Iron Maiden have announced a surprise return to North America for a third and final leg of the Run For Your Lives Tour in 2027, with a statement shared via Instagram.
The band said the new shows will take place following sold-out performances across Canada and the USA this year. The tour will include 16 additional shows in North America, with Bullet For My Valentine and The Raven Age returning as special guests.
Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris explained the decision to extend the tour. “As many of our fans know, Maiden were planning on taking a break from live performances in 2027, but we’ve been enjoying this last leg in the USA and Canada so much that we all had a chat and decided we should take the show to parts we missed, particularly the North West and South East,” he said. “It just seems fair to our many fans there who have given us tremendous support for so many years.”
Harris added that the band wants to reach as many fans as possible while also experiencing festival performances in the United States. “We can’t get everywhere but we can try! Also, we have always enjoyed playing the many great festivals that are in Europe and wanted to experience a couple more in the USA which we will do at the end of the tour in Columbus and Maryland. At festivals you are not just playing to your own fans so it’s always a challenge and we all love a challenge!”
The announcement comes after the strong response to the current leg of the Run For Your Lives Tour across North America. The background to this tour explains the significance of the band’s decision to return for additional shows in 2027.
The Run For Your Lives World Tour began on May 27, 2025 in Budapest to mark 50 years since Steve Harris formed the band in late 1975. The tour features the heavy metal legends performing a classic set focusing on their first nine studio albums, from their 1980 self-titled debut up through 1992’s Fear of the Dark, with fans promised a special setlist spanning these albums.
The 2025 tour marked Iron Maiden’s first run in over four decades without longtime drummer Nicko McBrain, who retired from live touring in December 2024 at age 72 after 42 years with the group. McBrain had suffered a stroke in January 2023, which left him at what he described as 70 percent recovered and paralyzed from his shoulder down on the right side. Iron Maiden announced Simon Dawson of British Lion as McBrain’s successor, with Dawson being a former session drummer and Steve Harris’s rhythm section partner from the past 12 years with British Lion, having first teamed up with Steve Harris in 2012.
Iron Maiden’s Run For Your Lives World Tour reached North America in August 2026, after kicking off the North American leg in Toronto, Ontario and touring the U.S. and Canada through the end of September. The tour featured huge shows in Montréal and the Alamodome in San Antonio, marking 45 years since Iron Maiden first visited Canada and the USA on the 1981 Killer World Tour. Megadeth appeared at all headline shows, with Anthrax joining for dates in Montréal, Harrison, Los Angeles and San Antonio.
Harris reflected on the tour’s impact, saying the band had played to many more people per show than ever before and headlined their first stadium shows in the USA. “We have been selling out arenas in all parts of North America since 1983 — bar a short period in the ’90s — and the band’s following here continues to grow despite an almost total lack of mainstream radio support and never even having a track reach the Billboard Hot 100!” Harris stated. Bullet For My Valentine will bring their upcoming album Social Apocalypse, due March 19, 2027, to the additional North American dates, marking the band’s first North American performances since their co-headlining tour with Trivium in 2025.
