Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson will embark on an "Evening With"-styled spoken word tour in North America this January and, in advance of the run, Loudwire spoke with the living legend about this relatively new performance venture... as well as nuclear fusion, space tourism and what's going on with that long-awaited new solo album.

Even for one of metal's greatest live entertainers, the spoken word format is something that took some experimenting to land on a winning formula as he strives to enthrall theater crowds with riveting stories from his life for upward of two hours. It proposed an entirely new challenge, and, as usual, Dickinson mounted any and all hurdles on his path to success.

Fans can expect to be regaled with tales of first-time experiences throughout the polymath's life and, in our interview, Dickinson noted that the show embraces "comedic slice of life storytelling along with some uplifting bits of information."

Considering the Maiden frontman is also a certified airline captain (among countless other achievements), the opportunity to prod the aviation enthusiast about the on-the-rise space tourism industry could not be passed up. Naturally, this gave way to chatter about alternative fuel source agendas he deems are of actual importance on earth, rather than humans acting as "self-loading freight" and shuttling themselves to the brink of space just to float around for a few moments.

Our conversation wraps up with Dickinson confirming that he and Roy Z., his longtime solo songwriting partner, will reconvene once the spoken word tour is finished to continue work on what will be the successor to 2005's Tyranny of Souls.

Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson has plans to reconvene with songwriting partner Roy Z. later this year in an effort to continue work on the long-awaited follow-up to his 2005 solo album, Tyranny of Souls.

That's what he revealed in a recent interview with Loudwire, which was conducted in advance of the upcoming "An Evening With Bruce Dickinson" spoken word tour where the multi-disciplined legend will share stories and anecdotes from throughout his life before fielding questions from a live audience.

Tyranny of Souls is the only solo Dickinson album to be released after he and guitarist Adrian Smith rejoined Iron Maiden in 1999 and served as the singer's sixth overall full length under his own name. Work on a successor, however, dates back to at least 2015 — "If Eternity Should Fail," the opening track on The Book of Souls, was originally written for the next solo record, but was evidently too strong for Maiden to pass up.

Since everyone has had some downtime to work with amid the two years of the still ongoing pandemic, we prodded Dickinson about whether or not any of that time had been utilized to get some solo writing underway.