Accident of Birth

Accident of Birth is a heavy metal album released in 1997 by Bruce Dickinson. It was published by Zomba Music.

This is the second album made in collaboration with guitarist/producer Roy Z and is therefore much different from Bruce's previous Skunkworks album. It marks Bruce's return to his more melodic style of singing. He was also assisted by another former Iron Maiden member Adrian Smith and the two would later return to the band in early 1999. Thanks to the slightly bigger success of this album, Bruce would work with Roy Z in the future on his solo albums (including his latest, Tyranny of Souls).

The cover art was done by Derek Riggs, best known for being the creator of Iron Maiden's mascot Eddie and the artwork on all Iron Maiden albums/singles/posters/tour brochures throughout 1980-1990 (and sporadically afterwards up until 2000's Brave New World other than one additional Eddie drawing for the cover of his book Run for Cover). Four versions of the album cover exist. The regular European release had Edison (as the jester was jokingly named as "Eddie's Son") bursting out of a man's stomach. The regular cover only shows the stomach, but the poster that came with the limited edition of the album made it clear that the stomach belongs to a man. This was deemed too explicit for the U.S. market, where the album was released with a frontal view of the puppet. The 2005 re-release also has a different cover. The outer cardboard sleeve features the puppet nailed to a cross, while the cover art on the CD booklet itself is the one showing the jester bursting out of a man's stomach. The extended edition of the album features the same cover as the original, but re-scaled so as to make the man visible.

Around the time he was creating the album, Bruce Dickinson's mother told him that he was the result of a "failed abortion." The album title and the title track are a reference to this revelation: Bruce was a birth that shouldn't have been. It is not clear whether it was an actual botched abortion or that his mother was expressing regret at not having aborted her pregnancy.