Longtime Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain played his final show with Iron Maiden on December 7, 2024 in São Paulo, Brazil. Iron Maiden has since recruited drummer Simon Dawson of British Lion for future live shows, which begin this May. McBrain's retirement came as a shock to the metal community, but wasn't entirely surprising given he'd suffered a stroke in January 2023 that made drumming a little more difficult.
In a new interview with Finland's Chaoszine, McBrain opened up about his retirement from the road saying it wasn't an easy decision and "I wish I could still play with the guys." When asked if playing live had become difficult ever since the stroke, McBrain said Iron Maiden's The Future Past tour was difficult but made easier with all the days off.
"It was. This one, we kept the kind of same schedule, like gig, travel day, gig, travel day, gig, two days off or a day off, travel day, that sort of thing. And it was just — it just got to me. It was good the year before last, in '23. And it was still good [in 2024], but I felt that I couldn't give it a hundred percent, certainly on 'Trooper' and other songs.
"And we made do, we got through it okay, but I felt that I was not being able to drive the band like I wanted to, although I had a personal trainer out on the road towards the end of the North American tour… We didn't have any rest days. If we did two shows in a row, we'd have a travel day and then a full day off. It was working out nice for me. I was enjoying getting that physical side of training. I wasn't doing so much weight; it was a lot of kind of yoga stretches, a lot of things like that, trying to get my mental agility back with coordinating.
"There were a lot of things that we did together to improve the synapses in the brain to get working again. And it was coming on nice, but it was just a struggle for me. And I thought, 'You know, at my age, I'm gonna step back and let somebody else take a the reins.'"
McBrain later elaborated that he originally thought of retiring in 2023, but pressed on for a little while longer until he realized that maybe it was time.
"It was something that I had thought of in '23. I was thinking after the end of that tour, I was going, 'Well, should I announce it to the band then?' But I thought, 'No, I'll get through 'The Future Past' tour and then we'll see. And let's get that one out of the way first.' And as we got to the North American tour, I thought, 'It's time to hang it up, Nick.'
"It wasn't an easy decision by any means, but it was the best one — it was the best decision at the end of the day. Admittedly, I get good days and bad days, and the bad days are when I feel, 'Oh, I'm not gonna be out on those stages anymore looking at these wonderful fans of ours for all these years,' but at the end of the day, that's why I'm not doing it. That's not why I'm doing it, actually — I'm not doing it because it was just too much for me."
