The English musician was asked to perform the song at the Pittsburgh Steelers’ first home game of the season against the Seattle Seahawks, noting on Instagram that it was “a huge honour” to be invited. Dickinson left the field to chants of “U.S.A! U.S.A!”
“I’ll let you in to a secret,” Dickinson said in a recent interview on podcast The Charismatic Voice. “I’ve got to sing the national anthem in Pittsburgh for the Pittsburgh Steelers. They’ve asked me to do this. I’m going to do it a cappella and stuff, and as long as you start at the right place, you’re good to go.”
Paul Mario Day, the original vocalist for Iron Maiden, has died aged 69 after living with cancer. His bandmates in his subsequent band, More, shared the news, acknowledging Day as “a huge part of the new wave of British heavy metal” and “a well-loved figure in British rock music”.
Maiden bassist Steve Harris recruited Day in late 1975; the band gave their first live performance in Poplar, London on 1 May 1976 and then held a residency at a pub in nearby Stratford.
Day remained with the group for 10 months, but left after being accused of lacking energy and charisma. His replacement, Dennis Wilcock, was similarly short-lived, ultimately replaced by Paul Di’Anno, who was fired for drug and alcohol abuse and replaced by long-term vocalist Bruce Dickinson.
In 2019, Day said of his firing: “Steve was saying, ‘You’ve got to get better. You’ve got to be more in the audience’s face. You’ve got to be commanding. You’ve got to be a hero.’ And I agreed with him, but I didn’t actually know how to make that happen.
“I got a warning for maybe three months: ‘Get it together. Get it together.’ And I wanted to, I just didn’t know how to do it. So the funny thing is, the worst experience was the best lesson because when I got that notice and I felt so gutted, it changed me.
