Iron Maiden rocker Bruce Dickinson has confessed he took up fencing to avoid groupies.
The Number of the Beast rocker, 67, has been married three times before and tied the knot with his third spouse, Leana Dolci, in 2023.
Like many musicians, he’s bedded his fair share of female fans on the road, but, upon the advice of The Who guitarist Pete Townshend, he put a stop to it and found other ways to spend his time, including training to become a top fencer in 1983.
Bruce – who is also a pilot – candidly told Classic Rock: “I was busy s******g everything that moved and none of it was healthy.
“I remember something that (The Who guitarist) Pete Townshend once said about groupies — ‘The moment you realise you can click your finger and manipulate people into having sex with you, that’s the moment you’re going down the slippery slope’.
“You can’t believe women are throwing themselves at you. You think, ‘Well this is nice’. And it is. It’s f*****g great. But there’s a dark side to this.
“Where do you stop? When does it become a prop, like alcohol or cocaine?
“So that’s when I started doing extracurricular activities like fencing.
“I was thinking, ‘I’ve got to do something to keep my brain clean.'”
Meanwhile, the frontman previously described the heavy metal band’s concerts as “a magical ritual” that is “almost shamanic”.
Bruce believes it’s his role to play with gig-goers’ energy levels and spirits when he steps on stage.
In an interview with The Quietus, he began: “An Iron Maiden show is a magic ritual.
“That’s absolutely what is going on. I look at what I’m doing – the way I behave, my placement on the stage at a certain point in the set – as almost shamanic. What you are doing is playing with the audience’s energy, raising it, lowering it, reflecting it back.”
And it’s not an undertaking for the fainthearted.
He went on: “I regard myself when I’m onstage as being essentially transparent. That’s the only way I can deal with the level of intensity that’s happening – removing myself from the equation and letting the song take over. Sometimes, if I throw a s***-fit at some guy in the audience, it’s because they’ve behaved in a way that’s broken the spell. That’s infuriating, because you were so in that moment of actual non-existence. It looks like you’re there, but actually you’re not. You’ve vanished into the music and the show – that’s what propels you, that’s what you’ve become.”
Iron Maiden are set to continue their 50th anniversary Run For Your Lives tour in 2026.
After a slew of dates across Europe next year, the band will take a break from touring in 2027.