Having been around since 1975, Iron Maiden, possibly the most popular English Heavy Metal band in the world, has been on countless world tours since its inception and has enjoyed overwhelming popularity and success.
Iron Maiden performed at the Tacoma Dome this past week, bringing in entire families, stretching across generations, and carrying on their commitment to bringing music and shows to the world. They continue on their “Future Past” tour across North America and Canada. They’ll be ending the year in South America with another world tour soon to follow.
Eleanor Kleitsch/THUNDERWORD
A view of the stage from the beginning of the Iron Maiden concert in the Tacoma Dome.
After their formation in 1975, Iron Maiden has enjoyed almost over 45 years of success, but it hasn’t come without its ups and downs. The band has had more than 13 members join and leave the team over the course of its activity and has even seen the role of lead vocalist change hands more than once.
But with the march of time and a global pandemic rocking the world, how long will it be until the Iron Maiden closes its doors forever? Hopefully, Iron Maiden’s “Future Past” tour isn’t their last.
Even with the number of members in the bands changing, it seems as though the core of Iron Maiden has never been able to be broken, the band only taking a single twelve month break in between releasing new music and touring in 2001-2002.
Iron Maiden has toured the world almost every single year and raised a loyal fanbase willing to tour the entire world with them. It’s not very often that a band can go for almost 50 years with only a year long break in between touring the entire world.
With such a long history and a large fanbase, many people, who grew up with Iron Maiden, have raised their kids listening to the heavy metal band, and those kids even raised their kids listening to the music, as the Tacoma Dome was filled not only with die hard fans, but families there to celebrate the bands music as well.
Despite touring almost every year and even recently announcing a 2025/2026 world tour, fans have been wondering just how much the band has left in them, and if Iron Maiden will soon stop touring altogether? Seeing as most of the members are in their late 60s, retirement might be just around the corner.
During their 2024 Future Past tour, it was undeniable that the band still had a lot of energy left in them. With guitars being thrown in the air, band members running around on stage and sliding across it, Iron Maiden showed that even with most of the band members being in their late 60s that no one is ready to throw in the towel quite yet.
With incredible dedication to their fans, it seems this ’70s heavy metal band loves doing what they do too much to quit just now, but with the untimely demise of so many in the music industry – like the recent death of Jimmy Buffet last year – fans hope and pray that Iron Maiden keeps going for a long time to come even as the band grows older.