“He sent me home in a taxi with a towel”: Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson once threw up on Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan’s shoes

Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson has revealed the most embarrassing moment of his life.

The 65-year-old made the admission during a recent Q&A with The Guardian , where he explained that he once vomited on the shoes of Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan.

Dickinson calls the singer “one of [his] vocal heroes”.

“I once threw up on the shoes of one of my vocal heroes, the Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan,” Dickinson says during the interview.

“He sent me home in a taxi with a towel.”

The Iron Maiden man, who fronted the band from 1981 to 1993 and returned to the position in 1999, explained the incident in more depth during an appearance on BBC radio in 2021.

It happened during his pre-Maiden days, when he was fronting London hard rockers Samson.

“We’ve done an album in Ian Gillan’s studio,” said Dickinson.

“We’ve all been up the pub and had a few pints. In walks my god, Ian Gillan, and goes, ‘Hey, what a great vocalist. Who’s the singer?’ At that moment, I felt the sudden urge to vomit.”

Dickinson continued: “I ran out of the room [and] puked up for about 45 minutes in the toilet.

“In comes my idol, kicks the door and goes, ‘Come on, mate. Out you come. Let’s get you wiped down with a towel.’

“He put me in a taxi and sent me home. I’ve never forgotten that – and he’s never let me forget it either.”

Dickinson spoke about his passion for Deep Purple in a 2022 Metal Hammer interview .

“I cut my teeth as a kid on Purple,” he said.

“It’s what I grew up with, what got me out of bed in the morning in terms of rock’n’roll music.”

Of Gillan specifically, he added: “Ian was a big vocal hero of mine.

“There was Ian Gillan, Arthur Brown, Ian Anderson from Jethro Tull, surprisingly enough, and a chap called Peter Hammill from Van Der Graaf Generator.

“They’re all in the same area of voices – they all had a ballsy sort of tenor, extended baritone thing to their voices.”

Dickinson is currently touring to promote his 2024 solo album, The Mandrake Project .

The singer will tour Oceania as part of Iron Maiden in September, then trek through the Americas with the band from October to December.

Dickinson recently played an Iron Maiden song live with his solo band for the first time in 22 years.