Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson made a surprise appearance at San Diego Comic-Con last night (July 23), joining Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong’s rock and roll covers band The Coverups to perform Mott The Hoople classic All The Young Dudes.
The 67-year-old British metal icon’s unannounced cameo at the event, a Fandom / Z2 Comics party launching the weekender, came five songs into The Coverups’ 26-song set. Dickinson had previously covered the song, written by David Bowie and recorded for Mott The Hoople’s Bowie-produced fifth album in 1972, on his 1990 solo album Tattooed Millionaire.
The Coverups set also included faithful takes on Buzzcock’s Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve) ,Ramones’ I Wanna Be Sedated, Nirvana’s Drain You – dedicated to late L7 bassist Jennifer Finch – and classic songs by Cheap Trick, Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue, The Strokes and more.
Watch fan footage of the performance below.
Bruce Dickinson previously collaborated with Z2 on his science-fantasy comic book series The Mandrake Project, a tie-in with his acclaimed 2024 solo album bearing the same title.
While the album was the first solo release from Iron Maiden’s singer in almost 20 years, Dickinson has promised that there is more new music to come.
“it’s not over,” he promised in 2024. “I’m going to be writing music in two or three weeks, I hope, with [longtime guitarist and collaborator] Roy[‘Z’ Ramirez] again, because we’ve got more stuff we wanna do. So, yeah, there’ll be another album, because we already have 10 or 12 different ideas for it.”
The Mandrake Project reached number 3 in the UK charts upon its release in March 2024, and peaked at number 176 on the Billboard 200.
Barring future surprise appearances, Dickinson will next be onstage on August 29 when Iron Maiden resume their Run For Your Lives world tour at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada.
