During a recent appearance on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk, Chris Jericho reflected on Nicko McBrain retiring from Iron Maiden.
“We just saw Nicko in Minneapolis probably about a month ago or so,” the Fozzy frontman recalled. “And I asked him, like, ‘How are you doing?’ He was having problems playing 16th notes, he said. But he’s still Nicko — funniest guy, best guy. So it doesn’t surprise me that he retired ’cause he told me before, ‘I want the guys to go on when I’m ready to stop. And it’s gonna be soon.'”
He continued, “Maiden is so classic in that, if you think about this, they didn’t give fans a chance to even think about it. They announced it on the morning. He plays his last show that night. They announced the new drummer the next day, and boom. It’s, like, ‘See you, guys.’ It’s, like, ‘Whoa.'”
“They didn’t do, like, the Nicko farewell tour or anything like that. But, obviously, they’ve been planning it for a while. And Nicko, one of the most influential rock drummers ever, and more importantly, just a sweetheart of a guy. He’s one of those guys, as you all know, no one ever says anything bad about Nicko McBrain — ever,” Jericho stated.
The singer further talked about McBrain, “He’s just the friendliest, nicest, happiest, most encouraging guy. So, nothing but the best to him, man. And it’s gonna be hard to replace Nicko McBrain. But he earned his right to step down. And he’s just a classic drummer and a classic man.”
McBrain played his final show with Maiden last weekend. The drummer announced his retirement on Saturday, December 7. In a statement on Maiden’s website and social media, he confirmed that the concert at Allianz Parque in São Paulo, Brazil, would be his last with the band.
Bruce Dickinson gave a tribute to McBrain on stage. Before the third song, ‘The Writing On The Wall,’ the singer spoke to the crowd about Nicko’s retirement, “Tonight is a very special night, as some of you, I think probably all of you, will know, because this morning we announced, Nicko announced that he was stepping back for playing live drums with Iron Maiden.”
He added, “For 42 years Nicko’s been in this band. He was a drummer before I was a singer, he was a pilot before I was a pilot, and now he’s not leaving the band, but he’s just not playing live with us anymore. So, we have a lot more music to get to tonight, and I want the rest of the night to be a celebration of Nick, a celebration of the joy that he’s brought to everybody around the world, not just here in Brazil. All right? And with that, on we go!”
On December 8, Iron Maiden announced Simon Dawson as their new touring drummer. Dawson is a former session drummer and a longtime bandmate of Maiden bassist Steve Harris in British Lion.
