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Narcotics Anonymous

Narcotics Anonymous (NA), founded in 1953, describes itself as a "nonprofit fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs had become a major problem." Narcotics Anonymous uses a 12-step model developed for people with varied substance use disorders and is the second-largest 12-step organization, after 12-step pioneer Alcoholics Anonymous.

there were more than 70,000 NA meetings in 144 countries.

Membership and organization
The third tradition of NA states that the only requirement for membership is "a desire to stop using." NA says its meetings are where members can "meet regularly to help each other stay clean." All facts and quotes presented in "The Narcotics Anonymous program" section, unless otherwise sourced, come from the Narcotics Anonymous (Basic Text). Membership in NA is free, and there are no dues or fees.

The foundation of the Narcotics Anonymous program is the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. Narcotics Anonymous uses a slight variation of wording in both the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions when compared to other Twelve Step groups.

According to the Basic Text, Narcotics Anonymous "has no opinion on outside issues," including those of politics, science or medicine, and does not endorse any outside organization or institution. The fellowship does not promote itself, but rather attracts new members through public information and outreach. Individuals can also be compelled to attend by courts or rehab programs. NA groups and areas supply outside organizations with factual information regarding the NA program, and individual members may carry the NA message to hospitals and institutions, such as treatment centers and jails.

The nature of addiction
According to the philosophy of the NA program, most addicts did not realize they had a problem with drugs until they had no other choice besides ending up dead or in jail. Even if other people pointed out they may have a drug problem they were convinced otherwise. But once an addict on his or her own tries to stop and realizes they cannot, they finally see that drugs have been controlling them. Addicts "lived to use and used to live". NA helps show them a different way of life and helps them fight their disease. NA describes addiction as a progressive disease with no known cure, which affects every area of an addict's life: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. NA suggests that the disease of addiction can be arrested, and recovery is possible through the NA twelve-step program. The steps never mention drugs or drug use, rather they refer only to addiction, to indicate that addicts have a disease of which drug use is one symptom. In the NA program, all drugs are considered equal, and alcohol is also a drug. Other symptoms include obsession, compulsion, denial, and self-centeredness.

Meetings
Regular meetings, hosted by NA groups, are the basic unit of the NA fellowship. Meetings are held in a variety of places such as church meeting rooms, libraries, hospitals, community centers, parks, or any other place that can accommodate a meeting.

Members who attend the same meeting regularly to establish a recovery network and reliable routine understand this to be their "home group." Home-group members can participate in the group's business and play an important role in deciding how the group's meetings should be conducted.

Formats
There are two basic types of meetings: "open" and "closed." Anyone is welcome to attend an open meeting, while closed meetings are limited to addicts and to people who think they may have a problem with drugs.

Meeting formats vary, but often include time devoted to the reading aloud of NA literature regarding the issues involved in living life clean which is written by and for members of NA. Many meetings are conducted by the chairperson who chooses the speakers. Other meetings include an "open sharing" component, during which anyone attending has the opportunity to share. There is usually no direct feedback during the "share"; thus only one person ever speaks at any given time during this portion of the meeting. These types of meetings are sometimes described as discussion meetings. Some groups choose to host a single speaker (such meetings are usually denoted "speaker meetings") to share for the majority of the meeting time.

Other meeting formats include round-robin (sharing goes around in a circle), tag meeting (each speaker picks the next person to share), and stick meetings (each member draws a stick with a topic to share on). Some meetings focus on reading, writing, and/or sharing about one of the Twelve Steps or some other portion of NA literature. Some meetings are "common needs" (also known as special-interest) meetings, supporting a particular group of people based on gender, sexual identity, age, language, or another characteristic. These meetings are not exclusionary, as any addict is welcome at any NA meeting. NA communities will often make an effort to have a separate meeting run at the same time for members who do not identify with the common-needs meeting.

During the meeting, some groups allot time for NA-related announcements and many meetings set aside time to recognize clean-time "anniversaries" or "birthdays." Individuals are sometimes allowed to announce their clean time to the group. Key tags and medallions, which denote various amounts of clean time, are distributed to those who have achieved various milestones. In some areas, the addict who is celebrating a "clean-time anniversary" will be able to have support group members read the readings for the meeting and he or she will have a speaker carry the NA message. Then the addict celebrating will have their sponsor or a friend or family member give them a medallion at which time the friend will share some of the celebrating addict's achievements during the last year or from during the entire course of their recovery. Then the addict celebrating can share their experience, strength, and hope (ESH) with the group on how they did it.

NA states in the fifth tradition that "each group has but one primary purpose – to carry the message to the addict who still suffers." Therefore, the newcomer is considered to be the most important person in any meeting. Our message is hope and the promise is freedom. The NA message, as quoted in the Basic Text, states, "an addict, any addict, can stop using drugs, lose the desire to use, and find a new way to live" (Basic Text p. 68). "NA offers one promise: freedom from active addiction" (Basic Text p. 106). According to the Narcotics Anonymous Basic Text, the "Twelve Steps" are the source of this hope and freedom when worked to the best of one's ability.

Service
NA literature suggests that service work is an essential part of a program of recovery. Service is "doing the right thing for the right reason," and is the best example of "goodwill," which is the basis for the freedom only from active addiction by the NA program. Service work is usually chairing a meeting, but may be as simple as cleaning up after the meeting, putting away chairs, or answering a phone. Additionally, there are basic, formalized service positions at the group level to help the group perform its function, such as treasurer, secretary, and Group Service Representative (GSR), who represents the group in the larger service structure.

The NA service structure operates at the area, regional, and world levels. These levels of service exist to serve the groups and are directly responsible to those groups; they do not govern. World services are accountable to its member regions, who are in turn responsible to member areas. Area service committees directly support member groups and often put on special events, such as dances and picnics. Area service committees also provide special subcommittees to serve the needs of members who may be confined in jails and institutions, and will also provide a public interface to the fellowship.

Literature

 * The Basic Text called Narcotics Anonymous is divided into two books. Book one discusses the basics of the NA program and the twelve steps and traditions. Book two is composed of many personal stories.
 * It Works: How and Why offers detailed discussion of the twelve steps and traditions. and is often called the "green and gold" after its cover.
 * The Step Working Guides is a workbook with questions on each step and is often called the "Flat Book".
 * Just For Today is a book of daily meditations with quotes from the Basic Text and other NA-approved literature including the "Information Pamphlets".
 * Sponsorship is an in-depth discussion of the role of sponsorship in NA, including the personal experiences of members.
 * Miracles Happen describes the early years of the NA organization. This book contains many photographs of early literature and meeting places.
 * Living Clean: The Journey Continues was approved by the World Service Conference in May 2012. It contains members' experiences of staying clean and in recovery as they go through challenges in life such as illness, death, parenthood, spiritual paths, and employment.
 * Guiding Principles; The Spirit of Our Traditions was approved by the World Service Conference in May 2016. The book explores the principles found in the 12 Traditions of NA and is a resource for members of NA to learn what the essence of the Traditions are, as well as understanding their application for NA groups, members, and service committees.

NA has also produced dozens of "Informational Pamphlets," or "IPs," of varying length that cover a wide range of recovery-related topics, including questionnaires for those who think they may have a drug addiction and information for those addicts trying to stay clean while still inside hospitals or institutions.

Spirituality
NA calls itself a spiritual program of recovery from the disease of addiction. The NA program places importance on developing a working relationship with a "higher power". The literature suggests that members formulate their own personal understanding of a higher power. The only suggested guidelines are that this power is "loving, caring, and greater than one's self and more powerful than the disease of addiction".

Members are given absolute freedom in coming to an understanding of a higher power that works for them. Individuals from various spiritual and religious backgrounds, as well as many atheists and agnostics, have developed a relationship with their own higher power. NA also makes frequent use of the word "God" and some members who have difficulty with this term substitute "higher power" or read it as an acronym for "Good Orderly Direction". Narcotics Anonymous is a spiritual, not religious program.

The twelve steps of the NA program are based upon spiritual principles, three of which are honesty, open-mindedness, and willingness, embodied in the first three steps. These three are hardly exhaustive. The Basic Text of NA says, in Chapter Four, about all twelve steps, "These are the principles which made our recovery possible". According to NA members these principles, when followed to the best of one's ability, allow for a new way of life.

NA meetings usually close with a circle of the participants, a group hug, and a prayer of some sort. Prayers used to close meetings today include the "we" version of the "Serenity Prayer" ("God, Grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference."); the Third Step Prayer ("Take my will and my life. Guide me in my recovery. Show me how to live.") or the "Gratitude Prayer" ("That no addict seeking recovery need ever die. ... My Gratitude speaks when I care and when I share with others the NA way.")

Sponsorship
One addict helping another is an essential part of the NA program. It is therefore highly recommended that NA members find a sponsor. A sponsor is a member of NA who helps another member of the fellowship by sharing their experience, strength, and hope in recovery and serves as a guide through the Twelve Steps. In doing so, NA members often choose a sponsor with experience in applying the NA's Twelve Steps.

To feel most comfortable, many NA members have sponsors of the same sex although members are free to choose any other member as a sponsor. It is also suggested that one should find a sponsor who has worked all 12 steps of Narcotics Anonymous.

Anonymity
"Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities." (12th Tradition, Basic Text)

Many NA members identify themselves in meetings by their first name only. The spirit of anonymity is about placing "principles before personalities" and recognizing that no individual addict is superior to another and that individual addicts do not recover without the fellowship or its spiritual principles.

The Eleventh Tradition states that NA members "need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films".

History
NA sprang from the Alcoholics Anonymous Program of the mid-1930s, and was founded by Jimmy Kinnon. Meetings first emerged in Los Angeles in the early 1950s. The NA program, officially founded in 1953, started as a small US-based movement that has grown into the world's largest 12 step recovery program for drug addiction.

