The singer himself told us that he’d sensed that he might have cancer “but I put it to the back of my mind until we’d finished the album”. Which takes dedication to the cause way beyond the next level.
As soon as they’d finished, Bruce contacted a GP and was sent for a round of tests. When he got the diagnosis, with two tumours found on his tongue, one of his first thoughts was how it might affect his voice.
Asked by K! if he feared that he might lose his ability to sing, he revealed, “Yeah, or I thought, ‘What if this changes your voice to such an extent you can’t sing like you used to?’ But you know, I thought, ‘If The Book Of Souls is the last thing I ever did that has that voice, I’d be a very happy bunny.’ I would be happy with this album being my voice’s last statement.”
Even without the news of Bruce’s illness, The Book Of Souls would have been a remarkable album. As the years have gone by – and particularly in the 21st century – Iron Maiden’s recorded output has grown ever more progressive and ambitious. Their most recent album is also their longest, clocking in at just over 92 minutes, although they hadn’t planned to make a double album initially.
“In a way it was purely accidental because we didn’t have any idea about the album order until we finished it,” chuckled Bruce. “So we got to about track six and I went downstairs [in the studio] to Steve and went, ‘We either stop now or it’s a double album.’”