So I went to see Bruce Dickinson on his speaking tour in Boston the other night.
It was good. Interesting. Entertaining. The guy spoke for almost three hours, straight, with no teleprompter (when I saw the other "Bruce" - Springsteen - he had a teleprompter on the front of the balcony, so while he improvised, it was a scripted show). It was good; it was similar in scope to his autobiography in that it was more about HIM than the people around him. There were more mentions of Iron Maiden here, but no dirt, nothing that might shed light into the band or inner workings. Though, during the "Q&A" (which wasn't live; he came out with a stack of index cards like Ellen and answered what was on there), he did a killer impression of Steve running around pointing his bass like a rifle. He also did a couple good impressions of Nicko as well.
I liked it, but my friend - whose favorite album of all time is Killers and still hasn't gotten over that Paul Di'Anno is no longer in the band - was less impressed. He was right: you had to be a fan of Bruce and his schtick to like the show. I am, so I did, but even I have one complaint: I had hoped for something more... substantive. The other Bruce, when the show was over, and I was heading back on the train, I realized there was insight there, there was a message there, there were even lessons there, if you wanted to go that far. With "our" Bruce, there didn't seem to be a connection like that. He had a thread of "mustaches" going through the talk, but it never tied off. He had a bad mustache when he joined his first band, and he had a bad mustache when he beat cancer, and he pointed that out, but never gave it any import. I suppose that might be for us to do, but it seemed a little... not pointless, but maybe weightless?
I will say this, the dude has ENERGY. Three hours bouncing around the stage talking constantly, and with enthusiasm. On that level - hitting whatever you're doing as hard as you can - there was some inspiration there.