Anybody who’s seen an Iron Maiden concert knows that frontman Bruce Dickinson is a serious and dynamic performer. As one fan discovered on Saturday (July 16th), it’s best to not distract the singer from doing his job.
Maiden’s show at Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece, was marred when a fan decided to light a flare during the set. It all went down as the band launched into the iconic “The Number of the Beast.”
At first, Bruce took a playful approach to calling out the perpetrator, ad libbing over his own lyrics: “What did I see? A c**t with a f**king flare!”
The crowd let out a collective chuckle. But as the flare began to spark and ignite, Dickinson wasn’t laughing, foregoing the lyrics entirely and ripping apart the pyromaniac with a torrent of expletives: “I’ve got to sing up here! You f**king c**ksucker. You Greek c**t. I’ve got to f**king sing, right? F**k you!”
The flare raged in the middle of the crowd as a furious Dickinson appeared to leave the stage and/or stop singing the rest of the song. According to Classic Rock, he would return to finish the rest of the set without further incident.
Iron Maiden are in the midst of a European leg on their ongoing “Legacy of the Beast Tour.” The trek is set to hit North American shores on September 7th in Mexico City and run through an October 27th show in Tampa, Florida, with tickets available via Ticketmaster.
Trivium will provide support beginning September 11th in El Paso, Texas, and running through September 30th in Spokane, Washington. Within Temptation will take over opening duties for dates beginning October 3rd in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, running through aforementioned final date in Tampa.
Below you can watch footage of Dickinson admonishing the flare-toting fan.