Nicko McBrain has so many rock ‘n’ roll stories he could stock his own library.
The affable drummer responsible for the thundering backbeat of Iron Maiden from 1982 until his post-stroke retirement in 2024, shares as many as he can without overloading his wildly entertaining memoir, “Hello Boys and Girls!” (HarperCollins, 343 pps, out now).
But before we delve into that, McBrain – and yes, that is the real last name of the man born Michael Henry McBrain in London – and his Maiden cohorts will receive long overdue induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Nov. 14.
In his book, McBrain, 74, recounts how Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson declared the Rock Hall “a complete load of bollocks” because of the seeming disdain for artists more popular commercially
than critically. Iron Maiden, eligible since 2005, was previously nominated in 2021 and 2023.
McBrain initially agreed with Dickinson’s sentiment, but softened his stance upon visiting the Cleveland shrine a decade ago.
Now, he tells USA TODAY, “I think it’s a wonderful accolade to have … There were certain things going on there that weren’t conducive to fairness, like the fans would vote you in, but you wouldn’t get accepted. And that was a bit of a bugbear for me … But what could a successful musician really want than to be recognized in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, right? There are some incredible people in there, so it all outweighs the negativity.”
None of the band members will be present for the Los Angeles ceremony due to Iron Maiden touring in Australia and McBrain canvassing Europe on a book signing/spoken-word tour.
McBrain worked on his memoir for 12 years and finally committed several weeks last year with a ghostwriter to help tweak his tales of an adventuresome life.
Here is what the warmly transparent drummer had to say about some of the memorable topics in his book.
How Nicko McBrain kicked a heroin habit before joining Iron Maiden
While McBrain didn’t want “go all in” on the “sex and drugs” elements of his early musician days when he played as a session drummer and also with the Pat Travers Band and Stretch, he also “wanted the book to come across with honesty and class.”
In the ‘60s, McBrain dropped acid because “every time you went to a pub or club, someone would give you a nudge and say, ‘Ere, want a tab of acid?’,” he writes.
Then came heroin between 1977 and 1979, which “made me feel relaxed and euphoric. The problem was it was very moreish.”
But McBrain nixed heroin before he replaced drummer Clive Burr in Iron Maiden in 1982 and by 2015 had also kicked cigarettes, cocaine (“Which just kept me up all night talking nonsense, as it does everyone,” he writes) and his “last vice” of alcohol.
The time Ozzy Osbourne saved Nicko McBrain's life
During a bender in 1975, McBrain writes about Ozzy Osbourne coming to a hotel room party with fistfuls of Dexedrine and Mandrax falling out of his pockets.
About 30 years later, the pair saw each other at a charity event and McBrain referenced their night of debauchery decades earlier, not expecting Osbourne to have any memory of it. Not only did Osbourne remember, but he shocked McBrain when he asked, “Do you remember me saving your life? On the boat coming back from Calais. You were just that (drunk) that you nearly fell over the rail. I grabbed you just in time.”
When McBrain reflects on the story in conversation, he smiles fondly at the memory. “Ozzy was a diamond in the rough,” he says, acknowledging again how he might not be alive today if not for the quick reflexes of Osbourne.
McBrain also writes in great detail how the business machinations of Sharon Osborne riled Iron Maiden during several Ozzfest performances. But that, he says now, is ancient history.
“I have not spoken to Sharon (in at least 20 years). But I would like to see her. And if I do, it will be a hug and a kiss and ‘How are you doing?,’” McBrain says. “I’m sure all that went down at the time was something going in her life as well. They were doing (“The Osbournes”) and there’s a lot of pressure on her. And obviously, living with my mate Ozzy couldn’t have been easy at times.”
When Nicko McBrain accepted Jesus into his life
While joining his wife Rebecca at church in 1995, McBrain writes that he felt like someone pushed him from behind. He turned, but all of the parishioners were standing with eyes closed and arms folded. After it happened again, he took it as a sign and thought, “OK, Jesus, come into my life. I believe in you.”
Today, McBrain says, “I give thanks to my Lord and Savior Jesus every day. I wouldn’t say I’m religious by any means. I like to pick the Bible up and don’t read it as much as I should, but I’ll read a couple of passages. I really owe it all to Him … If I was to get up to the gates (of heaven) and (St.) Peter’s going, ‘Why should we let you in?’ I would say, ‘Remember I saved that one guy. He came to know Jesus through me.’ And he’d go, ‘Right, you can come in ... You’re at the back of the line, though!’”
Nicko McBrain’s risky stroke treatment
In 2023, while preparing for cataract surgery, McBrain felt his arm go numb. When he went to sit up, “my right arm stayed behind,” he writes. As he walked to the bedroom to tell his wife he thinks he suffered a stroke, his words slurred and the right side of his face drooped.
A hospital trip confirmed the stroke and McBrain’s doctor told him they could try a drug called TNK, which limits the damage a stroke causes the brain. But it also came with a 7-9% fatality risk.
McBrain recounts the situation with a lingering sense of incredulity and his typical humor.
“My doctor told me I was a candidate for this clot-buster and when he told me the downside was this 7-9% fatality, I said, ‘Well, it’s got to be one or the other, doctor!’ We had a laugh and he said, ‘Yeah, it has to be the 9%,’” McBrain says.
During hourly checks for the next 24 hours, McBrain says he lay there thinking, “God, is this the way you’re telling me to hang it up?”
The drug was successful in giving McBrain about 70% of the dexterity back in his fingers and hands. His wrists are still strong enough to play drums, which he does at small gigs around Florida, where he lives, in the Iron Maiden cover band Titanium Tart. The band even has a mascot, Tatiana, as a female counterpart to Maiden’s famous heavy metal ghoul, Eddie.
Nicko McBrain remains the ultimate optimist
McBrain says it was a “foregone conclusion” that he retire from Maiden in 2024 because he simply couldn’t handle the rigors of his drum parts, adding, “The guys were brilliant,” about giving him a worthy sendoff at a show in Brazil.
Between his memoir and this year’s band documentary, “Burning Ambition,” McBrain admits it has been a deeply reflective time.
“When you’ve had such an amazing, blazing career like I’ve had with this incredible band, sometimes I took things for granted the last five tours or so,” he says. “You do your job, come backstage, take off your clothes, and you have a routine. “
But he relies on his faith and a desire to “pay it forward” by showing others that even though he didn’t come back as strong as he would have liked, “I came back strong enough to get on with my life, do another year of touring with the band, and I think that can inspire people.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Iron Maiden’s Nicko McBrain recalls the night Ozzy Osbourne saved his life