Predecessors
Alcoholics Anonymous was the first 12-step program, and through it many with drug and drinking problems found sobriety. The Fourth Tradition gives each AA group the autonomy to include or exclude non-alcoholic addicts from "closed" meetings – where only those with an expressed desire to quit drinking may attend. At "open" AA meetings, non-alcoholics are welcome.

In 1944, AA's co-founder Bill Wilson discussed a separate fellowship for drug addicts. In 1947, NARCO (also called Addicts Anonymous) met weekly at the U.S. Public Health Service's treatment center (Federal Medical Center, Lexington) inside the Lexington, Kentucky federal prison for 20 years. In 1948, a NARCO member started a short-lived fellowship also called "Narcotics Anonymous" in the New York Prison System in New York City, New York. This version of NA did not follow the 12 Traditions of NA, which resulted in problems for the fellowship and ultimately the end of that NA in the late 1940s. Jimmy K., who is credited with starting the NA as we know it today, did contact Rae Perez, a leading member of this NA fellowship. Because that fellowship did not want to follow the 12 traditions written by AA, the two NA fellowships never united.

Early history of NA
In 1953 Narcotics Anonymous, was founded by Jimmy Kinnon and others. Differing from its predecessors, NA formed a fellowship of mutually supporting groups. Founding members, most of whom were from AA, debated and established the 12 Traditions of the NA fellowship. On September 14, 1953, AA authorized NA the use of AA's 12 steps and traditions on the condition that they stop using the AA name, causing the organization to call itself Narcotics Anonymous.

In 1954, the first NA publication was printed, called the "Little Brown Book". It contained the 12 steps and early drafts of several pieces that would later be included in subsequent literature.

At that time, NA was not yet recognized by society at large as a positive force. The initial group had difficulty finding places that would allow them to meet and often had to meet in people's homes. The first meetings of Narcotics Anonymous were held in the basements of churches for the members' protection because at that time a law prohibiting convicted felons from congregating was still being upheld and churches offered their basements as a sanctuary. Addicts would have to cruise around meeting places and check for surveillance, to make sure meetings would not be busted by police. It was many years before NA became recognized as a beneficial organization, although some early press accounts were very positive.

In addition, many NA groups were not following the 12 traditions very closely (which were quite new at the time). These groups were at times accepting money from outside entities, conflating AA with NA, or even adding religious elements to the meetings. For a variety of reasons, meetings began to decline in the late 1950s, and there was a four-month period in 1959 when there were no meetings held anywhere at all. Spurred into action by this, Kinnon and others dedicated themselves to restarting NA, promising to hold to the traditions more closely.

Resurgence
In late 1959, meetings began to form again and grow. The NA White Booklet was written in 1962 and became the heart of NA meetings and the basis for all subsequent NA literature. NA was called a "hip pocket program" because the entire literature could fit into a person's hip pocket. This booklet was republished in 1966 as the NA White Book and included the personal stories of many addicts.

The first NA phone line started in 1960, and the first "H&I" group was formed in 1963 (H&I stands for Hospitals and Institutions, a sub-committee of Narcotics Anonymous that carries the message into hospitals and institutions where people cannot get to an outside meeting). That year a "Parent Service Board" (later renamed the World Service Board) was formed to ensure that NA stayed healthy and followed closely to the traditions. Confusingly, in 1962, the Salvation Army started a group also called "Narcotics Anonymous" that followed a different "13-step" program, but this program soon died out. The NA program grew slowly in the 1960s. Members of the program learned what was effective and what was not. Relapse rates declined over time and friction between NA groups began to decrease.

The 1970s was a period of rapid growth in NA's history. In 1970, there were only 20 regular, weekly meetings, all of them in the United States. Within two years there were 70, including meetings in Germany, Australia, and Bermuda. By 1976, there were 200 regular meetings, including 83 in California alone, and in the early 1980s in Brazil, Canada, Colombia, India, the Republic of Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. In 1980, the first London meeting opened in Millman Street, Chelsea, with around six members and a second followed months later. By 1981, there were 1,100 different meetings all over the world and in 1983 Mary Bolton founded Narcotics Anonymous in Ireland. A World Service Office was officially opened in 1977. In 1971, the first NA World Conference was held, and others have followed annually.

The development of NA literature
From the beginnings of NA, the need for official NA literature was evident. Unfortunately, the process of creating and approving official NA literature has seen some of the most contentious periods of debate within the fellowship. Although the Yellow Booklet, Little White Booklet, and Little White Book were used in the 1960s and 1970s, many people desired to have a more detailed book on recovery, paralleling the "Big Book" of Alcoholics Anonymous. Some meetings offered AA literature at meetings, while others considered writing their own books on recovery. One group even planned to print a bootlegged version of AA's Big Book with every instance of the word "alcohol" replaced with "drugs". The need for a unified text approved by the fellowship's "group conscience" was recognized, and in October 1979 the first NA World Literature Conference was held in Wichita, Kansas.

While previous literature had been written by just a few addicts (primarily by Jimmy Kinnon), the NA Basic Text was written as a massive collaboration between hundreds of people. There were a total of seven World Literature Conferences within three years, all of them open to any addict who wished to help. It was decided that the book would use the Little White Book as its outline, filling in and expanding on the subjects discussed in that text.

In November 1981, a finalized version was distributed to all of NA for approval, and the text was approved with a 2/3 majority required for passage. After passage, however, the publication was held up due to a spirited disagreement between the World Service Office and the members who wrote the book regarding a few key sentences which described the nature of the World Service Organization and other NA service entities. The book was printed in 1983 with the passages removed. A second edition that restored the passages quickly followed at the demand of the fellowship. A hasty vote which required Regional Service Representatives to respond within 60 days (even though most regions only met every 90 days) making it impossible to actually poll the NA Groups and membership again removed the sentences in a third edition.

Professional editors and writers were hired in 1986 to improve the Basic Text so that it was more consistent in tone and style. The resultant 4th edition, released in 1987, was improperly reviewed and had many problems, including 30 lines that were missing and text that was inconsistent with other NA literature. A 5th edition was released in 1988, purportedly correcting those problems.

In 2004, the WSC initiated a project to revise the Basic Text. This new edition would remove some of the personal stories from the 5th edition, and supplement the remainder of the original stories with more diverse personal stories from around the world. The first 10 chapters were to remain the same. Also, the preface would remain the same, as well as the "Symbol" page. There is a new preface but the original preface will be called "preface to the 1st edition". There were some other changes to the structure of the book, including the layout and flow of the book, while keeping the original message clear and unchanged. The task of choosing these stories was handed down from the World Service Office to regional meetings, to Area Service Committee meetings, and then to the individual home group meetings, where each member had a chance to review the new text.

When the Approval Draft came out on September 1, 2006, 7,500 copies were distributed (4,493 copies were mailed and 3,009 copies were electronic copies downloaded by members). The approximate number of input received was 350 pieces, of which 60 percent came from individuals, 17 percent came from groups, and 23 percent came from committees. More than 20 percent (161) of the personal stories submitted came from outside of the United States. Submissions were received from the following countries (although later on more personal stories were submitted and the additional statistics are unknown):

 * Argentina
 * Australia
 * Bangladesh
 * Belgium
 * Brazil
 * Canada
 * Colombia
 * Egypt
 * France
 * Germany
 * Greece
 * India
 * Iran
 * Ireland
 * Israel
 * Italy
 * Japan
 * Mexico
 * Nepal
 * Netherlands
 * New Zealand
 * Nicaragua
 * Norway
 * Portugal
 * Puerto Rico
 * Russia
 * Saudi Arabia
 * Singapore
 * South Africa
 * Spain
 * Sweden
 * Switzerland
 * Trinidad
 * Turkey
 * United Kingdom
 * The United States
 * Venezuela
 * West Indies

The 6th edition of the NA Basic Text was approved with over forty new "personal stories" from around the world. Because of the addition of so many new stories of NA member experiences, it is larger in size than all earlier editions. After the rapid succession of five editions during the 1980s, this was the first new edition in twenty years.

On October 1, 2008, the 5th edition was replaced by the 6th edition in the Narcotics Anonymous World Services inventory at NA.org. Copies of the Basic Text are sold, or given away for free at the group's expense, at NA meetings, and are available in over 30 different languages. Millions have been sold worldwide, and have been useful to many addicts.

More recent history
The Sixth Edition Basic Text was published in 2008, and there was also a special edition released that same year known as the 25th Anniversary Commemorative (of the First Edition Basic Text) Sixth Edition Basic Text.

In 2003, NA World Services approved a new text entitled Sponsorship. This book endeavors to help people explore the concept of NA sponsorship.

In the more recent months, there has been a motion to revise the pamphlet "In Times of Illness".

A motion for a project to create a new book was put to the World Service Conference in the 2008–2010 conference cycle. The motion was carried by unanimous consent in 2010. over the next two years members of the Narcotics Anonymous fellowship took part in a collective effort to create this new book-length piece of literature. The book was to be titled Living Clean: The Journey Continues. At the 2012 World Service Conference, a motion to approve the final draft of the book was presented to the conference for approval and once again the delegates carried the motion unanimously. Living Clean: The Journey Continues was released to the public in 2012.

Another book, Guiding Principles, was developed during this period.

Most recently in 2022, Narcotics Anonymous published the Spiritual Principal A Day book often shortened to SPAD. This book consists of a short message about a different spiritual principle for each day of the year. This is similar to another book previously published by NA called Just for Today, containing a message for thought on a recovery related topic for each day of the year.

