Breaking News: Nicko McBrain of Iron Maiden “cannot play certain drum parts” after suffering a mini-stroke.

He’s had to change or leave out parts including the fill in ‘The Trooper’

Drummer Nicko McBrain of Iron Maiden has discussed how his mini-stroke from the previous year is still having an influence on his drumming.

In January 2023, the 72-year-old experienced a transient ischemic attack (TIS). Since then, he has made a comeback to the stage with Iron Maiden’s current global tour, “The Future Past,” albeit he claims he has had to modify his approach to some songs.

He clarified, saying, “You have the most recovery within the first three months following a stroke,” in an interview with The Washington Tattoo podcast. The following three months are a bit less after that, as are the three months after that, and so on.

It’s been over a year and a half, but next week is when I’ll be over. What day is it? Yes, in ten days. Thus, I haven’t returned to my desired location yet.

Watch Iron Maiden – The Trooper

He went on, “I can’t do a 16-note roll going into 32nd-note rolls anymore.”

I am now able to play eighth notes and grooves like that. I can play doubles, but when I attempt to play that 16th at that pace, it wobbles from left to right when I try to play quickly instead of moving up and down. I now need to modify my fillings.

I can’t get the Trooper full, therefore I don’t play it anymore. It’s the velocity of it. I may work at things slowly, but I have to make sure that I can maintain the song’s typical flow for as long as possible.

Watch Iron Maiden – Stranger In A Strange Land (Live from The Future Past Tour)

The drummer also disclosed last month that he had trouble with the song “Caught Somewhere in Time.”

Speaking to the crowd during a performance in Pompano Beach, Florida with his side band Titanium Tart, he remarked, “We were practicing ‘Caught Somewhere In Time’ to open for ‘The Future Past Tour last year.” There’s a middle portion now, where the album just has snare drums. It’s not something I can play.

He didn’t perform the drum fill, as you have undoubtedly observed, nerds in the crowd. That’s why, because I f—ing can’t pull it off.

Gallery: 22 Iron Maiden songs inspired by books and poems

Written by Janick Gers and Steve Harris for Iron Maiden’s first Blaze Bayley era album ‘The X Factor’, ‘Lord of the Flies’ is unsurprisingly inspired by William Golding’s classic 1954 debut novel Lord of the Flies. The book follows a group of British boys who are marooned on an uninhabited island after their plane is shot down during a conflict. When their attempts to govern themselves spiral into disaster, the students soon descend into savagery.

The title track on Iron Maiden’s 12th studio album ‘Brave New World’ is directly inspired by Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian science fiction novel Brave New World. Written by Dave Murray, Steve Harris and Bruce Dickinson, the song’s lyrics perfectly reflect Huxley’s claustrophobic and grim futuristic World State that’s inhabited by genetically modified citizens and an intelligence-based social hierarchy. Bruce sings at the start: “Dying swans, twisted wings / Beauty not needed here / Lost my love, lost my life / In this garden of fear.” The ‘Brave New World’ album artwork by Derek Riggs and Steve Stone also nods towards the book.

‘When The Wild Wind Blows’ (2010)

‘When The Wild Wind Blows’, the 11-minute Steve Harris-penned closing track on ‘The Final Frontier’, is loosely based on Raymond Briggs’ post-nuclear fallout graphic novel from 1982, When The Wind Blows. The book tells of a nuclear attack on Britain by the Soviet Union from the viewpoint of a retired couple, Jim and Hilda Bloggs. Unlike the book, Iron Maiden’s song ends with a plot twist – the couple who took their ultimately own lives “mistook an earthquake for the fallout.” David Bowie, Tears for Fears and Mansun are among the other artists who have written songs about When The Wind Blows.