"The big corporations took everything over, and they're interested in making money." Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson reveals his theory on why rock music is struggling to produce new festival headliners

Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has presented his theory as to why rock music is struggling to produce new, big name festival headliners - and according to him, it's to do with major corporations seizing control of the live music sector. Speaking to Swedish radio station Bandit Rock, Dickinson posits that a lack of risk-taking and dearth of smaller, independent venues has made it harder than ever for young bands to rise up the ranks.

"You can count the headliners on the fingers of one hand," says the singer (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). "People who are capable of - you put them at the top of the bill and people say, 'Oh yeah, I'll go and see that.' And, unfortunately, the reason for that, I believe, is the big corporations took everything over, and they're interested in making money, so they propagate the big headliners, but they don't bring on the bands that create the drama to create the fanbase, to create the dedication to bring it up. Because you don't become a headliner overnight. You become a headliner by doing loads of gigs at loads of places and fans and people follow you and all of a sudden you're at Wembley Arena and you're thinking, 'Oh my god, these guys are playing arenas. And the next step up from arenas is, 'Oh, they're gonna go and headline a festival. Oh, yeah, great. They're a festival headliner.' And at that moment you go take a step up into that world."

While pop, dance music and hip hop have continued to produce arena-level artists at a consistent rate in the 21st century, rock and heavy metal have struggled to produce new bands that can reach the same level; for example, it took Bring Me The Horizon almost two decades to headline Download, whereas British EDM duo Disclosure were booked as headliners at Reading and Leeds festival after just six years together.

"Fortunately, I mean, we get paid a huge amount of money by Live Nation, but what they don't do is really bring on bands in the same way," Dickinson argues. "You have to figure out that promoters, those individual promoters, were all taking individual risks. So they'd promote one show and they'd lose their shirt. And then they'd promote another show and go, 'Oh, we made some money this week. That's fantastic.' So you can see the temptation when along comes - I don't know where the money comes from, a hedge fund or something or whatever, venture capital, I don't care. But you can see the temptation when somebody comes along and goes, 'We'd like to buy your thing that you do in New York or Chicago or wherever, and we're gonna give you a shitload of money. But the deal is, you can't do anything after that. You're kind of gonna work for us a little bit or just take a holiday, 'cause we're gonna run the show from now on.'

"And they just kind of hoovered everything up," he continues. "I mean, they were smart businessmen. But artistically, for the health of the live scene, I think it was troubling. I mean, I may be unfair, but I get the impression that the scene was much more vibrant in terms of upstart bands that could come up and surprise people. And the other thing as well, which I think has, sadly diminished is the number of small venues where bands can just get up and do a gig. And that diminishes the grass roots of people who go out and go, 'Oh, my God. I went to a live gig the other day. Whoa, it was cool. It was so much better than sitting in front of a screen.' … And you've just got to have the places to do that."

Dickinson will release his first solo album in almost twenty years, The Mandrake Project, on March 1, 2024, via BMG. The singer will also hit the road for a European tour in May, before hooking back up with his Maiden bandmates as the metal legends continue their Future Past world tour.

Bruce Dickinson European tour dates 2024

May 18: Glasgow Barrowland Ballroom, UK
May 19: Manchester O2 Academy, UK
May 21: Swansea Arena, UK
May 23: Nottingham Rock City, UK
May 24: London O2 Forum Kentish Town, UK
May 26: Paris L’Olympia, France
May 28: Tilburg 013, Netherlands
May 29: Groningen De Oosterport, Netherlands
Jun 01: Budapest Barba Negra, Hungary
Jun 03: Bucharest Arenale Romane, Romania
Jun 05-08: Gdansk Mystic Festival, Poland
Jun 05-08: Solvesborg Sweden Rock Festival, Sweden
Jun 09: Oslo Rockefeller, Norway
Jun 16: Berlin Huxleys Neue Welt, Norway
Jun 17: Hamburg Grosse Freiheit 36, Germany
Jun 19-22: Copenhagen Copenhell, Denmark
Jun 24: Mannheim Zeltfestival Rhein-Neckar, Germany
Jun 25: Munich Circus Krone, Germany
Jun 27-30: Clisson Hellfest, France
Jun 30: Esch-Sur-Alzette Rockhal, Luxembourg
Jul 03-06: Ballenstedt Rockharz Open Air, Germany
Jul 05: Rome Ippodrome Delle Capannelle, Italy
Jul 06: Vincenza Bassano Del Grappa Metal Park, Italy
Jul 09: Koln E-Werk, Germany
Jul 13: Zagreb Hala, Croatia
Jul 16: Sofia Kolodrum Arena, Bulgaria
Jul 19: Istanbul Kucukciftlik Park, Turkey