Iron Maiden’s legendary drummer Nicko McBrain has pulled back the curtain on his 2024 retirement, revealing that the “blaze of glory” farewell he received was not his original plan. The 73-year-old icon, who hung up his sticks after 42 years with the band, explained that he had privately requested a much quieter exit.
Speaking with Dan Shinder of “Drum Talk TV,” McBrain reflected on the whirlwind final decision, stating (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “I personally asked the management and the band to leave the announcement till after the gig, to January this year. I wanted to spend Christmas without having everybody and their mum sending me texts and my phone ringing off the hook: ‘Oh, what’s this? You’ve left the band.'”
This desire for a subdued departure, however, was overruled by Iron Maiden’s management, who felt his career demanded a more significant send-off. McBrain recalled manager Andy Taylor’s pivotal advice: “He said, ‘Nick, by the way, what’s this about you not wanting to make an announcement on your last show? You need to go out in a blaze of glory. You don’t want to go out on a wimpish whim.’ And I went, ‘You’re right. I’m being selfish.'”
This decision set the stage for his final, monumentally emotional performance on December 7, 2024, in São Paulo, Brazil. McBrain described the night as a “very mixed-emotions show,” where he was greeted by 50,000 fans chanting his name. As he took his final bow, he confessed he was on the verge of breaking down.
“I remember I thought to myself, ‘I’m gonna burst out in tears here in a minute.’ I felt that emotional, and I thought, God’s saying to me, ‘Look, it’s okay, Nick, if you wanna cry. That’s why we gave you tears and emotion.’ Anyway, so I thought, ‘No, maybe stay strong. Do your weeping offstage.'”
While the love from the fans was overwhelming, McBrain revealed that the “most important moment” happened just before he walked on. “When I went to go on stage, all the backline, they gave me a salute and a farewell,” he shared. “That was their last time they would actually be with me on an Iron Maiden show… And there were some tears, I gotta admit — some of my truly dear friends on the tour for many years had a tear in their eye.”
McBrain also confirmed that his retirement had been on his mind for years, even before his debilitating January 2023 stroke. “To be honest with you, when we made [the] Senjutsu [album in 2019], I was thinking, ‘All right, after the Senjutsu tour, I’ll hang it up.’ … My mindset was always to think about, ‘It’s time for me to step down and give it to a younger fellow.'”
The pandemic delayed those plans, but the stroke, which left him partially paralyzed, made the decision a physical necessity. He expressed profound gratitude to his bandmates for their loyalty during his recovery. “I was very blessed that the band would stick behind me… and the fact that I have a handicap, ’cause I can’t play 16th-note rolls [anymore]… So I had to compromise with drum fills. And the band stood by me for almost two years.”
The final straw was the upcoming 50th-anniversary tour, which would have celebrated Iron Maiden‘s early, complex material. “I knew I couldn’t have opened with [the 1981 Iron Maiden song] ‘Murders In The Rue Morgue‘. I mean, that drum fill at the beginning was just… I could have scratched through and done something else… But this is a celebration of those records…”
Ultimately, his health and the band’s legacy came first. “They were all very worried about me,” he said of his bandmates. “They didn’t wanna see me — and I didn’t wanna see myself drop dead on stage. But mind you, having said that, if the good Lord calls me up, I would prefer to do it on a gig.” He also clarified that the transition to his replacement, Simon Dawson, involved “no skullduggery,” as he had personally approved Simon to rehearse as a backup in case his health failed mid-tour.
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