Iron Maiden‘s Bruce Dickinson recently called out fans for smoking at a gig after a vape exploded during the show.
During Dickinson’s gig on Saturday (April 27) at the Opera Hall in Brasília, Brazil, the singer addressed the crowd and called out a group of fans who were smoking cigarettes and vaping during his set. The smoke and fumes were irritating the singer’s voice and affecting the rest of his band and touring party.
In a now-deleted video clip shared by the Instagram account Iron Maiden Brasil, Dickinson told the crowd: “I can’t fucking breathe. [Bassist] Tanya [O’Callaghan] can’t breathe. You with the fucking vape over there, yeah, it’s not you, but, you know, please, fucking do that outside, all right? You know, if you can’t stay for five minutes without having a fucking addiction.” (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
He continued in another clip: “I do apologize for coughing. Some of you fuckers are smoking, all right? I can’t sing if you’re gonna smoke, all right? [Tanya’s] coughing her guts out, I’m coughing, my fucking wife is going, ‘Blargh,’ in the back there, all right? It’s kind of disgusting, all right? But if you wanna be disgusting, do it outside, all right? Not in here. My throat’s got work to do. You pay good money to hear me fucking sing, not go, ‘Blargh, blargh,’ all right?”
The singer also insisted that someone was also “using pepper spray,” but it was later revealed that someone’s vape pen had exploded in the crowd which created noxious fumes similar to pepper spray.
This is not the first time Dickinson has called out his fans at one of his shows. Back in the summer of 2022, he stopped a concert in Greece after a fan lit a flare during ‘The Number Of The Beast’.
As the band launched into their classic anthem at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Dickinson sang the line “What did I see?” before he shouted: “A cunt with a fucking flare!” after he spotted a fan lighting a flare in the crowd. “I’ve got to fucking sing, right? Fuck you!” he then ranted.
In other news, Iron Maiden are set to perform in Australia later this year. It will mark their first trip Down Under since 2017.