Dickinson quit Iron Maiden in 1993 (being replaced by Blaze Bayley) to pursue his solo career, which saw him experiment with a wide variety of heavy metal and rock styles.

He undertook a career as a commercial pilot for Astraeus Airlines, which led to a number of media-reported ventures such as captaining Iron Maiden's converted charter aeroplane, Ed Force One, during their world tours.

[12] As a result, much of Dickinson's childhood was spent living on a building site, until his parents bought a boarding house and a bankrupt garage where his father began selling second-hand cars.

[14] Oundle was where Dickinson became attracted to progressive rock and early heavy metal after hearing Deep Purple's "Child in Time" being played in another student's room.

"[20] They liked what they heard and invited Dickinson down to the studio to make "Dracula", the first song he would ever record, with a band called "Shots",[20] formed by two brothers, Phil and Doug Siviter.

[22] The next step in Dickinson's career was taken in a pub called the Prince of Wales in Gravesend, Kent, where Shots were playing regularly, when Barry Graham ("Thunderstick") and Paul Samson paid a visit.

[32] The band were turned over to RCA, which began neglecting the group, and so they promptly fired their management team and the resulting injunction meant that their equipment was reclaimed and they could not be paid for their concert performances.

[34] In the practice rooms, the band played through "Prowler", "Sanctuary", "Running Free" and "Remember Tomorrow", before asking Dickinson to sing the same songs again in a recording studio, and he was immediately inducted into the group.

On the following albums, 1983's Piece of Mind and 1984's Powerslave, Steve Harris's song-writing monopoly was pushed aside in favour of other members' ideas, with Dickinson contributing to a number of tracks, including the singles "Flight of Icarus" and "2 Minutes to Midnight".

Dickinson was disappointed with the effort as he felt that the band needed a more dramatic stylistic departure from past records to remain relevant, despite its introduction of synthesised bass and guitars.

[38] By 1992, Harris had converted his barn into a proper studio, and the new album, Fear of the Dark, was recorded there,[54] resulting in a better overall sound than No Prayer for the Dying,[55] although Dickinson still says it had limitations due to its size.

[60] Smallwood also spoke to Steve Harris about Dickinson's return, who initially had reservations about the prospect, but soon came round to the idea, deliberating that they knew of his abilities and that it was a case of "better the devil you know".

Dickinson insisted that they find a replacement for the now retired Martin Birch, the band's regular producer, and record in a different studio than the one in which they made No Prayer for the Dying and Fear of the Dark, to which Harris agreed.

[62] The album was recorded at Guillaume Tell Studios, Paris with producer Kevin Shirley,[63] after which Iron Maiden undertook a supporting tour culminating with a performance at the Rock in Rio festival before a crowd of 250,000.

[69] Iron Maiden held another world tour in 2010 and 2011 in support of The Final Frontier,[70] their first album recorded at Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Bahamas since 1986's Somewhere in Time,[71] and which peaked at No.

[73] The release features two songs written solely by Dickinson for the first time since Powerslave, "If Eternity Should Fail" and "Empire of the Clouds",[74] the former originally penned for a possible solo record.

[81] Dickinson has since denied making comments against Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath,[83] but admitted that he criticised Ozzfest throughout the tour, attacking their "corporate" seating layout and saying, "Most of the bands are there because they paid to be there.

"[84] Following the concert at San Bernardino, Osbourne released a further statement which accused Dickinson of making several anti-American comments,[85] for which Classic Rock stated that "nobody can present any cast-iron evidence".

[78] In addition, Osbourne claimed that the flag-waving during "The Trooper" was disrespectful to American troops,[85] at the time fighting alongside the British in Iraq, even though Dickinson had always held a Union Flag during the song, being based on the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War.

Dickinson took up the opportunity and called an old friend of his, former Gillan guitarist, Janick Gers, and, shortly after meeting up, they had "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter" ready for the studio,[90] then recorded with the assistance of bassist Andy Carr, and drummer Fabio del Rio.

"[100] The follow-up, The Chemical Wedding, was a semi-concept album on alchemy, which drew inspiration from William Blake's writings; with some songs, such as "Book of Thel", having the same title as some of his poems, and the cover artwork featuring one of his paintings.

"[101] During The Chemical Wedding's supporting tour, the live album, Scream for Me Brazil was recorded in São Paulo, after which Dickinson and Smith returned to Iron Maiden in February 1999.

[115] Dickinson's son Austin was the lead singer in metalcore band Rise to Remain until their break-up in 2015,[116] at which point he formed the alternative metal group As Lions.

[141] Following Astraeus' closure on 21 November 2011, Dickinson branched into entrepreneurship when he launched Cardiff Aviation Ltd on 1 May 2012, an aircraft maintenance business based at the Twin Peaks Hangar in St Athan, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales.

[156] For the 2016 The Book of Souls World Tour, the band upgraded to a Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet, which meant that Dickinson had to undertake type conversion to fly the aircraft.

[171] In 2013, Iron Maiden collaborated with Robinsons Brewery in Stockport to create Trooper, a 4.8% cask/4.7% bottled ale[172][173] whose recipe Dickinson formulated with head brewer Martyn Weeks.

[178] Along with Ronnie James Dio and Rob Halford, Dickinson is one of the pioneers of the operatic vocal style later to be adopted by power metal vocalists and regularly appears near the top in lists of the greatest rock vocalists/front-men of all time.

[104] Dickinson's singing varied in the 1990s in the recording of albums such as No Prayer for the Dying, Fear of the Dark and his first solo work Tattooed Millionaire, making use of a much more raspy and unpolished sound,[180] befitting their stripped down style.

[190] He is critical of performers who do not connect with their fans, particularly those who "[hide] behind the amps" and use an autocue, remarking that "people pay good money and [they] can't even remember the sodding words".

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