Membership demographics
Membership in Narcotics Anonymous is voluntary; no attendance records are kept either for NA's own purposes or for others. Because of this, it is sometimes difficult to provide interested parties with comprehensive information about NA membership. There are, however, some objective measures that can be shared based on data obtained from members attending one of NA world conventions; the diversity of membership, especially ethnic background, seems to be representative of the geographic location of the survey. The following demographic information was revealed in a survey returned by almost half of the 13,000 attendees at the 2003 NA World Convention held in San Diego, California: • Gender: 55% male, 45% female. • Age: 3% 20 years old and under, 12% 21–30 years old, 31% 31–40 years old, 40% 41–50 years old, 13% over age 51, and 1% did not answer. • Ethnicity: 51% Caucasian, 24% African-American, 14% Hispanic, and 11% other. • Employment status: 72% employed full-time, 9% employed part-time, 7% unemployed, 3% retired, 3% homemakers, 5% students, and 1% did not answer. • Continuous abstinence/recovery: The 2015 Membership Survey showed the range from less than one year up to 54 years, with a mean average of 8.32 years. The 2015 Membership Survey of 22,803 members is available on NA.org, under the "For the Public" tab.

Rate of growth
Because no attendance records are kept, it is impossible to estimate what percentages of those who come to Narcotics Anonymous remain active in NA over time. The only sure indicator of the program's ability to attract members is the rapid growth in the number of registered Narcotics Anonymous meetings in recent decades and the rapid spread of Narcotics Anonymous outside North America.
 * In 1978, there were fewer than 200 registered groups in three countries.
 * In 1983, more than a dozen countries had 2,966 meetings.
 * In 1993, 60 countries had over 13,000 groups holding over 19,000 meetings.
 * In 2002, 108 countries had 20,000 groups holding over 30,000 meetings.
 * In 2005, 116 countries had over 21,500 groups holding over 33,500 weekly meetings.
 * In 2007, over 25,065 groups were holding over 43,900 weekly meetings in 127 countries.
 * In 2012, there were over 62,700 meetings worldwide in over 142 countries.
 * In 2018, there were more than 70,000 weekly meetings in 144 countries.

Organizational structure
Members meet at NA Groups; Representatives of which participate in Area Service Committees (ASC); Several Area Service Committees form a Regional Service Committee (RSC) and the Regional Delegates (RD) make up NA World Service Committee. The foundation for this structure is the Twelve Traditions of NA and the 12 Concepts for NA Service.

NA Groups
Narcotics Anonymous is fundamentally made up of NA Groups. An NA Group is a number of NA members who meet regularly; usually at the same time and place each week. Some Groups have more frequent meetings but are considered to be part of a single Group. Groups have one primary purpose, to carry the message to the addict who still suffers. Groups are largely independent of one another and members of NA are encouraged to choose a "homegroup" to belong to, a group they attend regularly and where they will be missed if they are absent. Each Group elects any number of leaders, or "trusted servants", to serve the needs of the Group they made include a Group Secretary, a Group Treasurer, a Group Chairperson, a Group Service Representative (GSR), and an alternate GSR. This election process is carried out by the Group Conscience which is a business meeting made up of the members of the Group who strive for consensus-based decisions. With each group being autonomous, without affecting NA as a whole, the responsibilities of trusted servants vary from meeting to meeting. These responsibilities or "group policies" are contrived through the group's business meeting by inviting a Higher Power to guide each recovering person's decision, also known as a group conscience. An example of one specific trusted servant's responsibilities are, "The secretary is responsible for opening the meeting, choosing someone to chair the meeting, making sure coffee gets made, etc. He or she also arranges for purchasing supplies and keeping group records. The treasurer keeps financial records and pays the group's bills. The GSR attends the Area Service Committee meetings and represents the group to the ASC. The alternate GSR assists the GSR and prepares to replace the GSR when need be."

Area service committees
An ASC is made up of all the participating NA Groups in a given area. The Group Service Representatives (GSRs) and alternate GSRs from each Group in an Area meet regularly together for a business meeting where issues are raised and discussed to better meet the needs of the groups in the Area. Each ASC elects its own officers: the chairperson, vice-chairperson, secretary, treasurer, and regional committee members (RCMs). Frequently an ASC will have various subcommittees (such as a but not limited to Hospitals and Institutions (H&I), Public Information (PI), Activities, Website, Outreach, Policy, Literature, Literature Review, Newsletter, Recovery By Mail and Convention) which are led by subcommittee leaders that are elected by the entire ASC. In some regions, several ASCs will be grouped into a Metropolitan Service Committee at the sub-regional level; this is typical in especially large cities, like Los Angeles, that contain multiple ASCs.

Regional service committees
An RSC is composed of the regional committee members (RCMs) of all the participating ASCs in a region. It is similar in organization to an ASC but is further removed from the day-to-day activities of individual home groups. Many of the issues dealt with by RSCs are the same ones that will come before the World Service Conference, with the RSC being the best way for local groups to help craft policies that will affect NA as a whole. In some cases, only the RCMs in a region will meet to vote on issues; in other situations, all GSRs in a region will be invited to attend an RSC meeting. The RSC elects a delegate to attend the World Service Conference.

Zonal Forums
The Zonal Forums are service-oriented organizational structures designed to improve communication between RSCs. They are not decision-making entities.

Some Zonal Forums actively participate in "Fellowship Development" to help NA fellowships grow in new countries and geographic areas where NA is still forming. Zonal Forums help NA groups, areas, or regions to work together to translate literature, inform the local community about NA and create new service committees. This is achieved through annual or biannual Zonal Forum meetings together with development visits to NA groups and members in other countries. Experienced NA members hold workshops, and meetings and present material to help the newer communities.

Zonal forums also provide an important opportunity for World Services and the World Board to interact with newer and growing NA communities to better understand their needs and challenges. Zonal forums are an important part of the growth of NA in some of the most populous and remote parts of the world. Eastern Europe, central and eastern Asia, and Latin America NA communities have grown significantly through the work of Zonal Forums.

Some Zonal Forums are a service-oriented sharing session that provides the means by which NA communities in their zone can communicate, cooperate, and grow with one another. Although not a part of NA's formal decision-making system, Zonal Forums interact with World Services in many ways. Each Zonal Forum provides a biannual report on the floor of the World Service Conference and, when requested by the conference, may also answer specific questions or address the body. To improve communications, the Zonal Forums are provided with conference participant mailings and send each Zonal Forum meeting record to World Services. To more effectively serve the fellowship, World Services and the Zonal Forums maintain an ongoing partnership to plan and conduct the Worldwide Workshop system.

NA World Service Conference
The NA World Service Conference (WSC) is a bi-annual service meeting made up of the Regional Delegates of the seated Regions of the world and the members of the NA World Board. This service conference has the executive right to make decisions for the entire NA Fellowship. This includes electing members to serve on the World Board, approving all new NA Literature, service material, and making policy decisions that affect the fellowship including the organizational structure. This responsibility has been executed as recently as the late 1990s when the World Service Conference voted to re-structure the NA Service structure including the removal of the Board of Trustees, Board of Directors, and several other World Service level committees (Public Information, Hospitals & Institutions, Literature, and Translations) replacing them with a single board elected by the conference.

NA World Service Office
The WSC through the World Board is responsible for the NA World Service Office located in the Chatsworth, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. This office handles the production of all approved literature, provides resources for projects approved by the WSC, and also provides limited services to the fellowship as a whole. The office also administers the legal responsibilities of the fellowship concerning copyrights, intellectual property, and accounting. The office employs many people who carry out these functions.

Finances
Narcotics Anonymous members are not required to pay any dues or fees. NA is committed to being fully self-supporting, declining any outside contributions. Group expenses are covered entirely by voluntary contributions from its members. Groups meet costs such as meeting room rental, tea and coffee, and any literature that the group provides for free from these contributions, after which surplus funds are passed to the service structure. Group often provide some literature items such as IPs (Double sided single sheet pamphlets) and keytags/chips celebrating clean time. Area Service Committees are typically funded from Group contributions plus money raised by events such as dances and recovery events attended by members. In some countries Area committees also supply literature to the Groups. Areas pass funds on to the Regions, which can also receive contributions from Groups and also raise money through conventions attended by hundreds to thousands and tens of thousands of members. Regions also sometimes run Regional Service Offices which buy literature from the World Service Office and its branch offices for sale to Areas and Groups. Because Regional Service Offices can purchase in bulk and sell at list price sometimes this surplus exceeds the running costs of the office. Regions then pass funds to Zonal Forums and also the World Service Conference via the World Service Office according to the decision of the Region.

At the World Service level of Narcotics Anonymous expenses are met partially by the voluntary donations via the service structure and also through the sale of recovery literature. NA does not accept donations from non-members, organizations, or governments. NA recovery literature is produced by the NA World Service Office (NAWS) located in California, USA. Typically NA groups will purchase literature using group funds from local (area or regional) service offices, or direct from NAWS.

Some literature is provided to new members for free (such as the "Information Pamphlets") while other, typically book-length pieces, are sold at the purchase cost to the group. Literature is also purchased from Group contributions and made available to new members. NAWS receives 87% (2004/5) of its income from the sale of literature. Other expenses include group refreshments, meeting-place rent, etc. Financial information is publicly available on the NA website. The 2007 World Convention of NA ran at a net financial loss of $596,000.

Effectiveness
The first sophisticated outcome studies of NA were conducted in the early 1990s in London, England. The first study found a roughly linear relationship between the length of membership and abstinence with reduced anxiety and increased self-esteem While the NA sample had higher anxiety than the non-addicted comparison groups, these levels were equivalent for those with three or more years of membership, which is consistent with the hypothesis that NA membership reduces anxiety as well as substance use. This study also, contrary to the authors' expectations, found that spiritual beliefs and disease concept beliefs were not prerequisites for attendance of NA and even if these beliefs were adopted they were not found to cause external attributions for previous drug use or possible future lapse events.

