The stupidest thing Bruce Dickinson did in concert

In a recent interview with Kerrang! magazine to Bruce Dickinson was asked what was the stupidest thing he ever said at a concert Iron Maiden.

The British frontman responded sincerely: “'Who's that rocket-waving Greek prick?' In Greece. There was some sympathy from people in Greece who said, “he shouldn't have said Greek asshole, and yeah, maybe not, but he was probably Greek. And he was probably a dick. But he really pissed me off.”

Dickinson then went on to explain why he got so angry: “I'm standing there trying to sing, and there's all these people waving these phosphorus naval distress flares and, fuck, nobody in that whole place can breathe.

I find this truly, deeply inconsiderate. But I shouldn't have called him a Greek asshole because I wasn't sure of his nationality. I lost my temper and I shouldn't have done it.”

The incident he mentioned happened in July 2022 during a concert of Iron Maiden at the Olympic Stadium in Athens. Bruce got very angry when he saw a rocket go off while they were starting their tenth song, the classic “The Number of the Beast”. “The asshole with the fucking rocket, I gotta sing here. You fucking idiot. You Greek asshole. All right. I have to fucking sing. All right. Fuck you.”

While the rest of the band started playing “The Number of the Beast”, Bruce Dickinson he left the stage, hoping the smoke would clear. Speaking about this incident in a February 2024 chat with Rock Hard Greece's Sakis Fragos, he explained: “They only want to draw attention to themselves by harming the people around them, with this extremely toxic stuff flying around. Of course, if you're not asthmatic, if you haven't had any lung problems, 'Oh, I don't care. I want to fill the place with smoke, because it makes me feel important,” is their attitude. It annoys me to death. Anyway, yes, I lost my patience. I shouldn't have called him a Greek asshole. I should have just called him a dick.”

During his solo concert at the Opera Hall in Brasilia, Brazil, on April 27, 2024, Bruce Dickinson he again addressed fans by accusing them of smoking and allegedly using pepper spray. He urged them to smoke outside and criticized anyone who used pepper spray. It was later clarified what happened by explaining that the problem was caused by the explosion of an e-cigarette, not by pepper spray. Those affected showed symptoms such as throat irritation, which are not effects of the pepper spray.