Iron Maiden‘s Bruce Dickinson has explained why he voted to leave the EU and said he’s “quite relaxed” about Brexit.

The frontman was part of the 52 percent of UK citizens who voted for the country to leave the European Union – a move that must now be completed by March 29, 2019.

Speaking to L’Obs, Dickinson suggested Europe would be “run a lot better” if musicians were in charge and added that he didn’t see Brexit’s predicted negative impact on touring bands as a realistic concern.


“Iron Maiden music is global music – we have fans everywhere,” he said. “I don’t see any problem with touring Australia – that’s not part of the EU. There’s no problem with touring in Japan – that’s not part of the EU. I don’t see any problem with touring America. Oh, let me see – that’s not part of the EU. Do those musicians have problems coming to Europe? No.”

He continued to discuss the way politicians were handling the situation, saying there is “a lot of nonsense and scare stories being made up by both sides which I think is pretty immature.” The musician added he thought Brexit would make the country “more flexible”, which would be advantageous to people in Europe.

“What you have at the moment is effectively the European Union obviously not doing a very good job satisfying the democracies of Europe,” he said. “A lot of people, not just Brexit, but all kinds of other people – whether it’s Italians, Greeks, Hungarians or Catalans, or whoever it is – are all having big populist movements. It’s because their democratic needs are not being addressed by Brussels. The right people to address the needs is the democratically elected leaders.”

Dickinson said: “There’s no desire for most people in England, even people who voted to remain in the EU, to become part of a federal system. And I think that’s a big mistake. Britain has always been a trading nation with the rest of the world. Only since the ’60s has Britain started to look only at Europe as being a source of trade – and I think ultimately that’s ended up being a big mistake.

“Brexit actually opens our borders, Brexit opens the United Kingdom to the whole of the world,” he added.


He explained that he thought no matter what deal the UK was left with, “Brexit will not change the status of the [country] by very much”, except for enhanc[ing] our economic capabilities.” “That’s good for us and, in the long run, good for Europe as well,” he said. “Because as the fifth largest economy in the world, Europe would like access to our market.”

The frontman concluded that the “nonsense” around Brexit would soon be forgotten and people would “get on with doing what we should be doing, which is getting on with each other, trading with each other, making music, making love, and making sure that Vladimir Putin doesn’t come and end up ruling our country.”

Earlier today (November 25), the CEO of UK Music issued an open letter to Theresa May urging her to consider the impact Brexit could have on the UK’s live music industry. “The ending of free movement with no waiver for musicians will put our fast-growing live music sector, that generates around £1 billion a year for the UK economy, at serious risk,” Michael Dugher wrote.

“The costly bureaucracy will make touring simply unviable for very many artists who need to earn a living and it delivers a hammer blow to development of future, world-leading British talent.”