A study of the early experience of new NA members in Victoria Australia in 1995 interviewed 91 members initially and 62 (68%) after 12 months and found that higher self-help participation as measured by service role involvement, step work, and stable meeting attendance, in the 12 months before the follow-up was associated with a four-fold reduction in levels of hazardous drug and alcohol use, less illicit income and sickness benefits and higher emotional support at reinterview.

One approach is to provide professional 12-step facilitation (TSF) either in an individual or group setting. TSF sessions are designed to introduce the patient to 12-step concepts and facilitate the entry of the patient into community-based 12-step programs. It must be emphasized that TSF is not NA, it is an implementation of 12-step program elements by a professional counsellor. NA recommends 12 step work with another member who has worked the steps.

One study, sponsored by NIDA, randomly assigned people using cocaine into four groups, individual drug counseling plus group drug counseling (GDC), cognitive therapy plus GDC, supportive expressive therapy plus GDC, or GDC alone. Individual drug counseling was based on the 12-step philosophy. Group drug counseling was designed to educate patients about the stages of recovery from addiction, to strongly encourage participation in 12-step programs, and to provide a supportive group atmosphere for initiating abstinence and an alternative lifestyle. Nearly 500 patients participated in the study.

The results suggested that all four treatment conditions resulted in similar reductions in cocaine use with the IDC + GDC group (TSF) more effective than the other three groups. One issue with this study is that there was significant attrition of patients, with significantly larger numbers of dropouts from the TSF groups than from the others.

Fiorentine 1999
Fiorentine 1999 was a 24-month longitudinal study measuring the effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous and NA. Like other longitudinal studies, it shows a strong correlation between 12-step attendance and being both clean from drugs and sober from alcohol: People who went to 12-step meetings in the study had about a 75% success rate.

In more detail, at the 24-month follow up, 77.7% of people who went to one or more meetings a week self-reported being clean; urinalysis was very close to that figure, showing some 76.4% of the regular attendees being clean. For participants who did not regularly go to meetings, the self-reported figure for being abstinent was 56% and the drug test showed 57.9% being clean. The self-reported figures for excessive alcohol use were similar: 74.8% of regular 12-step attenders self-reported being completely sober, but only 40% of people who did not go to 12-step meetings claimed to be sober. Urinalysis showed 96.6% of people regularly going to meetings as sober, in contrast to the 88.9% of people who did not go to meetings once a week or more whose urine sample was alcohol-free.

The report then sees if 12-step meetings have a specific effect (in other words, if there is causation or merely correlation) by using statistical analysis to compare participants self-reported level of motivation, 12-step attendance, and successfully getting clean and sober. The result of this observation was that "Weekly or more frequent 12-step participants are 1.59 times more likely than less-than-weekly participants to maintain abstinence after controlling for the differences in recovery motivation measured by the scale."

Controversies
The NA program attempts to avoid controversy through its application of the 12 traditions, which specify that "Narcotics Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues; hence the NA name ought never be drawn into public controversy." Even so, the Basic Text points out that there are still "communication problems, differences of opinion, internal controversies, and troubles with individuals and groups outside the Fellowship", and various controversies of this type have disturbed NA throughout its history.

Internal controversies
Early in the history of NA, different groups emphasized different aspects of recovery. In particular, the make-up and process of creating an NA text was a contentious period for the fellowship. Different factions supported different versions of the Basic Text, and in the ensuing power struggle there were many accusations made and resentments cultivated. The basis of the dispute was whether the service committees were described as a part of NA, or as a separate entity, basically a tool of the NA groups with no decision-making power; instead being charged with collecting the decisions of the NA groups themselves. This dispute reached its nadir when the NA World Service Office sued an NA member in an attempt to prevent him from distributing free versions of the Basic Text. Today there are some NA groups who use a self-produced version of the Basic Text that has come to be known as the Baby Blue which is basically the Third Edition, Revised Basic Text (except that it contains originally approved essays on the Traditions). Some Traditionalist groups use the Second Edition or Approval Draft (both of which contain the original Traditions and are nearly identical to each other).

Approaches of other twelve-step groups
NA is unusual but not unique in its focus on the symptom/substance not being the core problem, but rather the disease of addiction, as is stated in the NA Step 1. In NA, it does not matter what substance you used, and alcohol is seen as a drug. 12-step groups differ in their approach to the treatment of addiction and recovery. Alcoholics Anonymous "is a program for alcoholics who seek freedom from alcohol" but does refer to "some AA members who have misused drugs...in such a manner as to become a threat to the achievement and maintenance of sobriety" and mentions that drugs can "create a dependence just as devastating as dependence on alcohol". Cocaine Anonymous originally formed to address the special needs of cocaine addicts, but "is not a drug specific fellowship" and "welcomes anyone with a drug or alcohol problem and offers a solution". CA's program involves abstaining from cocaine "and all other mind-altering substances", thus taking the same stance as NA pertaining to abstinence from all drugs, including alcohol and marijuana. Methadone Anonymous is similar to NA, but considers the use of methadone to be a tool of recovery and not a drug. NA has no opinion on these groups, as these are outside issues and the traditions suggest against taking a definitive stand on outside issues.

title: Narcotics Anonymous


text:
Bruce Dickinson

Paul Bruce Dickinson (born 7 August 1958) is an English singer who is best known as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden. Dickinson has performed in the band across two stints, from 1981 to 1993 and from 1999 to the present day. He is known for his wide-ranging operatic vocal style and energetic stage presence.

Dickinson began his career in music fronting small pub bands in the 1970s while attending school in Sheffield and university in London. In 1979, he joined British new wave heavy metal band Samson, with whom he gained some popularity under the stage name "Bruce Bruce" and performed on two studio records. He left Samson in 1981 to join Iron Maiden, replacing Paul Di'Anno, and debuted on their 1982 album The Number of the Beast. During his first tenure in the band, they issued a series of US and UK platinum and gold albums in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Dickinson quit Iron Maiden in 1993 (being replaced by Blaze Bayley) to pursue his solo career, which saw him experiment with a wide variety of heavy metal and rock styles. He rejoined the band in 1999, along with guitarist Adrian Smith, and has released six subsequent studio albums with the band. Since his return to Iron Maiden, he has released two further solo records, in 2005, Tyranny of Souls and The Mandrake Project in 2024. His younger cousin, Rob Dickinson, is the former lead singer of British alternative rock band Catherine Wheel, while his son, Austin, fronted the metalcore band Rise to Remain. Since Bruce Dickinson joined Iron Maiden in 1981, the band has sold well over 100 million albums as of 2024.

Outside his career in music, Dickinson has pursued a number of other activities. He undertook a career as a commercial pilot for Astraeus Airlines, which led to a number of media-reported ventures such as captaining Iron Maiden's converted charter aeroplane, Ed Force One, during their world tours. Following Astraeus' closure, in 2012 he created his own aircraft maintenance and pilot training company, Cardiff Aviation. Dickinson presented his own radio show on BBC Radio 6 Music from 2002 to 2010, and has also hosted television documentaries, authored novels and film scripts, created a beer with Robinsons Brewery and competed at fencing internationally.

Early life
Paul Bruce Dickinson was born on 7 August 1958 in Worksop, Nottinghamshire. His mother, Sonia, worked part-time in a shoe shop, and his father, Bruce, was a mechanic in the British Army. His birth hurried the young couple, who were then just teenagers, into marriage. Initially, he was brought up by his grandparents; his grandfather was a coal-face worker at the local colliery, and his grandmother was a housewife. This is referred to in his song "Born In '58" from the album Tattooed Millionaire. Dickinson started school at Manton Primary in Worksop while his parents moved away to Sheffield. Soon afterwards, when he was six, he was also despatched to Sheffield, where he attended a primary school in Manor Top. After six months, his parents decided to move him to a small private school called Sharrow Vale Junior. Due to constant moving, Dickinson states that this period of his life taught him to be self-reliant as he was unable to make close friends. Dickinson has a younger sister, professional showjumper Helena Stormanns, who was born in 1963. He tried to isolate himself from her as much as he could when he was young, supposedly out of spite because she, unlike him, was a planned pregnancy and birth.

Dickinson's first musical experience was dancing in his grandparents' front room to Chubby Checker's "The Twist", when he still lived with them in Worksop. The first record Dickinson recalls owning was the Beatles single "She Loves You", which he managed to persuade his grandfather to buy him, which made him more interested in music. He tried to play an acoustic guitar belonging to his father, but it blistered his fingers. By the time he moved to Sheffield, Dickinson's parents were earning a good living from buying property, refurbishing it and then selling it for a profit. As a result, much of Dickinson's childhood was spent living on a building site, until his parents bought a boarding house and a bankrupt garage where his father began selling second-hand cars. The income from their business success gave them the opportunity to give Dickinson—then 13 years old—a boarding school education and they chose Oundle, a public school in Northamptonshire. Dickinson was not opposed to moving away from home because he had not built "any real attachment" to his parents, having been raised by his grandparents in Worksop until he was six.

At Oundle, Dickinson was picked on and routinely bullied by the older boys of Sidney House, the boarding house that he belonged to, which he described as "like systematic torture" and meant that he became an outsider. His interests at Oundle were often military; he co-founded the school wargames society with Mike Jordan, and he joined the school's cadet force. This gave him access to live ammunition, which he used to create explosions as booby-traps. Oundle was where Dickinson became attracted to progressive rock and early heavy metal after hearing Deep Purple's "Child in Time" being played in another student's room. As a result, the first album he ever bought was Deep Purple's In Rock, which created his interest in rock and metal music. After In Rock, he went on to buy Black Sabbath's debut, Jethro Tull's Aqualung and Tarkus by Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Every term, a band would play at the school, the first of these which Dickinson saw was called Wild Turkey, featuring former Jethro Tull bassist Glenn Cornick. After that, he saw Van der Graaf Generator and Arthur Brown.

