Bruce Dickinson wants Iron Maiden to replace him if he can no longer cope as their singer.

The 63-year-old frontman insisted ill health shouldn't be a reason for the group to call it a day and he'd be happy to make occasional guest appearances, so long as he was allowed to approve his replacement.

He said: "We always tell the same joke when we get together - 'Is everyone alive?' We've always been honest with the fans.

"If tomorrow I don't feel able to sing more than four songs a night, I'd like the guys to continue and I should be able to choose my replacement.

"I would stick my head in from time to time and the other singer would do the rest.

"When you look at Keith Richards, who suffers from arthritis, he's not on top form every night but he's supported by other guitarists. It's the Rolling Stones.

"I don't think it upsets anyone. In any case, everything I've said isn't going to happen."

But Bruce dismissed the idea of following Abba's lead and using hologram replicas.

He told the Daily Star newspaper's Wired column: "That's hell on earth. I really don't understand the point of it."

The 'Run to the Hills' group's latest album 'Senjutsu' recently topped the charts and Bruce admitted it's vital for the band to keep creating new music.

He said: "Without new music, you become a karaoke group. There are some groups who don't mind being that.

"But it's out of the question for us. If you don't create anything, people lose interest. You become a fossil. 'Woah, a T-rex. Imagine when it had muscles!'

"I don't want to become a skeleton in a museum and in any case, I have muscles and claws - and I bite."