A Spanish Fan Has Seen Iron Maiden 230 Times

Yesterday, Vice ran a profile on Fernando Leal, a Spanish fan who has seen Iron Maiden 230 times and has, wait, holy shit, he’s seen Iron Maiden 230 times.

Leal first saw the band when he was sixteen, and since then has made it his duty to catch the band whenever and wherever he can around the world. And for the most part, he seems pretty up-front and intelligent about it:

“This is how I spend my vacations. Why would I sit on a beach for 15 days? That’d be a complete waste of time….

“I don’t have kids, a car, or a mortgage, or whatever, so I have some extra money… For various health reasons I don’t drink, either, so I don’t actually go out that much. I just make sure to book tickets early, and most of the time I sleep in the airport. It’s cheaper. My trip to India and Dubai actually only lasted four days.”

Sweet. I can already hear plenty of older metalheads with families calling this dude a nerd with no life or whatever, but fuck that, as far as pastimes go, seeing Iron Maiden is a great one. This dude has seen Maiden in Australia. That’s dope as hell.

Suffice it to say, a dude like this puts whatever megafandom you and I have to shame. I may get conflicted about my obsession with Slayer, but I don’t have 230 Slayer shows under my belt.

However, Leal goes on to mention he’s not unusual among Maiden fans:

“I know a Swiss guy who’s done more than 300 concerts himself.”

You always need a star to reach for. Read the whole piece here.