Nicko McBrain has given his first interview since retiring from touring with Iron Maiden. In a conversation with Chaoszine, he talks about the reasons behind the decision and its aftermath:
PHOTO COPYRIGHT JOHN McMURTRIE 2016
Mixed emotions, obviously. Making the decision to step back from touring was easy towards the end of the tour. I kind of made my mind up when we got to North America. Talked to the boys about it, mainly Steve, then the management, and everybody went, ‘Okay, if that’s what you want to do, we understand’. Having my handicap since my stroke and stuff like that. I get up some days and I’m like, ‘I’m gonna miss the next tour and I’m not gonna be able to go out on the road.’ It was an easy decision, but I wish I could still play with the guys, I wish I had my full fitness, but you know… 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 just got to me. […] It was good the year before last in 2023. Then I had that kind of once a year off and it was still good. But I felt that I wasn’t giving it a hundred percent. I couldn’t give it a hundred percent. It’s certainly on ‘Trooper’ and other songs. 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. But that’s still quite exhausting if you still have to have an extra trainer to do extra work. I was enjoying getting that physical side of training. I wasn’t doing so much weight. It was a lot of yoga stretches, 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, ‘At my age, I’m going to step back and let somebody else take the reins’.
From the point when you get used to being able to do something for like 50 years and then, you know, God gave me a stroke. But I’m still here. I’m still standing two years later. I was very fortunate in the fact that I had great therapists that helped me through this in the beginning. Basically, I was frustrated because […] I couldn’t actually do it physically or mentally. […] It was something that I had thought of last year, the year before in 2023. 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 as we got to the North American tour, I thought, ‘Yeah, it’s time to tie it up, Nick’. But being in this band for 42 years, it wasn’t an easy decision by any means. But, you know, it was the best one. […] 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, […] I’m not doing it because it was just too much for me.
When asked what he’s going to do with all this time on his hands, Nicko said:
Obviously, it’ll give me more time to spend here [his Rock N Roll Ribs restaurant] and do events and meet fans. I haven’t actually used this drum set behind me yet. And so Mitch, my partner and I go, ‘You fancy a jam tonight? Let’s call the boys up’. […] We’ve got to get the PA working again. So that it gives me a chance to really work on getting more of a profile back into the restaurant. Drum One [Nicko McBrain’s Drum One store]. That’s my music store back in England. Also, I’ve got the British Drum Company. There’s some new design stuff that I’ve been asked to work on for some of the hardware so that will take up a nice bit of time. But primarily it gives me time to be with my family. Then, Titanium Tart will be the primary focus for playing. Maybe I might do a little other project which would be going back to my musical roots, which was like back in the 70s, when I was playing with a band called Street Walkers. Very funky, souly, hard rock kind of band. So […] I’m semi retired. […]
Will Nicko write a book about his life?
We’re on the cusp of that. It’s been talked about.
Watch the full interview below.
Nicko McBrain’s Drum One: https://www.drumone.co.uk/
Rock N Roll Ribs: https://rocknrollribs.com/
British Drum Company: https://www.britishdrumco.com/
Titanium Tart on FB: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077757948201
