Nicko McBrain Explains Why He Quit Touring with Iron Maiden: “I Thought I Was Really Struggling”
Things were hard for him near the end there. The post Nicko McBrain Explains Why He Quit Touring with Iron Maiden: “I Thought I Was Really Struggling” appeared first on MetalSucks.


On December 7, 2024, Nicko McBrain officially hung up his touring gloves after one final thunderous sendoff with Iron Maiden in São Paulo, Brazil. It was the end of a road paved with decades of galloping rhythms, beastly fills, and enough cymbal crashes to flatten a small village. But while McBrain’s days onstage are done (for now), he’s still very much part of the Maiden machine—just not the one getting stuffed into a sweaty arena every night.
Simon Dawson, known for pounding skins in Steve Harris’ side hustle British Lion, has been tapped to fill in for McBrain on future tours. Dude’s got big shoes to fill, and probably a couple of Paiste cymbals already flying at his head in his sleep.
In an interview with Eddie Trunk on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation, McBrain got candid about the moment the retirement seed was planted—specifically, one rough night in Australia.
“There was a second night in Sydney, Australia, where I might, it was probably one of the worst performance, personally for me. I thought it was a really bad performance.
And I remember saying to Bruce, walking back to the dressing room, or I think we did a runner, actually, we were walking back to the cars. I said, ‘Oh, mate.’ I said, ‘I’m really struggling up there tonight.’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ And he looked at it, he said, ‘You looked like you were struggling.’ And actually he said, ‘I was worried about your health.'”
Turns out, that brutal show wasn’t just about bad playing—it came during a hellish emotional stretch.
“And that was another issue that I had to contend with because in these early days of those, you know, the Asia and far East gigs, because we started in Australia, you know, and it was early days, but I also had lost one of my very best friends. He drowned, the week we were, just at the end of the rehearsal week. And we had two weeks, actually two and a half weeks of rehearsal. And that really, really affected me. So I had a lot of stress going on in my life…”
Touring while grieving? That’ll mess with anyone’s head—even a battle-hardened vet like Nicko.
“For me, I went with 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’ll think I’m gonna hang it up.’ And that was the mental side of it, you know, in my mind. So, yeah, I’d say it was the second night of Sydney.”
So yeah, it wasn’t some dramatic “I’m outta here!” moment—it was a quiet realization that, after all these years, maybe it was time to step off the stage while still mostly intact.
But don’t start writing eulogies yet—Nicko’s not gone, he’s just not flying across the planet anymore. He confirmed he’s still embedded in the Maiden universe.
“Yeah, I’m not touring. 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 with, I dunno that, you know, everybody’s got that much older, we all lost about a year and a half, two years of fricking, you know, from that stupid pandemic. You know, that affected everybody’s psyche as well.”
Classic Nicko—still cranky about COVID, still refreshingly unfiltered. And still keeping busy:
“So basically I am still part of the family. I’m still involved with, I’m doing a lot of work with the fan club, and there’s some books. I’ve got a book in the, you know, 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?”
That long-awaited autobiography might be crawling toward the finish line, but apparently it’s gonna be massive.
“Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I’ve got 21 chapters, and that’s one chapter per year of my life, so gonna be a marathon book. I’m only up to when I went pro… I had a ghost writer I sat with, but I’m not sure whether I’m gonna go over that. I prefer to do it myself.”
As for those hoping for a surprise Nicko sighting at a future Maiden show—don’t count it out.
“It’s a possibility that when they come over here, you know, I might end up doing a show with them, you know, just getting up and doing a song or two, or just being there. If there is a new album in the pipeline, it’s a possibility I’ll do a couple of tracks off the album. You know, not on the album. Yeah, who knows? It’s you know, we are still, we’re all still part of the family, although I’m not playing the shows.”
So there you have it. Nicko’s not gone, he’s just dialing it back—because after decades of service to the metal gods, the man’s earned a break. And probably a nap.
The post Nicko McBrain Explains Why He Quit Touring with Iron Maiden: “I Thought I Was Really Struggling” appeared first on MetalSucks.