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Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson reveals positive COVID-19 diagnosis

Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson tested positive for coronavirus – and says if he hadn't been vaccinated, he could have been in "serious trouble".

After rescheduling the final couple of dates of his UK spoken-word solo tour, Bruce Dickinson has revealed that he has tested positive for COVID-19.

The Iron Maiden frontman – who is vaccinated – cut his tour short after a member of his household contracted coronavirus, and has since gotten the virus himself. "I thought, 'Oh well, shit,'" Bruce tells Rolling Stone of his reaction when taking the lateral flow test that confirmed the diagnosis. "I was kind of sneezing a bit. For a couple of days, I felt a bit groggy, kind of like the flu, and that was it. And I'm 63 years old. I've pretty much got no doubt that had I not had the vaccine, I could be in serious trouble."

He adds that getting vaccinated is a "personal choice", though 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".

Read this: The Way Of The Samurai: Uncover the secrets of Iron Maiden’s new album, Senjutsu – the only interview

"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," he continues. "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… 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.'"

In other Maiden news, the band recently shared a new mini-look at the making of their upcoming album Senjutsu.

Watch that below: