Bruce Dickinson has rarely been a man to hide his true feelings on any given subject, and the Iron Maiden frontman wasted no time in tearing a fan a new one at a show in Greece on Saturday night, July 16.
The show, which took place at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, was the latest stop on Maiden's epic Legacy Of The Beast tour, which finally picked up earlier this summer after taking a pandemic-induced three-year break (a break which also included the arrival of their seventeenth studio album, Senjutsu).
Near the end of the main set as Maiden launched into hallmark anthem The Number Of The Beast, Dickinson took clear objection to a fan lighting a flare in the crowd, cutting into his own lyrics to viciously berate them with some rather, um, unsavoury language. "What did I see?" Dickinson sings in some footage captured of the moment that has since been uploaded to Youtube, adding as he clocks the flare sparking up: "A cunt with a fucking flare!"
"I've got to sing up here!" he continues, labelling the fan a "cocksucker" and a "Greek cunt". "I've got to fucking sing, right?" he says again, before finishing with a hearty "Fuck you!" Dickinson doesn't seem to continue singing the lyrics to The Number Of The Beast at that point, though Maiden did finish the song and, ultimately, the rest of the set.
Iron Maiden continue the Legacy Of The Beast tour across Europe this month before hitting up the USA, Canada, Mexico and South America over the following months. If you're attending any of those shows, it might be wise to leave the flares at home. Eeehsh.
Watch the footage of Bruce laying into the flare-carrying fan below.
