Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain has discussed how the band could have handled Bruce Dickinson’s departure more smoothly, speaking on Classic Album Review.
McBrain was the most vocal member of the band about Dickinson’s exit in the 1990s. Dickinson announced he was leaving partway through the Fear of the Dark tour, rather than waiting until it ended. McBrain explained his frustration at the time and how the situation affected both the band and their fans.
“Oh, yeah, without a doubt,” McBrain said. “I was the most outspoken one of the guys, out a lot of them, about the way that all went down with Bruce.”
“And there was a lot of bad blood in as much as I thought, well, why didn’t he wait till the end of the ‘Fear Of The Dark’ tour [to announce that he was leaving]? Why did he have to say he wanted to leave halfway through it?” he continued. “And my take was, why do I wanna… And I’m gonna be a bit rude here. I mean, it’s well documented, but you’ve asked the question and I’ll answer it.”
“I felt, why do I wanna look at his sorry arse on stage every night and I know he doesn’t wanna be there?” McBrain said. “It was a very personal inward thing for me. Then I’m thinking, ‘Well, what about the fans? We’re not giving them a subpar performance,’ ’cause he didn’t wanna be there. And all this kind of stuff, this malarkey was going through me noggin.”
When Dickinson returned to the band years later, the two men addressed the tension. “But when he came back, we had a meeting in Brighton,” McBrain explained. “Janick [Gers, Maiden guitarist], Bruce and myself drove back to London for last orders at the local pub in Chiswick that Bruce and Janick used to go to. And we talked about it, and I said to him, ‘Bruce, I can’t take back what I said and how I felt about when you left the band five years ago, six years back,’ I said, ‘but I love you and I’m glad you’re back in the band.'”
“And he looked at me and he put his arm around me,” McBrain continued. “He says, ‘I wouldn’t have it any other way, Nick. I love you too.’ And we’ve never spoken about it since. And that’s so good, because we put it to bed.”
McBrain’s comments came during a discussion of Iron Maiden’s five-year period fronted by Blaze Bayley while Dickinson was away from the band.
Dickinson’s departure came in 1993, just before Iron Maiden embarked on a spring and early summer tour. He played his final show with the band on August 28, 1993, a performance that was broadcast live as a pay-per-view event in the United Kingdom and the United States. Blaze Bayley replaced Dickinson and fronted Iron Maiden from 1994 to 1999.
Bayley’s time with the band ended after fan interest declined, prompting Dickinson’s return on February 10, 1999 after a six-year absence. Guitarist Adrian Smith also rejoined at the same time after a decade away. The Ed Hunter tour in 1999 marked their first run back together, featuring a setlist filled with classic songs not performed in over a decade. The reunited band released “Brave New World” in 2000, which was praised as their best and most ambitious work since “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son” twelve years earlier.
The reunion process involved broader reconciliation efforts during 1999. McBrain’s willingness to move past his earlier frustrations reflected a band-wide commitment to healing the wounds from Dickinson’s departure. By putting the matter to bed as McBrain described, Iron Maiden was able to rebuild the unity necessary for their comeback.
