IRON MAIDEN Drummer: 'Powerslave' Tour 'Nearly Was The Death Of The Band'

Gnarly Charlie of KNAC.COM recently conducted an interview with IRON MAIDEN members Steve Harris (bass),Adrian Smith (guitar),and Nicko McBrain (drums). An excerpt from the chat follows:

On touring in the earlier days:

McBrain: "The Powerslave, it was a long tour. It was over 13 months long, which nearly was the death of the band, to be honest, only from the number of the shows we played; four in a row, three in a row, four in a row, day off, three in a row, day off, four in a row, day off, two in a row, day off. It was relentless. I think we toured America for like, five months. In those days, it was you'd go to play where anyone would have you, because we were breaking the band."

Harris: "It was kind of a bad couple of years before that of solid album, tour, album, tour. Coming off one tour and having a week off and going straight into writing the next album and rehearse, and then going straight out into the next world tour. And we did that for the first four or five albums. It was pretty crazy, so by that time, after the Powerslave Tour, we were all burned out. We had to say to management, 'Look, we want time off.' And everybody was pretty fried after that. It just affected people in different ways. It was tough, but at that time we were invincible young lads and we were totally up for doing the tour. But, by the end of the tour we were fried. Five or six nights a week for 30 months, two hours a night, full-on. Physically we were fit at the end of it — but mentally very unfit. . . Bruce [Dickinson, vocas] was so fried he couldn't even write anything, really. Anything coherent, anyway (laughs),for the next album. Without a doubt, he was the one affected the most. When you're singing…I can't imagine what it's like singing the way he does every night. It's just incredibly taxing on him. It's a lot to ask of someone. He's got fantastic pipes, but to go out and ask him to do that every night for six nights a week for two hours a night for 13 months is a lot to ask of anybody, really. And I don't think he realized before he went out on the tour — none of us did — what it was going to do to us, because we probably wouldn't have done it (laughs). We probably would have said, 'Okay, let's have a month break in the middle of it or something,' and it probably would have recharged our batteries and we would have carried on fine. But to go months like that is just crazy, really. But you think you got to do these things to find out.”

Read the entire interview at KNAC.COM.