Bruce Dickinson felt like he had a "golf ball" growing on his tongue when he was diagnosd with cancer

Speaking to Pedro Bial on Brazilian TV show 'Conversa com Bial', he said: "I recorded the Iron Maiden album 'The Book of Souls' with that thing growing in my throat. What was it? Stage 3 cancer.

"I had a 3.5 cm tumor on my tongue and a 2.5 cm one on the lymph node. People said, 'It was tiny. He caught it early.' And I was like, no. It's a golf ball, a ping pong ball.

"They managed to remove it with a lot of radiotherapy and chemotherapy at the same time. So it was very tough on the body, but I got rid of it."

The 65-year-old rocker was unsure about singing again after completing treatment because of the toll it had had on his voice and his body.

He said: "It took me about 10 months to decide, 'Okay, let's try.' When we tried to sing too early... remember that the whole throat, all the muscles, everything, basically we stick our head in a microwave for about two months. Everything is irritated and needs to relax."

Meanwhile, Bruce hilariously admitted he had confused Madonna with late footballing legend Diego Maradonna.

The 'Vogue' hitmaker performed a huge free concert for millions of fans on Copacabana beach last weekend, but when the 'Run to the Hills' hitmaker first heard about the show, he thought the Argentine sportsman - who passed away in November 2020 aged 60 - had come back from the dead.

He said: "I've never taken vacations here, but when I have the chance, my wife and I, when we have time... our favourite hotel in the world is the Copacabana Palace in Rio."

When the host then mentioned Madonna was there too, he replied: "I know! I got confused and thought it was Maradona! I immediately thought, my God, Maradona is going to perform, he came back to life! For 2.5 million people!"