Bruce Dickinson has been writing songs for decades.
While he's only a contributing songwriter to his main band, Iron Maiden (bassist Steve Harris is the primary penman), he has co-writing credits on many esteemed Maiden hits including "2 Minutes to Midnight" and "Flight of Icarus."
Outside of Maiden, Dickinson has released seven solo albums under his own name between 1990 and now, including his newly released 2024 concept record, The Mandrake Project.
That amounts a helluva lot of songs, and in a recent interview for an upcoming print issue, longtime Revolver writer Dan Epstein asked Dickinson to pick what he considers the single greatest track he's ever written. His answer might surprise you.
"I would say 'Tears of the Dragon' [from Dickinson's 1994 solo album, Balls to Picasso] — 'cause I don't know what it means. But it means something. That song really affects people. It affects me.
"I do know what it's about: It's about abandonment, not being abandoned, but abandoning yourself to the universe, to whatever is gonna come next. But I still don't know why it is 'the tears of the dragon.'
"I've never figured that out. It works and it means something, but I don't know what it is. And that's why it's great."
