Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson was recently forced to perform “The Trooper” from an offstage position after smoke from a flare lit by a fan in the venue overwhelmed him.
A throat cancer survivor, Dickinson has previously criticized fans for creating fumes at concerts, explaining that it makes performance challenging for himself and others.
A YouTube shorts clip – available here – from Maiden’s Wednesday night show at the Estadio Atahualpa in Quito, Ecuador shows Dickinson holding the military flag prop he uses during the song, and singing while standing still and out of the audience’s view, away from the smoke – a far cry from his usually strenuous performances.
A longer video – embedded below -shows the moment a fan up front lights a flare, the smoke billowing all over the stage, and Dickinson retreating backstage, leaving the audience to sign the first verse. He takes over after that, and returns to the stage once the smoke clears, carrying the flag of Ecuador to the delight of the crowd.
Watch Bruce Dickinson’s Backstage ‘The Trooper’ Performance
The Gallery reported that the crowd had reacted lethargically to early songs in the set, and the smoke began to spread during “The Number of the Beast.” The singer said: “I cannot sing at all if you light flares! I cannot breathe. If you want to light flares, go somewhere else, because this stuff is poisonous and pollutes the people around you!”
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Dickinson was diagnosed with cancer caused by a virus in 2014 and given the all-clear after a tumor was removed the following year. The 68-year-old musician has previously taken issue with fans making it difficult for him to sing.
Bruce Dickinson Asks for Fans’ Respect at Shows
During a solo concert in Brazil in 2024, he told the crowd that he and bassist Tanya O’Callaghan were struggling to breathe as the result of vape fumes. “I can’t sing if you’re gonna smoke,” he said. “My throat’s got work to do. You pay good money to hear me sing, not go, ‘Blargh, blargh!’”
In 2022 he called out a Maiden fan amid a performance in Greece; and earlier that year he slammed people in the front row in Anaheim, California, for smoking marijuana and causing issues for himself and Steve Harris.
“I would just ask for a tiny bit of respect,” he said. “If you want to go get completely stoned out of your f––g mind, go out the back and do it, alright?”
Maiden remain in South America as part of their Run For Your Lives world tour until Nov. 1, with shows booked until Nov. 26.
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Gallery Credit: Eduardo Rivadavia
