Iron Maiden's Nicko McBrain Feared Stroke Would Stop Him From Playing

12-30-2023

Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain has revealed that he feared that he would be unable to continue playing drums after he suffered a stroke earlier this year.

The 71-year-old music icon was hospitalized following the stroke and opened up about the experience to Metal Hammer. He shared, "It was very, very difficult. When it first happened I thought, 'This is it, I'm not going to be able to play. I've got a tour coming up in three months time.'

"I had a lot of time for reflection in the hospital. My wife was really my bastion of strength and encouragement and she was with me throughout. I did a lot of strength exercises, a lot of stretches with weird weights that they have and I got my stamina back."

Nicko went on to say "Throughout all this period of time I was in touch with Steve, obviously all the guys, and I'd have a bit of a chat with them on the phone and they were all very, very encouraging, and none more so than Steve. He said, 'Look the most important thing is that you get well and work on getting yourself together.'"

He explained why he decided to publicly revealed that he had a stroke, "I felt they deserved to know why I wasn't giving it 100 percent and that was my primary reason.

"The secondary reason was that if I can help one person as an example of my striving to get better then it's worth doing, so it was kind of a double-barreled thing for me to let the fans know and help someone say, 'Well, if Nick can do it, I can do it. He had 13 weeks of recovery and he's ended up doing a tour of Europe.'"