While seeing the benefit of getting vaccinated, the Iron Maiden frontman admits he does not believe fans should be required to do so for the reasons of going into concerts.

• Aug 13, 2021

AceShowbiz - Rocker Bruce Dickinson is convinced the COVID vaccination may have saved his life after contracting the virus from a family member.

The Iron Maiden frontman postponed the last two dates of his U.K. spoken-word tour last week (ends August 6) when a member of his immediate household tested positive for the coronavirus - and he returned home to quarantine for 10 days, per government guidelines. He now tells Rolling Stone he has since tested positive too.

"I've pretty much got no doubt that had I not had the vaccine, I could be in serious trouble...," Bruce says. "I thought I had a cold and these lateral-flow tests came back negative, negative, negative, and suddenly like, 'Oh, it's not a cold.' So after a vaccine, that's the extent of the discomfort."

Despite the risks, Dickinson is keen to get back onstage and though he doesn't believe fans attending shows should be required to get vaccinated, he hopes they see sense.

"I think people are just very badly advised if they don't go and get themselves double jabbed as quickly as possible, not for the reasons of going into concerts, but for their own health," he adds.

"Having said that, even if you've had a double jab, you can still get COVID, and therefore you can spread it to other people who might not have been vaccinated and they might get very sick and die."

"Now you cannot legislate against mortality. There are many things in this world that kill people and they're not illegal but are unfortunate. Cancer kills a lot of people. Heart attacks kill a lot of people. Obesity kills a lot of people. Malaria kills a shitload of people every year…," the 63-year-old further elaborates. So at some point, we have to just go, 'We're probably going to have to live with this. And if we're going to live with it, then you have your vaccination.' "