Dickinson initially wanted to play the drums, later obtaining a pair of bongo drums from the music room for practice. He remembers playing "Let It Be" with his friend Mike Jordan, during which Dickinson discovered his singing voice while encouraging Jordan to sing the high-notes. Shortly afterwards Dickinson was expelled from Oundle for participating in a prank in which he allegedly urinated in the headmaster's dinner. Returning home to Sheffield in 1976, Dickinson enrolled at King Edward VII School, at which he joined his first band. He had overheard two other pupils talking about their band and that they needed a singer and so volunteered immediately. They rehearsed in the garage of the drummer's father, and the band were impressed by Dickinson's singing, encouraging him to buy his first microphone. Their first gig took place at the Broadfield Tavern in Sheffield. Originally called "Paradox", the band changed their name on Dickinson's suggestion to "Styx", unaware of the American act with the same name. They made local newspaper headlines when a steel worker was awoken by their performance and tried to smash the band's drum kit. Soon afterwards the band split up.

After leaving school with A-levels in English, History, and Economics, Dickinson confessed, "I didn't really know what I wanted to do." The first thing he did was join the Territorial Army for six months. Although he enjoyed his time in the TA, Dickinson realised that it was not a career choice, and so he applied for a place to read history at Queen Mary College, London. His parents wanted him in the army, but he told them that he wanted to get a degree first, which acted as his "cover story", and immediately began playing in bands. At university, Dickinson got involved in the Entertainments Committee: "one day you'd be a roadie for the Jam, the next you'd be putting up the Stonehenge backdrop for Hawkwind or whatever." In 1977, Dickinson met Paul "Noddy" White, a multi-instrumentalist who owned a PA and other equipment, with whom Dickinson, along with drummer Steve Jones, would form a band together called Speed. According to Dickinson, the band was called Speed because of the way in which they played, rather than a reference to drug-taking. In Speed, Dickinson began writing his own material after White taught him how to play three chords on the guitar.

Although Speed would play several gigs at the Green Man pub in Plumstead, the band did not last long, but it encouraged Dickinson to continue to work towards being a musician. Dickinson spotted an advertisement in Melody Maker with the caption "Singer wanted for recording project" and replied immediately. He recorded a demo tape and sent it with a note which read: "By the way, if you think the singing's crap, there's some John Cleese stuff recorded on the other side you might find amusing." They liked what they heard and invited Dickinson down to the studio to make "Dracula", the first song he would ever record, with a band called "Shots", formed by two brothers, Phil and Doug Siviter. The song would later appear on the second disc of The Best of Bruce Dickinson compilation. The brothers were impressed with Dickinson's vocal abilities and asked him to join their group.

Dickinson played pubs with Shots on a regular basis to small audiences. One particular night, Dickinson suddenly stopped in the middle of a song and started interviewing a man in the audience, heckling for not paying enough attention. He got such a good response he started doing it every night until it became a regular routine used to catch the audience's attention. Dickinson states that this experience taught him how to be a frontman. The next step in Dickinson's career was taken in a pub called the Prince of Wales in Gravesend, Kent, where Shots were playing regularly, when Barry Graham ("Thunderstick") and Paul Samson paid a visit. Impressed with his stage-act, they talked with Dickinson afterwards and invited him to be their new singer. Dickinson agreed to join their band, Samson, but only once he'd finished taking his History finals two weeks later. Until that point, he had been neglecting his University education. As a result, the university had tried to kick him out for failing his Second Year exams and not paying his accommodation fees, but he was saved because of his role as Entertainments Officer. After writing six months' worth of essays in the space of two weeks and some last minute cramming for his exams, Dickinson achieved a 2:2.

Samson: 1979–1981
After meeting Paul Samson and Barry Purkis at the Prince of Wales, and while still undertaking his final university exams, Dickinson joined Samson onstage at Bishop's Stortford to perform one of their songs, "Rock Me Baby", cementing his role as their new lead vocalist.

The band had already released their debut album, Survivors, in 1979 on an independent label, two months before Dickinson joined. Immediately following the completion of his University work, he met up with the band at Greenwich's Wood Wharf studios to learn the Survivors album. Although the tracks did not suit his vocal style, the band soon wrote the majority of the following Head On album in their earliest rehearsal sessions, some of which were immediately incorporated into their live set.

It was during these early rehearsals that the nickname "Bruce Bruce" came about, derived from Monty Python's "Bruces sketch". The name became very tiresome as the band's management continually wrote dud cheques, made payable to "Bruce Bruce", as a joke. Dickinson later commented that he did not like it but considered it "a sort of stage name" and accepted it.

Dickinson was dismayed to learn that not all rock performers were "great artists"; he felt that some, such as Samson, were only interested in women, drugs and alcohol, which he was unable to relate to. Although he had smoked joints before, Dickinson discovered that it was impossible to communicate with other band members if he was sober, deciding that it was "the price that had to be paid".

While fronting the band, Dickinson also came across Iron Maiden for the first time, who were supporting Samson at the Music Machine in 1980. As Dickinson recalls; "I was watching them, and they were good, really fucking good, and at that moment, I remember thinking, 'I wanna fucking sing for that band. In fact, I'm going to sing for that band! I know I'm going to sing for that band!' ... I just thought, 'This is really me. Not Samson.'"

Dickinson remained in the band for another year, recording two studio albums with them—Head On and Shock Tactics. However, Samson soon ran into difficulties with their record label, Gem, who went out of business and failed to finance their European tour in support of Iron Maiden. The band were turned over to RCA, which began neglecting the group, and so they promptly fired their management team and the resulting injunction meant that their equipment was reclaimed and they could not be paid for their concert performances. The band's last gig was at Reading Festival, after which Dickinson was approached by Iron Maiden's manager, Rod Smallwood, who asked him to audition to be their new lead vocalist.

Beginnings and success: 1981–1985
Dickinson went to audition for Iron Maiden at a rehearsal room in Hackney in September 1981 and immediately discovered that this was a much more professional operation than he was used to with Samson. In the practice rooms, the band played through "Prowler", "Sanctuary", "Running Free" and "Remember Tomorrow", before asking Dickinson to sing the same songs again in a recording studio, and he was immediately inducted into the group.

Iron Maiden had a strict and organised routine that suited the band's writing style, which Dickinson described as a "time table". After a few gigs, they began writing new material for their third album, The Number of the Beast, released in 1982. In the wake of Samson's contractual problems, Dickinson could not legally be credited on any of the record's songs, having to make, what he called, a "moral contribution", later revealing that he had contributed to "The Prisoner", "Children of the Damned" and "Run to the Hills". In the documentary 12 Wasted Years, manager Rod Smallwood refers to "The Prisoner" as being co-written by Dickinson and Adrian Smith. The album was a major success, topping the British charts, and earning platinum status in the UK and the US. Following the release, the band embarked on a supporting tour around the globe.

On the following albums, 1983's Piece of Mind and 1984's Powerslave, Steve Harris's song-writing monopoly was pushed aside in favour of other members' ideas, with Dickinson contributing to a number of tracks, including the singles "Flight of Icarus" and "2 Minutes to Midnight". Throughout the World Slavery Tour, as part of the new theatrical elements incorporated into the band's stage-show, Dickinson wore a feathered mask during "Powerslave". This was the band's longest tour to date, during which Dickinson considered going home mid-tour, due to the high number of shows. Iron Maiden's management were continually adding dates, until Dickinson demanded that they stop or he would leave the group.

Growing tensions and departure: 1986–1993
After a six-month break, which Dickinson mostly spent practising fencing, Iron Maiden began writing their next album, Somewhere in Time. Dickinson was disappointed with the effort as he felt that the band needed a more dramatic stylistic departure from past records to remain relevant, despite its introduction of synthesised bass and guitars. He has no writing credits on the release, as his material, based on his own suggestion that the album should be more acoustic-focused, was rejected by the rest of the band. Steve Harris, on the other hand, stated that his material was rejected because it was not good enough, and that Dickinson "was probably more burnt out than anyone at the end of the last tour".

After a subsequent tour, Iron Maiden started working on their next studio effort, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, which featured more progressive rock elements than the band's previous records. Although it became their second release to top the British charts, it was also Dickinson's first album with the band that did not achieve platinum status in the US. Unlike Somewhere in Time, Dickinson was much more enthusiastic about this album due to its concept and has several song-writing credits. After the following tour in 1988, the band decided to take a year off.

During the next album's writing stage, Adrian Smith left Iron Maiden, and was replaced by Janick Gers. Iron Maiden's eighth studio release, 1990's No Prayer for the Dying, had a raw sound that, according to a retrospective assessment by AllMusic, did not "hold up well" compared to past efforts, as it was recorded in a barn which Steve Harris owned, with a mobile studio owned by the Rolling Stones. The record featured Dickinson's "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter", originally composed for a film soundtrack, which despite receiving a Golden Raspberry Award for worst original song in 1989, became the band's first and only single to top the UK Singles Chart. By 1992, Harris had converted his barn into a proper studio, and the new album, Fear of the Dark, was recorded there, resulting in a better overall sound than No Prayer for the Dying, although Dickinson still says it had limitations due to its size.

After the Fear of the Dark Tour, Dickinson decided to leave Iron Maiden to concentrate on his solo career. At that point the band had already booked a following tour in 1993, which Dickinson did not enjoy. Throughout the tour, Dickinson drew a lot of criticism from his bandmates, with Steve Harris in particular saying, "I really wanted to kill him." According to Harris, Dickinson would only perform when the press was there, whereas at other concerts he would only mumble his way through songs. Dickinson has since denied the accusations that he was deliberately under-performing, arguing that it was impossible to give a decent performance some nights because of the atmosphere. His last performance with the band on 28 August 1993 was filmed by the BBC at Pinewood Studios and released as a live video the following year, entitled Raising Hell.

