IRON MAIDEN Frontman Interviewed In Argentina (Video)

Argentinian web site Vorterix.com conducted an interview with vocalist Bruce Dickinson of British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN when the band performed in Buenos Aires on April 8, 2011. During the chat, Dickinson spoke about being in Japan when the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck the country in early March, forcing the band to cancel its two scheduled performances there.

The members of IRON MAIDEN and their crew were flying into Tokyo from Seoul, South Korea. On approaching Narita airport in Tokyo, IRON MAIDEN's specially chartered plane Ed Force One was advised to re-route to Nagoya as the earthquake/tsunami had just become apparent. The bandmembers stayed the night in Nagoya and, following the announcement of the cancelation, flew out of the country.

"Honestly, it was really no big drama, because they shut the airport ten minutes before we were gonna land," Dickinson said. "So there was a lot of quite frightened-sounding people on the radio because they are used to earthquakes in Japan. So when they come on and they say, 'There has been a massive earthquake,' you think, 'Wow, this is really big.' So we made the decision to divert to our diversion airport, which was about a half an hour away in Nagoya. We landed in Nagoya where the weather was lovely and there was no earthquake. Our biggest problem was finding accommodation, because everybody was diverting there. But we got that sorted out. And, actually, we really didn't have any idea how serious it was until we saw the news in Japan that day. We got off without no problem at all. We had our airplane, we had our equipment on the airplane. . . [When we found out both shows in Japan were canceled], we said, 'Well, there's no point in staying here in Japan. We might as well go to Mexico, which was where our next concert was."

You can now watch the chat in two parts below.

IRON MAIDEN's April 8 and April 10 concerts in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Santiago, Chile, respectively, were professionally filmed and recorded for a future DVD release.

IRON MAIDEN was honored with a Grammy in the "Best Metal Performance" category in the pre-telecast ceremony at the 53rd annual Grammy Awards, which was held on February 13 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. IRON MAIDEN was nominated for the track "El Dorado", from the band's 2010 album "The Final Frontier".

"The Final Frontier" sold 63,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to enter The Billboard 200 chart at position No. 4.

"The Final Frontier" was IRON MAIDEN's fourth U.K. No. 1 album. The band previously topped the chart in 1982 with "The Number of the Beast", in 1988 with "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" and in 1992 with "Fear of the Dark".

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