IRON MAIDEN’s BRUCE DICKINSON: How I Take Care Of My Voice

During the question-and-answer session at his January 20 spoken-word appearance at Slagthuset in Malmö, Sweden, IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson was asked how he takes care of his voice. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, it’s not that I take care of it — I kind of do — but I just try not to abuse it, if that makes sense. ‘Cause the voice will kind of take care of itself, as long as you don’t abuse it. So, yeah, common-sense things: drink plenty of water, don’t smoke loads and loads of cigarettes or gargle with razor blades before a show, and anything else like that. And preferably don’t go out to a football match the night before a gig and [yell at the players and the referee], ’cause afterwards [you will have no voice left]. So, obvious things like that. Warm up a little bit and everything else. Oh, and the other thing is, learn how to sing. It helps.”

Bruce previously talked about how he takes care of his voice in a 2017 interview with the Scandinavian talk show “Skavlan”. At the time, he said: “Your voice is a muscle, like anything else, and as long as you don’t abuse it and you use it correctly, then it will last.

“I’m not a great believer that a voice is just about singing,” he continued. “A voice is a tool for communication. And as a singer, all you are, really, is a storyteller, and it just so happens that, obviously, with my voice I tell stories a particular way, but if you’re Leonard Cohen, you have a different voice and you still tell great stories.

“When I got diagnosed with throat cancer [in 2014], the thought occurred to me I might not be able to sing again,” Bruce said. “Thankfully, that was not the case. But I did think about it, and I thought, ‘You know what? Even if my voice changed completely, it still doesn’t mean I can’t tell stories.’ Maybe I’d have to tell them a different way. Maybe I couldn’t do them with IRON MAIDEN. But it still doesn’t stop you… If what you want to do is tell stories, then you find a way to do it.”

According to Bruce, “talking is disaster for the voice. Because when you sing, all the muscles in the voice are used in completely the opposite way to when you talk,” he explained. “So I’m talking to you now and I’m using everything from here [points to his throat] down. Well, when I’m singing, I’m using everything from here up. So all it is is… Think of it like an organ pipe — basically, lots of rest, sleep, plenty of water, keep it hydrated. Don’t go out yelling in pubs after the show.”

In early 2015, Dickinson underwent a seven-week course of chemotherapy and radiology to treat a small cancerous tumor at the back of his tongue. A couple of months later, he was given “the all-clear” by his specialists following an MRI scan.

Also in 2017, Dickinson spoke to the Swedish TV show “Malou Efter Tio” about how his singing voice has changed following his cancer diagnosis. He said: “[It’s] a little bit different. Two things are slightly different. One is my saliva, which obviously lubricates your throat a little bit, is a bit less than it used to be. Although, back ten years ago, if I had the same cancer, I wouldn’t be making any saliva. But now, I’m probably 70 percent, which is great. Thanks very much, everybody upstairs. [Laughs] And the other things is that I think that the shape of possibly the back of my tongue, which forms vowel sounds and things like that, might have changed shape slightly, because, obviously, it had a big lump in it, and the lump’s gone. So maybe the surface has changed shape. So I notice a few differences. Funnily enough, the top end of my voice is maybe even a little bit better than it was before. [Laughs]”