“Fear Is the Key” is about the fear that exists nowadays in sexual relationships because of AIDS, of course. “Sex” has become a synonym for “fear”. When we were writing the songs, we heard about Freddie Mercury’s death. There’s a line in “Fear Is the Key” that goes “nobody cares ‘til somebody famous dies”. And that’s sadly true. In the States, mostly, nobody really cared about AIDS until Magic Johnson, the basketball player, announced publicly that he was HIV-positive. As long as the virus was confined to homosexuals or drug addicts, nobody gave a shit. It’s only when celebrities started to die that the masses began to feel concerned.

—Bruce Dickinson