Bruce Dickinson: What is your greatest fear? — FLAPSS

What is your greatest fear?

Originally asked

Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire

The exact prompt is fixed in Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire and independently sustained in The Guardian's The Q&A over multiple decades.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Bruce Dickinson said elsewhere, not written here

Well, I’m not too happy about snakes. I also hate sand. It’s very inconvenient.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 July 2024 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 285 →

Leon Panetta Attorney and politician; Director of the Office of Management and Budget, White House Chief of Staff, Director of the CIA and Secretary of Defense

The greatest fear I always had in the jobs I was in was that some son of a bitch I never knew or met was going to screw up, and I was going to get blamed for it. [laughs]

Recorded William J. Antholis, Presidential Oral Histories, Miller Center, 30 September 2021 source ↗

Pauline McLynn Irish character actress and author

Not being able to breathe – I get very panicky at the thought.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 July 2023 source ↗

To be stuck in the past.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 May 2026 source ↗

Not being loved.

Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 March 2026 source ↗

More from Bruce Dickinson

View profile →

Question What keeps you awake at night? Daily life

Runway 27R at Heathrow.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 July 2024 source ↗

Question Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought? Money & investment

A Cessna Golden Eagle eight-seater aircraft. I flew it across the Atlantic both ways and did two US tours and two European tours in it. I finally sold it and got a job as an airline pilot in which I was paid to fly, rather than the other way round.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 July 2024 source ↗

Question Which trait do you most dislike in yourself? Identity & self

Procrastination.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 July 2024 source ↗

Question What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? Failure & regret

“What makes you think you are so special?”

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 July 2024 source ↗

Question How close have you come to death? Death & what remains

I’ve been asleep at the wheel on the M11, had an engine fire over the Atlantic in a light aircraft, driven unprotected through an enemy firing zone to do a gig in wartime Sarajevo – the list goes on and on. But I did have stage 3 throat cancer and was cured by some fantastic UK medics.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 July 2024 source ↗

Question Which moment embarrassed you most? Failure & regret

I once threw up on the shoes of one of my vocal heroes, the Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan. He sent me home in a taxi with a towel.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 July 2024 source ↗

More on identity & self

Also answered this

Father John Misty, Chaka Khan, Kevin Rowland, Shirley Manson, John Simm, Dolly Parton

Search the directory for somebody in particular.

Explore further

All identity & self questions
The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject

Report this answer