IRON MAIDEN's BRUCE DICKINSON Remembers Being In New York City During 9/11 Attacks (Video)

September 11, 2015

In a recent interview with "Nights With Alice Cooper" producer Katherine Turman, IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson, who was in New York City on September 11, 2001, recounted his memories of the tragedy exactly fourteen years since the terrorist attacks on 9/11. You can watch the clip below.

Dickinson told Travel Trade Gazette back in 2012 about his experience that fateful day: "I'd just completed my line training and was all signed off to fly, and was in New York with the band. It was a really sunny day, and I was sitting on the roof of the hotel by the pool. I had a Boeing 757 manual on my lap, reading up, when a little old lady walked up to the pool attendant and asked if it was true that a plane had flown into the twin towers. I thought it must have been a small private plane, and went back to my reading. Then more people arrived, and someone said it was some sort of airliner, and I thought, 'Oh boy…'"

The singer described to "Nights With Alice Cooper" the scene he witnessed shortly after the World Trade Center towers came down. He said: "It was strange, because there was no panic of anybody. Everybody was just… There was just an air of 'unreality.' There was no traffic. It was a lovely day — a beautiful day — and I was just walking around and looking at people. People were drinking at bars, having a beer. And it got to the evening, and it was obviously pretty somber. Nobody was cracking any jokes; there were no funnies about this one. And to this day, I can't think of any."

He continued: "I wandered around the next day and I thought, 'I don't know what to do now. I'll go and give some blood.' So I had a wander around and found some way to go and give blood. And it was queuing around the block. And all they were doing was the guy was coming around saying, 'Okay, here you go. Come back tomorrow. We don't need any blood. There are no survivors.' So I went and wrote a piece of paper saying, 'If we need your blood, we'll give you a call.'"

Dickinson went on to say: "Then the wind changed. And this, kind of, pall of gray shit started slowly advancing up towards Midtown. And up 'till then, upper Manhattan up by Central Park, you couldn't smell it. And I was out taking a walk, just walking around, because there was nothing else to do. And I could smell this acrid smell and I thought, "I'm not sure whether or not being in an air-conditioned building is better for you or it makes no difference whatsoever, but you know what? I'm gonna go sit in my room, 'cause this has got bad shit in it, this stuff.' And, of course, they're now discovering exactly how much awful stuff was in it. I mean, I just got a quick sniff of it."

IRON MAIDEN's new album, "The Book Of Souls", was released globally on September 4 through Parlophone Records (Sanctuary Copyrights/BMG in the U.S.). The CD includes "Empire Of The Clouds", an 18-minute track penned by Dickinson, who was recently given the all-clear after being diagnosed with a tumor on his tongue late last year.

Find more on Iron maiden
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).