Nicko McBrain Leaves Door Open to Playing With Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain provided an update on his status with the band since retiring from touring last December in a recent interview on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk.

“Yeah, I’m not touring,” McBrain said. “There isn’t any plans that I know of to do a record. I mean, we did speak about possibly doing a new album a couple of years ago and it was nixed then. But now, I dunno. Everybody’s got that much older. We all lost about a year and a half, two years from that stupid pandemic. That affected everybody’s psyche as well.”

Although he has since ceded his drum throne to Simon Dawson, McBrain said he’s “still part of the family. I’m doing a lot of work with the fan club, and there’s some books. I’m writing a book — actually, I’ve been writing a book for 10 freaking years. It’s about time I finished it, you know?”

Nicko McBrain Discusses His Memoir and Potential Future Iron Maiden Plans

Elaborating on his in-progress memoir, McBrain said: “I’ve got 21 chapters, and that’s one chapter per year of my life, so it’s gonna be a marathon book. I’m only up to when I went pro. I had a ghostwriter I sat with, but I’m not sure whether I’m gonna go over that. I prefer to do it myself.”

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McBrain also didn’t rule out the possibility of guesting with Maiden at future shows or on recordings. “It’s a possibility that when they come over here [to the U.S.], I might end up doing a show with them, just getting up and doing a song or two, or just being there,” he said. “If there is a new album in the pipeline, it’s a possibility I’ll do a couple of tracks on the album. Yeah, who knows? We’re all still part of the family, although I’m not playing the shows.”

The Moment Nicko McBrain Knew It Was Time to Stop Touring With Iron Maiden

McBrain, who had a stroke in 2023, also revealed the moment he knew it was time to stop touring with Iron Maiden.

“There was a second night in Sydney, Australia, where it was probably one of the worst performances, personally for me,” he recalled. “I thought it was a really bad performance. And I remember saying to Bruce [Dickinson], walking back to the dressing room … I said, ‘Oh, mate. I’m really struggling up there tonight.’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ And he looked at [me], he said, ‘You looked like you were struggling.’ And actually he said, ‘I was worried about your health.'”

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The drummer said he also had to grapple with the loss of one of his best friends, who drowned while Iron Maiden was rehearsing for tour.

“That really, really affected me,” he said. “So I had a lot of stress going on in my life, which, you know, we all get that. We all get issues where sometimes people deal with stress differently. For me, I went [into] a depression with it, and so I’m not making excuses for myself, but that was the time when I thought, ‘Hmm, maybe it’s time. I’ll finish the tour and I think I’m gonna hang it up.'”

McBrain is currently back on the road for a brief Florida tour with his Iron Maiden cover band, Titanium Tart.