American producer, Keith Olsen. Unhappy with the results, Dickinson started working with Tribe of Gypsies guitarist Roy Z, to improve Olsen's work. The album was recorded with Tribe of Gypsies as the backing band, and was released in 1994.
That same year, Dickinson recorded a cover version of "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" with the band Godspeed for Black Sabbath's tribute album Nativity in Black. Tribe of Gypsies departed to continue with their work and Dickinson tracked down another band. Now his new writing partner was Alex Dickson.
After the supporting tour finished, he started working on a new album, Skunkworks. Dickinson decided the band would be called that, but abandoned the idea to keep his name on the release.
Due to musical differences, the "Skunkworks" entity ceased to be when the tour ended. After a short period of inactivity, Dickinson once again teamed up with Roy Z and Tribe of Gypsies to record his next album, Accident of Birth. Adrian Smith was asked to guest and remained later as a full-time member.
The album marked a return to heavy metal for Dickinson; being a much heavier album than Iron Maiden's, with a less progressive influence. Follow-up, The Chemical Wedding, was a semi-concept album on alchemy. It drew inspiration from William Blake's writings, with songs such as, "Book of Thel", having the same title of some of his poems, and the artwork featuring one of his paintings.
The record was even more successful than its predecessor, with engaging lyrics and powerful songs. Dickinson recorded a cover version of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", with Montserrat Caballé, almost ten years after her duet album with Freddie Mercury. Scream for Me Brazil was a live album that documented a show recorded in São Paulo in 1999, during the supporting tour.
In February 1999, Dickinson, along with Smith returned to Iron Maiden. Dickinson performed vocals on the song, "Into the Black Hole", for Ayreon's Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight of the Migrator.
Later that year, he collaborated with Judas Priest's front-man, Rob Halford, recording, "The One You Love to Hate", for Halford's debut, Resurrection. In late 2001, was released a compilation album, titled The Best of Bruce Dickinson.
This work also included a limited edition disc of rarities and two new songs. His latest album, Tyranny of Souls was released in May 2005. This time the songwriting was all split between Roy Z and Dickinson.
Many songs were composed by Roy sending recordings of riffs to Dickinson, while he was on tour with Maiden. On 21 June 2005, Dickinson's complete solo discography was re-released, featuring bonus discs with rare and remastered tracks.
That same year, Dickinson contributed in the song, "Beast in the Light", from Tribuzy's album, Execution, and a subsequent live album. In 2006, was released a three-DVD package, Anthology, containing concerts from his career, promo videos and footage from his work on Samson.
