Bruce Dickinson revealed that he underwent hip surgery in October 2020 due to the strain of Iron Maiden . The vocalist had five and a half centimeters of titanium implanted in his leg.
In an interview with Kylie Olsson , host of the Download: Reload festival, Bruce Dickinson gave details about the surgery: “I had a new hip implanted several months ago. So now I have five and a half centimeters of titanium hammered into my leg. Because I run on stage and jump, and after 40 years of left-handed fencing, it was worn out.”
“The last tour was really quite painful. And I attribute that to the fact that shortly before the tour I broke my Achilles tendon. It’s horrible,” he said. “That was basically two years ago. I fixed [the Achilles tendon] and went on tour three and a half months later, but I couldn’t walk or run properly. So, I modified what I did on stage and nobody noticed. I did the whole South American tour, everything. I was surprised.”
“I was running, but my hip was giving me a lot of trouble. People would tell me, ‘You’re compensating with the other leg,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, yeah. So, that’s it,’” he continued.
After the tour, the 62-year-old singer returned to fencing training, but it was while in Paris during quarantine that he felt his hip worsen. “I went to the doctor and he said, ‘Take a look at this. You have osteoarthritis in your hip,’” recalled Bruce Dickinson, who was becoming addicted to ibuprofen to manage the pain.
“Okay, so let’s do it in October [2020]. Because I have to go on tour next year. Little did I know [that the Iron Maiden shows would be postponed to 2022]. But, being an eternal optimist, it was the best thing I did. Now, with my new hip, I’m back to fencing. It’s absolutely incredible. I’ve been doing physiotherapy and exercises that I haven’t done since I was 16 or 17.”
Watch the full interview below.
