Nicko McBrain – Iron Maiden Willing to Drop Songs He Can’t Play

Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain says the band had instituted a new rule to address the fact that he can’t play as well as he used to.

He suffered a stroke in January 2023 that left him partially paralyzed, although he returned to action after months of intensive physical therapy.

After a few dates of their summer tour that year left some fans asking questions, McBrain – now 72 – explained that he’d been left with some limitations in his performing ability, but that he believed he was at 70 percent at the time.

READ MORE: How Many Songs Each Member of Iron Maiden Has Written

“I’ve gotta be honest with you: it was a touch and go last year for me,” he recently told the crowd at a show in Pompano Beach, Florida, with his side-project Titanium Tarts (video below).

“I couldn’t play; I was paralyzed on the right side. Fortunately… there’s a girl called Julie Blum that looked after me, and in three months, she had me playing again.”

He admitted: “And it ain’t the old Nicko – it’s not the old one by a long shot. But at least it’s part of me. And my band, bless their hearts, Steve Harris and the rest of the guys turn around and say, ‘If you can’t do something in a song, we just won’t do that song.’”

He went on to cite the 1986 song “Caught Somewhere In Time,” which managed to escape the new rule through some inspired thinking from Harris.

How Steve Harris Helped Nicko McBrain Deal With His Limitations

“Now, there’s a middle section; it’s all snare drum on the record. I can’t play it,” McBrain confirmed. “Those of you nerds that are in the audience [will] go, ‘He didn’t do the drum fill!’ Well, that’s why – I fucking can’t do it! … Steve turned around to me and I said, ‘Okay, I’ve got an idea. if I do the double on the snare…’ and I played it for him and he went, ‘No. Have you got anything else?’

“I went, ‘Yeah, I’ll play it on the cymbal.’ ‘No. You got anything else?’’ That’s me spent, mate.’ … [H]e thought about for about half a minute…and he’s going, ‘Why don’t you play it straight?’

“I went, ‘You’re a fucking genius, ‘Arry!’ And there’s me, the drummer, supposedly, supposed to come up with all these ideas… I didn’t even think of that. And so we rehearsed it from there on in, and we play it straight – which I’m sure 90 percent of you don’t give a fuck about that bit anyway!”

Watch Nicko McBrain Discuss His Stroke

Listen to Nick McBrain’s Simplified Roll During “Caught Somewhere In Time”