From humble beginnings in the UK in the mid-1970s, Iron Maiden have risen to become a heavy metal behemoth, a truly legendary act that have sold more than 130 million albums and earned more than $1 billion in concert revenue.

And, incredibly, they show little sign of slowing down, with the band’s three most recent studio albums topping charts around the world and global tours hitting arenas everywhere from Perth to Peru.

The appropriately named documentary, Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition, hits cinemas this week, examining the motivation driving the group and the music it has produced.

With the famously camera-shy group appearing in voice-overs only, the doco’s talking heads are provided by a star-studded collection of super fans.

From Oscar-winner Javier Bardem, an unabashed Maiden tragic, to musical superstars in their own right, such as KISS’ Gene Simmons, Chuck D from Public Enemy and Lars Ulrich from Metallica, all wax lyrical about their love of the band.

“We, as a band, have a fan base that’s in some pretty odd and unusual places that people wouldn’t expect,” lead singer Bruce Dickinson admits over a Zoom call with PLAY,

“Do we have a fan base in Iran? Oh, my God, yes, we do. And we know about that because they’re in contact with us, and I would love to be able to go and do a gig in Iran.”

It’s not as crazy as it sounds. The doco takes us backstage in 1984, at the height of the Cold War, when Maiden became the first major Western band to take a full-scale show behind the Iron Curtain, playing six shows in Poland.

“I would love to do a gig in Moscow and a gig in Kyiv for our fans, you know, but at the moment, the governments of all of those different places are all busy trying to bomb the s... out of each other,” Dickinson laments.

“So, there’s not a lot we can do other than say, ‘Get in your bunker with a good Iron Maiden tape and, fingers crossed, hope it all gets better’.”

Dickinson is as forthright in this interview as he is in the doco, as are his bandmates, with one member revealing the group was initially advised to play either punk or new wave to breakthrough, but they didn’t “want to wear the stupid, f…ing clothes”.

The band admit to being acutely aware they weren’t as “good-looking as some”, which is a big part of why they adopted virtual frontman, Eddie.

The skeletal cartoon character has graced almost every Maiden album, is a huge part of their live shows and is beloved by their vast fan base.

Never pretending to be cool on or the cutting edge of music trends, this metal act nonetheless became one of the biggest bands on the planet in the early 1980s.

However, it was at the peak of their fame the wheels began to fall off, prompting Dickinson’s departure from the group for an ill-fated solo career in 1993, before returning to the fold in 1999.

“It doesn’t occur to you until the last minute that you are going slightly mad on this regime and schedule, because you’re completely dislocated from any kind of reality that a person outside the band would be living in,” the singer admits.

“You go from hotel to tour bus, tour bus to aeroplane, aeroplane to whatever, blah, blah, blah, via loads of adrenaline every single day.

“And, when you’re not doing that, you’re running around, because you’re young enough to go around trying to get laid and do all kinds of mischievous things as well.

“(Playing to those huge crowds) is a high which is better than drugs, but which will eventually eat up all of your resources, emotional resources, until there’s nothing left, and then you wonder why it all seems empty.

“If I could make any analogy, it’s that all of us on-stage performers were a bit like balloons, you know, you start off all flaccid, you go out there, pump yourself up to some enormous thing, so you can touch the sides of the stadium with your gigantic personality on the huge screen and all the usual paraphernalia.

“And, then, once you get off, you try to get this gigantic balloon through your front door, and it won’t fit.”

Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition is in cinemas now.