Nicko McBrain Names The Iron Maiden Song He Can’t Play Anymore

Nicko McBrain can’t play ‘Caught Somewhere in Time’ like the original anymore.

During the July 19 show by his side project Titanium Tart at Piper’s Pub in Pompano Beach, Florida, the drummer reflected on the stroke he went through last year and the physical limitations it caused:

“When we were rehearsing last year for ‘The Future Past Tour’, we were doing ‘Caught Somewhere in Time’ to open. Now there’s a middle section, it’s all snare drum on the record. I can’t play it. As you probably noticed, those of you nerds that are in the audience that go, ‘He didn’t do the drum fill.’ Well, that’s why, ’cause I f*cking can’t do it.”

What Did Steve Harris Tell Nicko?

McBrain revealed the conversation between him and Steve Harris:

“So anyway, Steve turned around to me and I said, ‘Okay, I’ve got an idea. if I do the double on the snare,’ and I played it for him and he went, ‘No. Have you got anything else?’ I went, ‘Yeah I’ll play it on the cymbal.’ ‘No. You got anything else?’ ‘That’s me spent, mate.’ So he turned around and he thought about for about half a minute. He’s standing in front of my drum set and he’s going, ‘Why don’t you play it straight?’”

The musician talked about the rest of their chat:

“I went, ‘What?’ ‘Play a straight fill through it. Go ahead.’ I went, ‘You’re a f*cking genius, Harry.’ And there’s me, the drummer, supposedly, [I’m] supposed to come up with all these ideas, and there’s Harry: ‘Play it straight, Nick.’ I didn’t even think of that. And so we rehearsed it from thereon in, and we play it straight, which I’m sure 90 percent of you don’t give a f*ck about that bit anyway.”

McBrain Wanted To Be Open About His Health

In January 2023, Nicko had a stroke at his home in Boca Raton, causing partial paralysis. He began a tough rehabilitation journey after quick treatment by stroke specialists at Boca Raton Regional Hospital. In December, McBrain explained why he decided to be open about his health condition:

“I felt they deserved to know why I wasn’t giving it 100%, and that was my primary reason. The secondary reason was that if I can help one person as an example of my striving to get better, then it’s worth doing, so it was kind of a double-barrelled thing for me to let the fans know and help someone say, ‘Well if Nick can do it, I can do it. He had 13 weeks of recovery, and he’s ended up doing a tour of Europe!’”

McBrain also shared that his Iron Maiden bandmates, especially Steve Harris, were very supportive during his recovery. Steve encouraged him to focus on getting better and reassured him that his health was the most important thing.