Return: 1999–present
Along with Adrian Smith, Dickinson rejoined Iron Maiden in 1999 with Janick Gers remaining in the band, after he was approached by manager Rod Smallwood. Smallwood also spoke to Steve Harris about Dickinson's return, who initially had reservations about the prospect, but soon came round to the idea, deliberating that they knew of his abilities and that it was a case of "better the devil you know". Harris and Dickinson agreed to meet at Smallwood's home in Brighton in January 1999 for the first conversation they would have with each other since 1993. Although both men were nervous about the encounter, upon seeing each other the tension immediately dissipated and both agreed that Dickinson should return to the group.

After embarking on a small tour, the band set about recording Brave New World, their first studio album with Dickinson since 1992. Dickinson insisted that they find a replacement for the now retired Martin Birch, the band's regular producer, and record in a different studio than the one in which they made No Prayer for the Dying and Fear of the Dark, to which Harris agreed. The album was recorded at Guillaume Tell Studios, Paris with producer Kevin Shirley, after which Iron Maiden undertook a supporting tour culminating with a performance at the Rock in Rio festival before a crowd of 250,000.

In 2003, they recorded and released Dance of Death at London's SARM Studios with Kevin Shirley, now the band's new regular producer. After two further stints on the road (Dance of Death World Tour and Eddie Rips Up the World Tour) Iron Maiden returned to SARM in 2006 to record their next studio album, A Matter of Life and Death, and embarked on a supporting tour. In 2008 and 2009, the band set out on the Somewhere Back in Time World Tour, which has since been described as "groundbreaking" for its use of Ed Force One, the band's customised Boeing 757, flown by Dickinson himself, and led to the documentary film Iron Maiden: Flight 666, which had a limited cinema release in April 2009. Iron Maiden held another world tour in 2010 and 2011 in support of The Final Frontier, their first album recorded at Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Bahamas since 1986's Somewhere in Time, and which peaked at No. 1 in 28 countries.

In September 2014, Iron Maiden began recording their sixteenth studio album, The Book of Souls, at Guillaume Tell Studios, Paris. The release features two songs written solely by Dickinson for the first time since Powerslave, "If Eternity Should Fail" and "Empire of the Clouds", the former originally penned for a possible solo record. "Empire of the Clouds" is the band's longest ever song, at over 18 minutes in length, and features Dickinson on piano for the first time, which is how the song was written. The band toured the album in 2016, during which Dickinson once again piloted the band's private plane, Ed Force One (now a Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet).

Ozzfest incident In 2005, Iron Maiden co-headlined the US festival tour, Ozzfest, with Black Sabbath. Lead singer Ozzy Osbourne's wife, Sharon, encouraged family friends and members of other bands to sabotage Iron Maiden's last performance at Hyundai Pavilion in San Bernardino, California, on 20 August, in an attack which Rod Smallwood criticised as "vile, dangerous, criminal and cowardly", as well as disrespectful to fans who had paid to see the band perform "a full unhindered performance". Osbourne ordered interference with the band's PA, delayed the entrance of Eddie, the band's mascot, and encouraged members of the Osbourne camp to throw eggs, lighters and bottle tops from the front of the audience. According to Dickinson, the attack was in response to his "disparaging remarks about reality TV shows that she took personally", although The Guardian reported that he slated the Osbournes' reality series and accused Ozzy Osbourne of using a teleprompter. Dickinson has since denied making comments against Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath, but admitted that he criticised Ozzfest throughout the tour, attacking their "corporate" seating layout and saying, "Most of the bands are there because they paid to be there."

Following the concert at San Bernardino, Osbourne released a further statement which accused Dickinson of making several anti-American comments, for which Classic Rock stated that "nobody can present any cast-iron evidence". In addition, Osbourne claimed that the flag-waving during "The Trooper" was disrespectful to American troops, at the time fighting alongside the British in Iraq, even though Dickinson had always held a Union Flag during the song, being based on the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War. It was also reported that Steve Harris had spoken to Ozzy Osbourne in San Bernardino, apologising for Dickinson's comments, which Harris denies, stating that his words had been "twisted".

July 2022 Athens concert incident

Dickinson is known for publicly reprimanding fans at Iron Maiden concerts if he feels they are out of line. One such incident occurred during the band's Legacy of the Beast Tour concert at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece, on July 16, 2022, when Dickinson used offensive language to attack the nationality of a Greek fan who had lit up a flare as the frontman was about to sing "The Number Of The Beast". His fans in Greece showed a degree of sympathy, but most were disappointed by the gesture, as lighting up flares when the band plays a classic hit is customary at Greek concerts to honor the band.

In February 2024, Dickinson admitted in an interview for the Greek magazine Rock Hard that he had lost his temper when asked about his reaction to the flare at the Athens 2022 concert.

Solo career
In early 1989, Zomba asked Dickinson to produce a track for the movie A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child, providing a budget, a studio, and a producer, Chris Tsangarides. Dickinson took up the opportunity and called an old friend of his, former Gillan guitarist, Janick Gers, and, shortly after meeting up, they had "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter" ready for the studio, then recorded with the assistance of bassist Andy Carr, and drummer Fabio del Rio. "I wrote it in about three minutes", states Dickinson, "I don't know where the title 'Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter' came from, but it just popped into my head. I thought, 'Bloody hell, straight out of AC/DC!' And I thought, 'Nightmare on Elm Street. Yeah, that'll do.' Impressed with the results, Zomba asked Dickinson if he was willing to record a whole album as well. With the same line-up and producer, Dickinson's solo debut, Tattooed Millionaire, was written and recorded within two weeks, and released in May 1990, followed by a supporting tour.

Later that year, Dickinson participated on a re-recording of Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water", as part of the humanitarian effort Rock Aid Armenia. Backed by the band Skin, he produced a cover version of Alice Cooper's "Elected", along with Rowan Atkinson (in character as Mr. Bean), which was used in 1992 for Comic Relief, and five years later, on Bean Soundtrack. For his second solo effort, Dickinson received the collaboration of American producer, Keith Olsen, and, while working on the record in LA, decided to leave Iron Maiden. Unhappy with the direction he was taking with Olsen, Dickinson began working with Tribe of Gypsies guitarist Roy Z and started the album again from scratch. Balls to Picasso was recorded with Tribe of Gypsies as the backing band, and was released in 1994. That same year, Dickinson recorded a cover version of "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" with the band Godspeed for Black Sabbath's tribute album Nativity in Black. Tribe of Gypsies departed to work on their own material and Dickinson tracked down another band, including his new writing partner and guitarist, Alex Dickson. While touring with this new outfit in 1994, Dickinson performed in Sarajevo, then under siege during the Bosnian War; a documentary film based on the concert, entitled Scream For Me Sarajevo, completed filming in December 2015.

After the Balls to Picasso supporting tour finished, he started working on a new studio record, Skunkworks. Dickinson decided that Skunkworks would be the title of the band as well, but the record company refused to release the album without his name on the cover. Dickinson hired producer Jack Endino, most noted for producing the first Nirvana album. The "Skunkworks" entity ceased to be when the tour ended. "I was devastated by the Skunkworks thing", stated Dickinson, "Skunkworks was a record which I tore myself apart to make and nobody seemed to give a shit."

After a short period of inactivity, Dickinson once again teamed up with Roy Z and Tribe of Gypsies to record his next album, Accident of Birth; "It was actually Roy that dragged me back into some assemblance, because he called up and he said, 'Listen, I've got some stuff and it's like a metal record.' And I wasn't thrilled, I wasn't really sure that I had anything to offer ... Then he played me some backing-tracks he'd done for what was to become Accident of Birth down the phone and I thought 'There is something there.'" Former Iron Maiden guitarist, Adrian Smith, was asked to guest on the record, but remained as a full-time member of Dickinson's solo outfit. The album marked a return to heavy metal for Dickinson, with Sputnikmusic remarking, "The album's heavy feel is very satisfying, and definitely fills that void left by Maiden during the 90's." The follow-up, The Chemical Wedding, was a semi-concept album on alchemy, which drew inspiration from William Blake's writings; with some songs, such as "Book of Thel", having the same title as some of his poems, and the cover artwork featuring one of his paintings. The record was even more successful than its predecessor, with Sputnikmusic commenting, "Bruce had shattered all expectations to create an album that might even be better than the previous one." During The Chemical Wedding's supporting tour, the live album, Scream for Me Brazil was recorded in São Paulo, after which Dickinson and Smith returned to Iron Maiden in February 1999.

In 2000, Dickinson performed vocals on the song, "Into the Black Hole", for Ayreon's Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight of the Migrator. Later that year, he collaborated with Judas Priest's front-man, Rob Halford, recording, "The One You Love to Hate", for Halford's debut, Resurrection. A compilation, entitled The Best of Bruce Dickinson, was released in late 2001, including two new songs and a bonus disc of rarities. His sixth solo album, Tyranny of Souls was released in May 2005. This time the song-writing was all split between Roy Z and Dickinson and many songs were composed by Z sending recordings of riffs to Dickinson while he was on tour with Iron Maiden. On 21 June 2005, Dickinson's complete solo discography was re-released, featuring bonus discs with rare and remastered tracks. That same year, Dickinson contributed to the song, "Beast in the Light", from Tribuzy's album, Execution, and their subsequent live album. A three-DVD box set, entitled Anthology, was released on 19 June 2006, containing concerts and promo videos from throughout his solo career, as well as an old Samson video, entitled "Biceps of Steel".

