IRON MAIDEN’s NICKO MCBRAIN Discusses Drumming After Having A Stroke

Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain sadly suffered a stroke back in January 2024. In a statement on the band’s website at the time, McBrain revealed it was a minor transient ischemic attack (TIA) that left part of his right side paralyzed. Despite the stroke, McBrain has still been out there tearing it up with Iron Maiden live, though he notes it’s not quite the same as it used to be.

In an interview with The Washington Tattoo podcast, McBrain said he’s sadly not able to do some of the fills he used to be able to play. Which is still incredible considering it’s only the faster fills McBrain can’t play, and not more of the basic stuff. The man did have a stoke, after all.

“The first three months of a stroke is where you have the most recovery. After that, the next three months, it’s a little less and then the three months after that, and so on and so forth. I’m over — almost a year and a half now, but it will be next week. What’s the date? Yeah, 10 days’ time. So I’m still not back to where I wanna be.

“I’ve probably got… I can’t do, I can’t do… So if this is a tempo, I can’t do a 16-note roll going into 32^nd-note rolls anymore. What happens is I can play eighth notes, like that kind of groove. I can do doubles, but when I try and play that 16^th at that speed, instead of going up and down, it wobbles from left to right, when I start playing fast, when I try to play fast.

“So I’ve had to adjust my fills now. I mean, I don’t play ‘The Trooper’ fill anymore because I can’t get it… It’s the speed of it. I can do everything slow, but I’ve had to make sure that as long as I can keep the groove of the song, which is normally…”

McBrain later noted that he works out a lot of what he can and can’t play with his Iron Maiden cover band Titantium Tart. McBrain also reveals that he feels he’s peaked in terms of his recovery and what he’ll be able to play again, which again – dude’s still out there killing it.

“We had the rehearsal [for the spring 2023 Iron Maiden tour] starting in April, end of April. So I had that three months — March, February, March, April. I had 12 weeks of recovery, basically, before I went and had rehearsal. And, so today my routine now is I do the eight on eight to warm up and try and get my fingers working, but they’re not… I’m at the stage now where I’ve peaked.

“I’ve noticed in some of the rehearsals — I play with the Titantium Tart band I’ve got, which are doing the same set that I’m playing with Maiden later this year; we’re doing exactly the same set. I’ve got a couple of gigs coming up this weekend. We rehearse once a week. I’ve got a rehearsal tonight and tomorrow. So, I’m allowed to be out to try these things out. And they’re not working.

“So, I’ve reverted back to what I was doing with the band last year, which was playing straighter on those kind of fills. [The song] ‘Fear Of The Dark’, I’m getting the triplets again and a couple of the hi-hats snap. Those kind of things. It’s all about the tempo of the songs. When they’re fast, I have a struggle. When they’re slow, I can do it.”