Even though Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson grew up in England where many incredible bands were emerging in the late 60s and early 70s he did not have the chance to see many of them live. Over the years he talked about some of those groups and revealed three bands he wishes he had seen perform 3 bands Bruce Dickinson wished he had seen live Deep Purple https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDyO7jTIKDc&list=RDnDyO7jTIKDc&start_radio=1&pp=ygUKc3BlZWQga2luZ6AHAQ%3D%3D Bruce Dickinson had the chance to see many incredible bands over the years but he revealed during an interview at the Musician's Institute in Hollywood in 2025 which were three he really wanted to see but never had the chance when he was a teenager. The first one is Deep Purple, the band that influenced the most and that is his favorite one. (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) "I never saw any of the bands that I really, really wanted to see, like Purple. Never saw Purple," he said. Because of the kind of music they made, he used to believe that they would be quite active on stage and was surprised when he first had the chance to see a video of the band. "When I first saw like imagery of like Purple, I'm like 'they just stand there, what?' (But) I like Ritchie (Blackmore), Richie was always chucking his guitar. But everybody else was just standing there. I'm just like 'What's wrong with you?' So I decided that whatever music I was going to do was going to be kind of kinetic. Which is why to this day I still run around like a lunatic (on stage)," Bruce Dickinson said. Ian Gillan was a huge inspiration to the Iron Maiden frontman and later on he had the chance to meet the Deep Purple members face to face and become a good friend of his hero. During the past decades Bruce was featured in many special concerts with them, singing Purple songs and also on his own with other musicians, like when he toured with an Orchestra as a tribute to the late keyboardist Jon Lord. His favorite Deep Purple albums One of his favorite albums by the band is "In Rock" (1970), which according to him changed his life. “I was walking up and down the corridor at boarding school. I heard this racket coming from behind a door. (Then) I thought, ‘Oh my god, what is that?!’ I knocked on the door and this senior boy opened the door. (He) looked at me with a big sneer on his face. I asked, ‘Who was that?’. He went, ‘Oh, it’s Deep Purple if you must know, ‘Speed King’’ and shut the door.” “That was that. I was hooked. We used to have little auctions in the boarding house. People would be short of money and wouldn’t have enough money to have enough to pay their bill at the school shop. So they’d auction their stuff off.” “The second LP that I got was Deep Purple In Rock. Scratched to bits. So I paid 50 cents Australian for it. I loved it and played it absolutely to death. I think I might have blown up my parents’ stereogram with it,” Bruce Dickinson told h Double J in 2018. That record had famous tracks like "Speed King", "Black Night" and "Child in Time". Over the years he also revealed he loves the albums "Made In Japan" (1972) and "Fireball" (1971). Led Zeppelin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqF3J8DpEb4&list=RDKqF3J8DpEb4&start_radio=1&pp=ygUXY29tbXVuaWNhdGlvbiBicmVha2Rvd26gBwE%3D The second one mentioned by Bruce was Led Zeppelin, which he at least had the chance to cover with Iron Maiden when they recorded a version of "Communication Breakdown". The song was released as the b-side of "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter" in 1990. Unlike many Led Zeppelin fans, what Bruce likes the most about the band is their English folk influence. “I was always a bigger Purple fan than Zeppelin. But I never saw either Zeppelin or Purple when I was a kid, when they were in their heyday. Zeppelin were adopted by American radio big-style.  But I’ve got to confess that the thing I loved most about Zeppelin was their English folk roots. Not their copies of American blues tracks. ‘Ramble On’ is one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs. But that’s just me,” Bruce Dickinson told Metal Hammer in 2016. During that conversation he revealed that "Ramble On", from their second album "Led Zeppelin II" (1969) was one of his favorite songs by them. That was the first album by Zeppelin that he had the chance to hear when he was young. Although his biggest influence has always been Ian Gillan,  Bruce already recognized Robert Plant's importance for the evolution of Heavy Metal singing. “There are basically 3 bases for the metal style of singing. If you join aspect of these 3 singers, you have everything. These 3 singers are Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin), Ian Gillan (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath) and Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Company). If you join them in various combinations you have everyone was always talking about well,” Dickinson told Metal Rules in 2000. Besides "Led Zeppelin II", another record he mentioned as a favorite over the years is "Led Zeppelin IV" (1971). Jethro Tull https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSUdlUmtg3Q&list=RDeSUdlUmtg3Q&start_radio=1&pp=ygULSmV0aHJvIFR1bGygBwE%3D "Never saw Tull. (...) I loved Ian Anderson because he didn't (stand still, he moved on stage). He was doing all these crazy stuff, throwing his flute around," Bruce Dickinson said during the appearance at the Musician's institute in Hollywood. Although he didn't have the chance to see Jethro Tull in the early days, he was lucky enough to share the stage with Ian Anderson. In 2011 the Progressive Rock musician invited him to be part of a special show at Canterbury Cathedral. His favorite album by the band is the classic "Aqualung" (1971). “Oh ‘Aqualung’, fantastic. The old overcoat and everything. I didn’t realize until I read the credits that his (Ian Anderson) wife, his first wife, wrote the lyrics to ‘Aqualung’.” “But yeah, it’s an amazing album. It’s almost, for me, it’s his most perfect album, you know. I love a lot of his records but ‘Aqualung’ for me, probably, because it was in a way my first (of the band),” Bruce Dickinson said in an interview with Qobuz (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage). Besides the title-track, other famous songs on that record are “Locomotive Breath”, “Mother Goose” and “Cross-Eyed Mary”. The last one was even covered by Maiden in the 80s.The post 3 bands Bruce Dickinson wished he had seen live appeared first on Rock and Roll Garage.