A Bruce Dickinson Onstage Injury Helped Iron Maiden Break the US

Longtime Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood recalled how an onstage incident in which Bruce Dickinson wound up with blood on his face helped make the band’s name in South America and then the United States.

Smallwood – affectionately known as “Rod Smallwallet” by Steve Harris and his bandmates – also told of his first encounter with the band, when they had to play as a trio because their singer, Paul Di’Anno, was in jail.

In a new interview with Classic Rock, the businessman cited Maiden’s performance at Rock In Rio in 1985 as a key moment in the organization’s global development.

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“The impact of Rock In Rio was monumental,” Smallwood said. “We had no history at all in South America before then. We played before Queen, and the audience was reportedly 300,000 – but it could have been more. And it was broadcast live on TV. Not just in Brazil, but across all of South America.”

He continued: “The sound was pretty bad onstage. Bruce got so frustrated that he kicked off some of the monitors. And that’s when he ran into a guitar head and cut himself. The blood was streaming down his face.

“I was on the side of the stage, and Bruce came over to me. I said, ‘See the camera over there with a red light on? Go and get your head right in front of it!’ Bruce tells a different version of that story where I sent a roadie up to him to tell him to make the wound a bit wider so he bled more!”

Watch Iron Maiden Perform at Rock in Rio in 1985

Smallwood’s stage direction worked. “The sight of Bruce’s bloody face had a huge impact,” he said. “After that one show, we were playing to a minimum of 40,000 people a night in South America – forever, effectively.”

He described the performance as “one of the most important shows we ever did,” and explained how it connected with his ambitions. “Metal is a worldwide thing, and I always wanted Maiden to be a hugely successful international band. I wanted parallel development across the world.”

When Iron Maiden Played as a Trio in a London Pub

He also discussed seeing a three-piece version of Maiden at The Swan, a pub in Hammersmith, London, in 1979. “This was the first show I ever saw by Maiden,” he recalled. “They had to play without Paul because he’d been arrested for carrying a flick knife.

“Even though I wasn’t managing the band then, I went into management mode and called the cop station, but they wouldn’t let Paul out. So it was just three of them: Steve, Dave [Murray] and the original drummer, Dougie Sampson.

“I said to Steve, ‘Do you know the words to the songs?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I wrote them.’ I said, ‘Can you sing?’ He said, ‘Not very well.’ ‘Can you try?’ ‘Yeah, fine.’”

Only about 30 people witnessed the performance, but Smallwood said, “I can still see it now in my mind’s eye.”