When Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson set about to work on his first solo album in 1990, he did not want to create an offshoot of his main band, Iron Maiden. The British icons are certainly known for their distinctive musical gallop, epic songs, and lyrics trading in history, mythology, and fantasy. For his solo debut Tattooed Millionaire, Dickinson was influenced by melodic hard rock, even some AC/DC-ish moments, with lyrics that delved into a combination of real world topics, a nostalgic song about his past, and some cheeky sex lyrics. It also included a cover of “All the Young Dudes.”
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Proud Outsider
The title track to the album was a spirited and pointed rant clearly leveled at the hedonistic decadence of the Sunset Strip rock scene. This is the Hollywood set that produced bands like Mötley Crüe, Ratt, Great White, and dozens of others. For many fans of true heavy metal at the time, the hair bands represented a lighter, watered down version of the genre that reduced the musical complexity and reveled in party hearty cliches. Many thrash bands dove into serious social issues; many hair bands dove into bed with lots of women.
Dickinson himself was and remains an unusual heavy metal (or even rock) frontman. His current solo album The Mandrake Project is inspired by the likes of William Blake, Aleister Crowley, and comic book auteur Alan Moore. The singer is also a fencer, a pilot, and a very well-read lyricist. He has had no interest in being steeped in the sex, drugs and rock and roll cliches that the Sunset Strip set lived and abided by, and “Tattooed Millionaire” was his statement about that.
Tattooed boys with expensive toys
Living in a bubble of sin
Money can buy you most of anything
Fix your nose or the mess your in
Front page news you can share your views
With a population that wants to be like you
Out on the strip. Out on the tiles
Same old greed behind the PR smiles
Beyond the Tattoos
Dickinson has nothing against tattoos. It is worth noting back then that getting inked was not mainstream. The cliché was that people with tats were either bikers, military, or convicts. A slow shift began in the ’80s when select rock stars and NBA players began showing off their ink, leading to the mainstream acceptance we have now.
Around the time of his first album’s release, Dickinson explained an a TV interview the meaning of the title track. “It’s not about having a tattoo or not having a tattoo,” he said. “Tattooed Millionaire’s just like a whole area that I just see as a big festering, open sore on the a–hole of mankind, in terms of music. The whole vibe about that scene is it’s nothing to do with music. It’s nothing to do with being real. … It’s to do with some some bulls–t attitude. That’s down to, you know, we want to ride around in limos and do all the garbage and … we want to get chicks, man. I’ve seen the archetypal tattooed millionaires screwing some chick outside of a tour bus on the sidewalk. … What’s this guy trying to prove?”
Yes, It Was Axl
Years later, Dickinson zeroed in one individual in particular who proved to be the true source of his bile. Speaking to ZN84 in 1998 while on tour to promote The Chemical Wedding, he revealed “Tattooed Millionaire” was “dedicated to Axl Rose. I’ve never met someone so selfish and ruthless as he is.” Many fans thought it was about Nikki Sixx and Mötley Crüe. Even though the lyrics had a specific inspiration, one could project them onto many Hollywood rockers.
Dickinson’s disdain for Rose extends beyond him just being a polarizing figure. G’NR opened for Maiden in Quebec City on May 16, 1988. Rose did not like the audience speaking or shouting to him in French—funny thing about those French Canadians—and reportedly attacked some of them.
Speaking to Le Journal de Montreal in 2015, Dickinson recalled, “I should have come on stage and give it a punch. How could he dare to speak to my audience in this way? I always regretted not having done so.”
One could see how the song got its inspiration.
A Solid Solo Start
Tattooed Millionaire was a good start to Dickinson’s solo career, and it brought many people’s attention to the solid guitar work of Janick Gers, who would later join Iron Maiden when Adrian Smith departed. The singer clearly showed more sides to his personality outside of Iron Maiden, and over the course of his first three albums explored more accessible hard rock, classic metal, and even the grunge-influenced sounds of Skunkworks.
His debut album performed decently, cracking the Top 20 in the UK, Top 10 in Finland, and hitting No. 100 in America. The follow-up release Balls To Picasso would fare better and introduce many people to talented guitarist/songwriter Roy Z, who would go on to collaborate on and produce other albums for Dickinson, Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford, Helloween, and others. Thus each album showcased a nice one-two punch—of the musical variety.
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Photo by Theo Wargo/WireImage
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