Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson spoke in an interview with Loudwire and explained his thoughts on his cancer. He said:
“Mortality is inevitable. So that’s the first thing to get clear. [laughs] Sudden death is really quite unpredictable because, by definition, there’s nothing you can do about it. You get hit by a truck, you clearly didn’t see it coming, otherwise, you’d go out of the way.
The cancer thing was interesting because, yeah, you do think about death and dying but at no point during it did I think I was dying. Because the first thing you get the diagnosis you go… Well, you could die. Do you feel like dying? No. Do you feel dead? No. Do you feel sick? Not really. So it’s this strange thing. You got a long way to go before the event happens in a bad way.
So having come out of the other side of that, how do I feel about the whole death and dying thing? Much the same as before. Hasn’t changed my view on death and dying, which is that it’s inevitable, but it’s some way off and you deal with it when you have to deal with it.
What’s changed slightly is my perception of living. And it’s the living that gets more urgent after you have a big health scare. Because living is great, life is fantastic, and don’t waste your time. And above all, don’t let other people waste your time.
So I reserve the right to be impatient with people and go ‘You’re just spinning my wheels here for no reason whatsoever, just piss off.’
You know what, I’m actually gonna sit in the chair and stare at the sunset and go ‘Yep, I’m gonna do nothing for an hour. Because I can. Because it’s my life. Not yours, don’t waste my time. Live life for now. Live it for right now.”