A fan of the Monty Python comedy troupe, in 2009 Dickinson appeared in Monty Python: Almost the Truth (Lawyers Cut). He also recorded a new version of the theme song from Monty Python's Life of Brian for the sixth and final episode. In December 2017, Dickinson said that he has tentative plans for his next solo album to be "a whole concept album", with the title being If Eternity Should Fail, the same song name from Iron Maiden's album The Book of Souls, in which he confirmed that it was originally penned as a solo track, "So if I did do another solo album, which I think I will, I might just stick to my original plan and have that as the title track. I mean, I did write it – it was the first track that I wrote for it. So, yeah, I'd probably still include that song. But it would be… the feel would be slightly different – not very much, though – from the Maiden version." Dickinson released The Mandrake Project, his first solo studio album in 19 years, in March 2024. It was produced by Roy Z.

Solo band members

 * Current members
 * Chris Declercq – guitar, backing vocals (2024–present)
 * Philip Naslund – guitar, backing vocals (2024–present)
 * Tanya O'Callaghan – bass, backing vocals (2024–present)
 * Dave Moreno – drums, backing vocals (2024–present)
 * Mistheria – keytar, backing vocals (2024–present)

Personal life
Dickinson married Erica "Jane" Barnett in 1984, and they divorced in 1987. With his second wife, psychotherapist Patrice "Paddy" Bowden, he has three children. All three were born in the Chiswick area of London, where Dickinson lived for a few decades beginning in 1981. In 2020, it was reported that he and Bowden had separated earlier after almost 30 years of marriage; Bowden died in an accident at her home in May 2020. Dickinson lives with his girlfriend Leana Dolci in Paris.

Dickinson's son Austin was the lead singer in metalcore band Rise to Remain until their break-up in 2015, at which point he formed the alternative metal group As Lions. His other son Griffin, who previously worked as a stage carpenter for Iron Maiden during their tours, was the lead singer of melodic hardcore band SHVPES. Dickinson's cousin, Rob Dickinson, was the lead singer of alternative rock band Catherine Wheel and founded the American company Singer Vehicle Design.

In an interview with Sarah Montague for BBC's HARDtalk in 2012, Dickinson agreed that he is a conservative and a Eurosceptic. Dickinson said in a 2018 interview with French magazine L'Obs that, despite residing mainly in France, he supported Brexit and voted for the UK to leave the EU during the 2016 referendum. In 2021, after the Withdrawal Agreement entered into force, Dickinson said he was angry that British musicians and performers were restricted from free travel through Europe.

In 2015, Dickinson underwent seven weeks of chemotherapy and radiation therapy for a cancerous tumour found at the back of his tongue. Dickinson's medical team expected him to make a full recovery as the tumour was discovered in the early stages. On 15 May, Dickinson was given the all-clear by his specialists.

Special honours
On 19 July 2011, Dickinson was presented with an honorary music doctorate from his alma mater, Queen Mary University of London, in honour of his contribution to the music industry.

In 2019, Dickinson was made an honorary citizen of Sarajevo and received the city's prestigious Sixth April Award for his efforts in performing under siege in 1994. According to the city's mayor, it was his arrival in Sarajevo that "was one of those moments that made us realize that we will survive, that the city of Sarajevo will survive, that Bosnia and Herzegovina will survive". He is also credited as a producer on the critically acclaimed 2016 documentary Scream for Me Sarajevo, which chronicles this performance and his return to Sarajevo.

In 2019, Dickinson was also presented with an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Philosophy by the University of Helsinki.

On 6 January 2020, Dickinson was made an Honorary Group Captain of 601 (County of London) Squadron RAF.

In 2024, Dickinson was made an honorary citizen of Curitiba City, Brazil.

Other work
Dickinson's interests and non-musical activities include writing, broadcasting, fencing (at which he has competed internationally, placing 7th in Great Britain, and has founded a fencing equipment company under the brand name "Duellist"), beer brewing and aviation. Due to the wide variety of Dickinson's pursuits, Intelligent Life named him as a living example of a polymath in 2009.

Aviation and entrepreneurship
Dickinson learned to fly recreationally in Florida in the 1990s and now holds an airline transport pilot's licence. He regularly flew Boeing 757s in his role as captain for the now-defunct British charter airline Astraeus, which, from 16 September 2010, employed him as marketing director. One of his key roles in that position was to promote Astraeus' services by increasing their number of videos, leading to the Civil Aviation Authority releasing a video featuring Dickinson on aircraft loading safety in June 2011.

Following Astraeus' closure on 21 November 2011, Dickinson branched into entrepreneurship when he launched Cardiff Aviation Ltd on 1 May 2012, an aircraft maintenance business based at the Twin Peaks Hangar in St Athan, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. According to The Wall Street Journal, in January 2013 Cardiff Aviation had created 40 jobs and hoped to have over a hundred personnel by the summer of 2013. In June 2013, The Daily Telegraph reported that the business had expanded to between 60 and 70 employees and were in discussions to set up their own airline. In August 2015, Cardiff Aviation signed a deal to provide airline support to Air Djibouti, for whom Dickinson piloted their maiden flight the following year, a Boeing 737 from Cardiff to Djibouti. As a result of his business ventures, Dickinson delivered keynote speeches at events around the globe, including Queen Mary University of London's Innovation Showcase in November 2012, Connect2Business, Stockholm in March 2013, Aviation Week's MRO Europe Conference, London in October 2015 and "Blog Now, Live Forever", Mumbai in October 2015.

Dickinson's role as a pilot has led to some high-profile flights, which include returning a group of British RAF pilots from Afghanistan in 2008, 200 British citizens from Lebanon during the Israel/Hezbollah conflict in 2006, and 180 stranded holiday makers from Egypt following the collapse of XL Airways UK in September 2008. In addition, he flew Rangers F.C. and Liverpool F.C. to away matches in Israel and Italy in 2007 and 2010, respectively.

For the 2008–09 "Somewhere Back in Time World Tour", he piloted Iron Maiden's chartered Boeing 757, dubbed "Ed Force One", specially converted to carry the band's equipment between continents, which subsequently led to a documentary film, Iron Maiden: Flight 666. Dickinson flew "Ed Force One" again for "The Final Frontier World Tour" in 2011. For the 2016 The Book of Souls World Tour, the band upgraded to a Boeing 747-400 jumbo jet, which meant that Dickinson had to undertake type conversion to fly the aircraft. In 2014, Dickinson purchased a Fokker Dr.I triplane replica G-CDXR and joined the Great War Display Team, which re-enacts First World War air battles at air shows across the UK.

Radio and TV
Dickinson presented Bruce Dickinson's Friday Rock Show on BBC radio station 6 Music from 2002 to 2010. In March 2010, the BBC announced that, after over eight years, Dickinson's show was to be axed. His final broadcast was on 28 May 2010, with the regular format abandoned in favour of a personal and musical tribute to the recently deceased Ronnie James Dio. Dickinson scorned BBC executives for the cancellation, playing the Johnny Paycheck version of "Take This Job and Shove It". In addition to his show on 6 Music, Dickinson also hosted a series entitled Masters of Rock on BBC Radio 2 from 2003 to 2007. Dickinson's catalogue of 6 Music programmes were acquired in 2014 by TeamRock radio, who began re-broadcasting episodes in December.

In 2005, Dickinson hosted a five-part historical TV series about aviation, Flying Heavy Metal, shown on the Discovery Channel and later on Discovery Turbo in the UK. He was a guest on an episode of the Military Channel's The Greatest Ever, where he drove a Russian T-34 tank. In 2006, Dickinson presented a documentary for Sky One called Inside Spontaneous Human Combustion with Bruce Dickinson, in which he investigated the phenomenon by enlisting the help of several experts and performing various experiments to determine its possible cause. Other television appearances include guesting on quiz shows such as Never Mind the Buzzcocks and the short-lived Space Cadets, as well as the chat show Clarkson, hosted by Jeremy Clarkson. Dickinson has also appeared in a BBC series called The Paradise Club, undertaking the role of a musician named Jake Skinner. On 27 July 2012, Dickinson spent a day being filmed as a guest star for a season four episode of Ice Pilots NWT, in which he flew a Douglas DC-3 and took part in "touch-and-go drills" in a Douglas DC-4 with Buffalo Airways.

Writing
During a 1986–1987 Iron Maiden tour, and in the wake of a divorce, Dickinson started writing his first book. Inspired by the novels of Tom Sharpe, in addition to Biggles and Penthouse, he created The Adventures of Lord Iffy Boatrace, which Kerrang! describes as "a satirical swipe at fetishism among the upper classes", and whose title character is a "semi-transvestite" British land owner.

Following its completion, Dickinson approached Sidgwick & Jackson, who, according to Dickinson, agreed to publish the book before reading it, solely based on Iron Maiden's album sales. Released in 1990 (ISBN 0-283-06043-3), the novel sold more than 40,000 copies almost immediately. Due to the high demand, Sidgwick & Jackson asked Dickinson to produce a sequel, which became 1992's The Missionary Position (ISBN 0-283-06092-1), a satire of televangelism. No further additions to the series have been published, although Dickinson did write the first 60 pages to a prequel, set during "Lord Iffy's schooldays", which he "just thought was rubbish and ripped it all up. I didn't think it was funny."

Dickinson also turned his hand to scriptwriting, co-authoring Chemical Wedding with director Julian Doyle. The film, in which Dickinson played a few small cameo roles and composed the soundtrack, was released in 2008 and starred Simon Callow.

On 15 October 2015, HarperCollins and Dey Street announced that they would publish Dickinson's memoirs. What Does This Button Do? was released on 19 October 2017.

Beer
In 2013, Iron Maiden collaborated with Robinsons Brewery in Stockport to create Trooper, a 4.8% cask/4.7% bottled ale whose recipe Dickinson formulated with head brewer Martyn Weeks. As of May 2014, the beer has sold 2.5 million pints in 40 countries, making it Robinsons' most successful export.

