Bill Burr Freaks Out After Seeing Iron Maiden Live: ‘They F–king Blew Me Away’
We all know comic Bill Burr is a metalhead. His fanboy freak-outs over bands like Meshuggah and Pantera have forever endeared him to the metal community, and on the newest episode of Burr’s Monday Morning Podcast, he talks about seeing Iron Maiden live on their current tour.
Burr was in the pit for Maiden’s Sept. 14 show in Los Angeles. “I don’t think the band has ever sounded better,” Burr raves. “They absolutely fucking blew me away. Bruce Dickinson’s voice was incredible.”
As a drummer himself, Burr had plenty of praise for Maiden’s percussion master Nicko McBrain. “You should see the guy’s drum kit. His drum kits are works of art,” the comic says. “It looks like it’s made out of stained glass when it’s underneath the lights … Each one of his toms, [the artist] did a different motif of all the different Eddies throughout the years, all the different album covers. Despite all the albums that they have, [Nicko] seems to have just as many toms going around his kit. I can not say enough about how great the band sounded.”
“Nicko McBrain was the reason I started playing drums,” Burr adds. “I watched that Live After Death VHS tape a million times … I watched Live After Death for so fucking long that it became a catchphrase between me and all my siblings, of Bruce Dickinson saying, ‘Scream for me, Long Beach!’ When we saw them Saturday night, Bruce Dickinson was going, ‘Scream for me, Los Angeles!’ Me and [my sister] just looked at each other like, ‘Oh my god. he’s saying the thing that we watched!’ Total fanboy thing. It was fucking awesome.”
Bill was even blown away by how much merch Iron Maiden moved at the show. “Their fucking merch lines? I thought it was the line to get into the concert. It was just people standing there to buy their t-shirts. I went up to their merch table at the end [of the show] and everything was sold out.”
Bill Burr’s new comedy special, Paper Tiger, recently premiered on Netflix. For Iron Maiden’s remaining Legacy of the Beast tour dates, click here.
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