Last year, Nicko shared a message regarding his health. Well, it seems as though it has now gotten the best of him. He has officially announced retiring from touring.
By: Michael Drukarsh - 72 year old Nicko McBrain has just announced his retirement from touring with one of the biggest metal bands in the world, Iron Maiden. After 42 years behind the kit, McBrain says that he has decided to “step back” from being on the road and that the December 7th show in Sao Paulo will be his last.
I’ve had the pleasure to meet Nicko twice in Toronto way back in the 80s when people went about their lives without recording every moment on a cell phone, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.
The first time I ran into the beast behind the drums was at one of the meccas for heavy metal in Toronto in the 80s, Rock N Roll Heaven (the other being the Gasworks). Maiden was in town for two shows at Maple Leaf Gardens in support of their latest release Somewhere In Time. As often happened, bars in the area would book cover bands to draw the crowd in who were either looking to get pumped before they saw the real bands in action or were not lucky enough to get tickets to the show. Thankfully we were the former. It was also not unusual to see one or more of the band members hanging out if they were in town, so it was no surprise that Rock N Roll Heaven had a Maiden cover band playing that Friday night before the show. Sure enough, as I entered the bar with my buddies Gavin and Hector, a striking figure stood out from the rest of the crowd. Nicko McBrain, Iron Maiden’s drummer, was sitting at the bar and ordering a drink. No one else seemed to notice and as I approached him the only thing I could think of to say was “Hey man, you’re Maiden’s drummer, can I buy you a drink?” (or something to that effect. I was 16 at the time and thought I was so cool). He laughed, said he was good but asked if Hector, Gavin and I would like to join him at their table. So, there we were, sitting around a table in the corner of Rock N Roll Heaven with Nicko McBrain, Dave Murry, and Bruce Dickinson. A few people noticed and asked for autographs but for the most part, everyone was just cool and when the cover band started playing the dance floor filled up and shortly after the guys from Maiden took off. But before they left, Nicko made sure to buy the three of us a drink.
The following year, May 20th, 1988, Maiden were back in town to support the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son release with a concert at the iconic CNE Grandstand. Not sure how, but we somehow managed to get our hands on backstage passes and after the show a few of us went wandering around through the parking lot behind the stage to get to the backstage area. It was here that we ran into a new, up and coming band that looked to be on the brink of world domination, opening act Guns N’ Roses, and almost got into a fight. While it was cool to meet them and they did in fact put on a hell of a show, at the time, Axl and the boys were not what they would become very soon after and when they began to rip into Maiden saying how they were old men (LOL, this was 1988 Axl was 26, Bruce, 30) and that Guns N’ Roses kicked their ass on stage, my buddy Massimo, a huge Iron Maiden fan, took offense and the argument almost came to blows. Thankfully no fists were thrown and we made our way to the backstage area where we spent a few moments hanging with Nicko and Dave before being rushed off by security to make room for the far more attractive female metalheads!
Nicko did make clear that he will “remain firmly part of the Iron Maiden family.” I think, and hope, we can be assured that, unlike the Motley Crue camp who treated founding member Mick Mars like a piece of trash when he too retired from touring with hopes of remaining a part of the band, that those in the Iron Maiden camp have far more integrity and class than Crue and we’ll hear a lot more from McBrain on future projects.
UP THE IRONS!
With today's announcement, who will fill the void on the road?
Iron Maiden Online
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