We kick off Iron Maiden Day with our exclusive ‘Iron Maiden: Flight 666′ interviews! Stick around for more from Maiden and news of our exclusive Metal Hammer & Iron Maiden collaboration!

Bruce Dickinson recently sat down for an exclusive chat with Metal Hammer about the forthcoming Iron Maiden movie, ‘Iron Maiden: Flight 666′.

‘Iron Maiden: Flight 666′ documents life on the road with Iron Maiden on their Somewhere In Time world tour and will hit UK cinemas on April 21st – which is also officially Iron Maiden Day!

Film…tour documentaries are small, fan-based kind of thing…but the scale of this thing, it’s a completely different beast…was that the intention?

Bruce: “I don’t know what it was intended to be because the…all we did was be in it.”

No reservations about the movie?

Bruce: “I probably had less than the other guys because I’m used to doing lots of interviews and things like that. Adrian was a little wary but I think he kind of warmed to them because they were nice guys and they did just join in and became part of the crew. So, just as if somebody…we’re all arsing around dressed as transvestite Scotsmen wearing Ken Dodd wigs and some of the crew got out their mobiles and started taking pictures, you don’t say ‘No pictures!’ because they’re your mates and everyone’s having a laugh, so it was actually the same with the documentary crew, which could’ve been a dangerous thing if they’d decided to fuck us over…but it was their impressions telling the story.”

The story of the movie is about the fans and their connection with the band, right?

Bruce: “I think that is, by and large, the real story of Maiden. None of us go around courting celebrity for the sake of it. It is frankly, occasionally useful as a device to get attention for the band but it’s only ever used very, very sparingly, even then. So really the story is about the band and the fans, because that’s what’s created everything. All the media that’s been focused on Maiden over the last few years would be utterly meaningless if it wasn’t for the fans responding to it.”

Bruce on the live footage:

Bruce: “Well, they filmed enough of it! What’s great is that they just used excerpts. I think there’s an amazing atmosphere, and a fucking amazing live DVD that could come out of it. We never allowed anybody…I’m renowned for almost Ritchie Blackmore-esque hatred for cameramen on stage because I find it a real intrusion and you get locked into this fantasy world of music and visions and you’re in the middle of being the Ancient Mariner and this fucking bloke’s sticking his camera in your face and you just want to deck him.”

“It’s like ‘Get out of my dream!’ So you really have to know somebody quite well to trust them. If I see McMurtrie’s head sticking up above the parapet, I don’t throw anything at it these days, but if I didn’t know he was I’d murder him! So you really have to trust people who get up on stage with you because it’s our little world.”

It seems to have paid off in some of the shots that they got, so it’s a good thing that you did. There’s several bits in the movie that has some resonance. There’s that bit where that kid holding Nicko’s drum sticks and bursting into tears…

Bruce: “That’s genius. I can’t imagine how they got that shot…well, they didn’t get it they just happened to have that camera trained on the kid. I’m sure that when they played the footage back they couldn’t believe what they’d got. And the film’s full of it. When we get to Mexico, there’s two shagging dogs! Ha ha ha! What are the chances?”

‘Iron Maiden: Flight 666′ is released worldwide on official Iron Maiden Day – April 21st.

Click here for the second ‘Iron Maiden: Flight 666′ interview with Janick Gers!