Jealous Of Skipknot Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson Jealous of Slipknot

One would expect Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson to feel reasonably satisfied with the bombast of his band’s stage show, given that the Irons have thrown everything from a giant brain-rotted Eddie to Egyptian pyramids at audiences worldwide for over three decades. But there is one group to whom even Bruce Bruce doffs his (pilot’s) hat: Slipknot.

With two weeks to go until the band’s scheduled slot at the U.K.’s Sonisphere festival, Dickinson told the BBC:

“Obviously we do what we do for two hours, and a lot of our stuff now is semi-theatrical and proggy. Whereas Slipknot is theatrical, but much more ‘Rrrraaaaahhhh!’ The audience get a really good variation of stuff.

“We’re the headliners, so we are doing our usual set. We’ve got ourselves some new toys for it, so there’s one or two spectacular monsters and things like that, but I think everybody brings their toys out for a festival. I mean, Slipknot have got some fabulous kit. I’m very jealous of their flames and fire. We haven’t gone with any pyro at all on this tour. I think the next time we go out we will. We like to alternate it every other year, because if you get the reputation that you’ve got to go and see a band because of the pyro and then you don’t do the pyro, people think, ‘Oh, I won’t bother then.’”