Following Trooper's success, Dickinson, a fan of traditional English cask beer, stated that he intends to develop more beers in the future, although new products will be "under the umbrella of Trooper and not Iron Maiden [as] Trooper has taken on a life of its own. People drink it because they like the beer, not because they are Maiden fans." Additional beers have included Trooper Red 'N' Black Porter (5.8 per cent ABV), Trooper Hallowed (6.0 per cent ABV), and a limited-edition "666" (at 6.66 per cent ABV).

In 2023 he created a Trooper Progressive Lager together with the German craft beer brewery Crew Republic.

Singing style and stage performance
Although Dickinson never received formal training, he possesses a wide vocal range which is characterised by his quasi-operatic tenor. Along with Ronnie James Dio and Rob Halford, Dickinson is one of the pioneers of the operatic vocal style later to be adopted by power metal vocalists and regularly appears near the top in lists of the greatest rock vocalists/front-men of all time. Dickinson says that his style was influenced primarily by Arthur Brown, Peter Hammill (Van der Graaf Generator), Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) and Ian Gillan (Deep Purple).

Dickinson's singing varied in the 1990s in the recording of albums such as No Prayer for the Dying, Fear of the Dark and his first solo work Tattooed Millionaire, making use of a much more raspy and unpolished sound, befitting their stripped down style. Since returning to Iron Maiden in 1999, his singing style has returned to much like it was in the 1980s, though his voice has lowered with age. According to a report published in the Daily Mirror, Dickinson has an estimated vocal range of 4.25 octaves. His voice led to the nickname "The Air Raid Siren", which Billboard states is "due to the ferocious power of his singing", although Dickinson said it actually originated from a fan complaint.

In addition to his vocal ability, Dickinson has been described as an energetic stage performer. He considers including the audience "the essence of the Maiden experience" and that his role is to "shrink the venue ... to turn that football stadium into the world's smallest club". To achieve this, Dickinson seeks eye contact with audience members and urges them to join in with the phrase "scream for me" (followed by the concert's location). He is critical of performers who do not connect with their fans, particularly those who "[hide] behind the amps" and use an autocue, remarking that "people pay good money and [they] can't even remember the sodding words".

Awards, accolades and titles
ASTRAEUS Airlines Capitan BBC Radio Awards Bogota International Airport Butanan Institute São Paulo CAERDAV Californian Buckwheat Named After Iron Maiden's Frontman Congress of Argentina Honours El Salvador Ministry of Tourism Film Festival of Sarajevo Golden Raspberry Award Hollywood's RockWalk Honorary Citizen of Curitiba City Honorary Citizen of Sarajevo Intelligent Life Magazine Kart Races São Paulo
 * 2007: Astraeus Capitan Title – Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden
 * 2010: Astraeus Marketing Director
 * 2002: Best Music DJ – Sony Award for Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
 * 2006: Best Rock Programm – Monsters of Rock with Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
 * 2008: Golden Rock Mike – Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
 * 2010: Best Author's Programm – BBC Radio 6 Music with Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
 * 2009: Honorary Capitan Title – Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden
 * 2019: Extraordinarius brucedickinsoni – A new species of Brazilian spider. Name inspired by the singer of Iron Maiden
 * 2018: Co-founder, chairman and owner – Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
 * 2018: Eriogonum fasciculatum „Bruce Dickinson”
 * 2019: Relief Salon De Los Pasos Perdidos – State prize for individual Iron Maiden musicians for their contribution to the development of the country's culture and music. For the first time ever awarded to a foreign artist
 * 2016: Honorary Visitors of the Country Award – Dickinson as the member of Iron Maiden
 * 2016: Human Rights Award – Scream For Me, Sarajevo, Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
 * 2016: Special Jury Prize – Scream For Me, Sarajevo, Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
 * 2016: Audience Award – Scream For Me, Sarajevo, Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
 * 2017: Official Competition Award – Scream For Me, Sarajevo, Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
 * 1989: The Worst Original Song – Bring Your Daughter to... the Slaughter, Bruce Dickinson (author)
 * 2005: RockWalk of Fame Inductee – Bruce Dickinson as the member of Iron Maiden
 * 2024: Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
 * 2018: Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
 * 2009: Official Polymath Title – Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
 * 2023: Gold Medal Winner – Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)

Matwatches France
 * 2020: Brand Ambasador – Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)

QMUL Engagement and Enterprise Award Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Rhode Island International Film Festival Robinsons Brewery Award Rock Aid Armenia Royal Air Force (RAF UK) Royal Mail Honors São Paulo International Airport TAM Museu The Sixth April Award  Tuzla Film Festival UK British Fencing Veterans UK's National Fencing Team Universidad Católica del Ecuador University do Triângulo University of Helsinki University of Queen Mary
 * 2017: Dr Hamit Soyel – The Prize Bruce Dickinson Award for Academic Entrepreneur of the Year
 * 2017: Heavy Metal Permanent Exhibition – Bruce Dickinson's electrick jacket „Somewhere in Time Tour 1986/87”, Iron Maiden
 * 2017: Official Docummentary Award – Scream For Me, Sarajevo, Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
 * 2015: Golden Disc in Recognize of 10 MLN Sales – Bruce Dickinson & Iron Maiden
 * 2021: Recognize of 30 MLN Sales – Bruce Dickinson & Iron Maiden
 * 1990: First Charity Gold Record Award & Pledge – Bruce Dickinson, Nicko McBrain, Steve Harris (Iron Maiden)
 * 2020: RAF Honorary Group Captain – Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
 * 2023: Post stamps series dedicated to the greatest legends of music – Iron Maiden, Dickinson as the band's frontman
 * 2009: Honorary Capitan Title – Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden
 * 2011: Official Title Comandante Do Metal Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
 * 2019: Heroe of the Sarajevo – Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
 * 2017: Best Docummentary – Scream For Me, Sarajevo, Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
 * 2022: Official Member of BFV – Bruce Dickinson
 * 1987: National Fencing Team Member – Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) #7
 * 2024: Brand new species of Amazonian lizards named after Bruce Dickinson – Enyalioides Dickinsoni
 * 2019: Venezuelan variety of lichens named after Bruce Dickinson – Clusia dickinsoniana J.E. Nascim
 * 2019: Honorary Doctor of Philosophy (PhD HC) – Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
 * 1981: Master's degree in History – Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)
 * 2011: Honorary Doctor of Music (DMA HC) – Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden)

Discography
Iron Maiden

 * The Number of the Beast (1982)
 * Piece of Mind (1983)
 * Powerslave (1984)
 * Somewhere in Time (1986)
 * Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)
 * No Prayer for the Dying (1990)
 * Fear of the Dark (1992)
 * Brave New World (2000)
 * Dance of Death (2003)
 * A Matter of Life and Death (2006)
 * The Final Frontier (2010)
 * The Book of Souls (2015)
 * Senjutsu (2021)

Bruce Dickinson

 * Tattooed Millionaire (1990)
 * Balls to Picasso (1994)
 * Skunkworks (1996)
 * Accident of Birth (1997)
 * The Chemical Wedding (1998)
 * Tyranny of Souls (2005)
 * The Mandrake Project (2024)

Samson
 * Survivors (1979)
 * Head On (1980)
 * Shock Tactics (1981)
 * Live at Reading 1981 (1990)

Special appearances
 * Xero – "Oh Baby!" (Lone Wolf EP, 1983)
 * Soundtrack – A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child ("Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter", 1989)
 * Rock Aid Armenia / various artists – The Earthquake Album (1990)
 * Comic Relief – with Mr. Bean and Smear Campaign ("(I Want to Be) Elected", 1992)
 * Nativity in Black: A Tribute to Black Sabbath ("Sabbath Bloody Sabbath", 1994)
 * Montserrat Caballé – Friends for Life ("Bohemian Rhapsody", 1997)
 * Various artists – ECW: Extreme Music ("The Zoo", 1998)
 * Soundtrack – Bride of Chucky ("Trumpets of Jericho", 1998)
 * Humanary Stew: A Tribute to Alice Cooper ("Black Widow", 1998)
 * Ayreon – Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight of the Migrator ("Into the Black Hole", 2000)
 * Halford – Resurrection ("The One You Love to Hate", 2000)
 * Halford – Live Insurrection ("The One You Love to Hate", 2001)
 * Tribuzy – Execution (2005)
 * Tribuzy – Execution: Live Reunion (2007)

Iron Maiden videos/DVD

 * Video Pieces (1983)
 * Behind the Iron Curtain (1985)
 * Live After Death (1985)
 * 12 Wasted Years (1987)
 * Maiden England (1989)
 * The First Ten Years (1990)
 * From There to Eternity (1992)
 * Donington Live 1992 (1993)
 * Raising Hell (1994)
 * The Number of the Beast (2001)
 * Rock in Rio (2002)
 * Visions of the Beast (2003)
 * The Early Days (2004)
 * Death on the Road (2006)
 * Iron Maiden: Flight 666 (2009)
 * En Vivo! (2012)

* Dickinson appeared on the album's re-issue only, as the original version was completed before he joined the band.

Tours

 * 1990: Tattooed Millionaire Tour
 * 1994–1995: Balls to Picasso Tour
 * 1996: Skunkworks Tour
 * 1997: Accident of Birth Tour
 * 1998–1999: The Chemical Wedding Tour
 * 2002: Airraid over Europe Tour
 * 2024: The Mandrake Project Tour

The Mandrake Project tour
The tour takes place between the 2023 and 2024 legs of Iron Maiden's The Future Past World Tour.

 * 2024 touring band members
 * Bruce Dickinson – lead vocals
 * Chris Declercq – guitar
 * Philip Naslund – guitar
 * Tanya O'Callaghan – bass
 * Mistheria – keyboards
 * Dave Moreno – drums

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Bruce Dickinson