Metal Anarchy

During a recent interview with Chaoszine, Nicko McBrain further discussed his decision to retire from touring with Iron Maiden. The drummer says “it was an easy decision, but [he wishes he] could still play with the guys.”

McBrain said the following when asked how he feels after playing his final show with the band:

“Mixed emotions, obviously. Making the decision to step back from touring has been — it was easy at the time, going towards the end of the tour. I kind of made my mind up when we got to North America and talked to the boys about it, mainly [bassist] Steve [Harris] and then the management. And everybody went, ‘Okay. If that’s what you wanna do, we understand,’ having my handicap, since my stroke and stuff like that. So having said 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,” he added. “I wish I had my full fitness.”

He continued when asked if “The Future Past” tour was rough for him:

“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.’”

He also added the following when asked if that made it difficult to do the tour:

“No, not at all. Well, just from the point — when you get used to being able to do something for, like, 50 years of your career, and then God gave me a stroke, but I’m still here. I’m still standing two years later. But I was very fortunate in the fact that I had great therapists that helped me through this in the beginning. I basically felt that… The feeling I had was I was frustrated because I know I could do stuff, but I couldn’t actually do it physically or mentally, ’cause there’s a lot of mental stuff going on.”

He also explained his exact reason for retirement:

“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,” McBrain explained. “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.”

On another note, McBrain also revealed that he is thinking about writing an autobiography:

“Yeah, we’re on the cusp of that. Yeah, it’s been talked about. Yeah. Watch this space.”

[via Blabbermouth]