Iron Maiden’s Run To The Hills Story

Iron Maiden’s story is a long one, back in 1981 Iron Maiden were in top form. They just finished their Killer World Tour and were running on the success of their albums Iron Maiden and Killers. It wasn’t all glitz and glamour for the band as singer Paul Di’Anno has hitting the booze and he was hitting it hard. He also had an insatiable love of cocaine. 

Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris knew something needed to be done to stop the band from falling apart. They started auditioning for a new singer. In comes a young enthusiastic man from Sheffield who had a love of engineering, a history degree and could hit those high notes like a machine. That man’s name was Bruce Dickinson, he was already a singer in a band called Samson. Steve was blown away and wanted Bruce in the band as soon as he could join. It was time to get more rehearsals in and then introduce the world to the new frontman of Iron Maiden.

Iron Maiden Merchandise 

It wasn’t long till Bruce joined the tour, they toured to Italy in October 1981 and played London in November and Christmas gig on December 23. Bruce remained a little bit of a mystery to those not in attendance. The following year (1982) in February the band went into the studio to record the now well loved and known album ‘The Number of The Beast’.

This was the spark that lead to the flame of the great album and their great song ‘Run To The Hills’ it tells a story of the colonisation of America and it gives a viewpoint from both invading forces and from indigenous people. This really showed that Bruce was a fine fit in the band. Bruce could hit all the high notes and things were going to be different for Iron Maiden from then on.

‘Run To The Hills’ peaked at No.7 on the UK Singles Chart. Their album ‘The Number Of The Beast’ was in the top spot on the Album Charts. This showed that Bruce was the true fit frontman of Iron Maiden.