Nicko McBrain, who stopped touring with Iron Maiden at the end of 2024, has been asked what will finally end the band and has given the most practical answer anyone has.
"I personally think that they'll go until somebody else in the band says, 'I can't do it anymore,'" he told the Rockonteurs podcast, run by Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt. He sees nothing in the current line-up that suggests anybody is close to it.
He also offered a suggestion that will divide people: pull the tempo of some of the older songs back a little, and the band gets more years out of them. Coming from the man who played those tempos for forty years, it is hard to dismiss. He was the one who had to stop.
On a studio return, he repeated that he would happily guest on a few tracks if there is another album, and that he would not expect to play the whole thing, with Simon Dawson in the seat now. Nothing has been announced. His last show was in São Paulo on 7 December 2024, his memoir came out on 22 October, and he is on the road talking rather than drumming.