During a live Q&A at a speaking show called What Does This Button Do?: An Evening With Bruce Dickinson, in Bucharest, Romania, Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson stated the band was “never going to fucking retire.” The answer was in response to a question from the crowd regarding the plan if and when current band members begin to retire or otherwise leave.

Loudwire offers several quotes from Dickinson at the event and in response to this question specifically.

The entire response was more thoughtful and eloquent than the headline-grabbing guarantee of immortality and or rocking right up until the end. Dickinson said, “There’s always hope,” in reference to what comes after retirement, joking the band would never feature holograms but always have a stable of new performers in the vein of the old guard ready to take over if and when needed and called upon.

“After the current members retire, there’ll be a whole load of Iron members,” Dickinson said.

The event was one stop on a speaking tour for Dickinson’s memoir, What Does That Button Do?, which has six more stops across Europe in February and March before a brief hiatus then seven dates in Mexico and South America in August.

Iron Maiden will be touring across Australia, Asia and Europe this summer on their Legacy Of The Beast tour. This will include a Friday headliner spot at the Tons of Rock festival in Oslo, Norway, in June.