It’s just marketing imo. In the 90s Bruce was selling the “I’m bigger than any one genre” shtick and then came into the Brave New World tour acting like a 14 year old who was going to kick your ass if you don’t listen to Metal. He’s just projecting an image to go with the music (and beer) he’s selling.
Exactly. But it's the reason why I never warmed up to Bruce. In the 80's he was railing against MTV constantly, and I kept thinking, if there's one band touring arenas at the time that owes their place to MTV, it was Iron Maiden.
The thing is, Maiden, to me, was always built on integrity, and I always kind of thought Bruce was a bit of an outlier in the club. This is what I was thinking back then. I never liked his preachiness and uppityness between songs. I never thought it aligned with what Maiden was all about. Again, these were my thoughts in the 80's and early 90's.
Now that all said, no one works harder and is more accomplished than Bruce Dickinson, the guy has earned everything he's achieved.
And it honestly wasn't until I got Balls To Picasso that I finally respected him as an artist. He blew me away with that album, especially contrasted with The X Factor. It hit me right then how important Bruce was to the balance of Iron Maiden.