Songfacts®:

• Bruce Dickinson explained the meaning behind this piano-driven song in a Songfacts track by track. "'Face In The Mirror' is about alcoholism," he said. "But beyond that it's about people's desire to be judgmental. It's sad that people end up lying on the floor drunk, but maybe they have more wisdom than you realize. And when they look in the mirror in the morning, what do they see? Who do they see?
  
  The last line in the song almost, 'Don't look in my mirror because you might see yourself, as well,' it's kind of poignant and sad. It's not particularly a feel-good song."
• "Face In The Mirror" is part of Bruce Dickinson's seventh solo album, The Mandrake Project. Many of the songs enter a sci-fi/fantasy realm, but this one stays close to earth. The album was issued along with a comic series also called The Mandrake Project.
• Bruce Dickinson is known for his soaring vocals but not his instrumental prowess. While he can write songs on both guitar and piano, Dickinson usually defers to other musicians for the final recordings. However, producer Roy Z convinced him to step out of his comfort zone and record his first-ever guitar solo on "Face in the Mirror."
  
  "Roy Z made me, the bastard, he made me play guitar," Dickinson grumbled during Loudwire's "In Conversation" live event. "I said I'm going to show you the riffs and the chords and everything and he said, 'Yeah, cool. Well, you do it!' And I said, 'Well, yeah, but I'm not very good so if you do it, it'll be a lot quicker and he said, "No, no, you do it.' And I went, 'Okay, just for the demo, right? Just for the demos. So, on we went for the demos. A lot of it did get replaced, but some bits he kept, sneakily, without me realizing."
  
  "There's a guitar solo," he added, "my first guitar solo in recorded history and also probably my last."