Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson: “Punk was rubbish”

Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson has said that “Punk was rubbish”.

The singer made the comments to The Guardian in an interview conducted by fellow Sonisphere line-up addition Frank Turner, saying that the closest the “art establishment” ever came to embracing metal was through punk. “The reason they embraced punk was because it was rubbish and the reason they embraced rubbish was because they could control it,” said Dickinson.

He continued: “They could say: “Oh yeah, we’re punk so we can sneer at everybody. We can’t play our fucking instruments, but that means we can make out that this whole thing is some enormous performance art.” Half the kids that were in punk bands were laughing at the art establishment, going: “What a fucking bunch of tosspots. Thanks very much, give us the money and we’ll fuck off and stick it up our nose and shag birds.” But what they’d really love to be doing is being in a heavy metal band surrounded by porn stars.”

Dickinson also recently hit out at Glastonbury festival for being too “middle class”. The singer said his band have no intention of playing the Worthy Farm bash, which for the first time in its history will see a heavy metal band headline this year when Metallica play on Saturday night (June 28).

“In the days when Glasto was an alternative festival it was quite interesting,” he said (via The Telegraph). “Now it’s the most bourgeois thing on the planet. Anywhere Gwyneth Paltrow [the actress] goes and you can live in an air-conditioned yurt is not for me.”

Dickinson added that he was glad Iron Maiden were playing rock festival Sonisphere instead. “We’ll leave the middle classes to do Glastonbury and the rest of the great unwashed will decamp to Knebworth and drink lots of beer and have fun,” he said.