Nicko McBrain has put the question about a new Iron Maiden record to Steve Harris himself, and the answer he got was no.
He told Berlin's Star FM that Harris came to his restaurant in Florida early this year and the two of them talked. McBrain asked whether, with time off from touring coming, Harris would think about a new album. Harris said he had not thought about it.
McBrain is careful about what that means. Not prepared to think about it yet is not the same as no album, he says, and he adds that Bruce Dickinson would like to make one.
The arithmetic is what stands in the way. A record has to be made, released and then toured, and that is a couple of years at the far end of careers that are already long. They are all getting older, he says, and leaves it there.
He retired in December 2024 after forty two years, following a stroke that left his right side partly paralysed, and has stayed close to the band since. Simon Dawson plays the drums now.