IRON MAIDEN's NICKO MCBRAIN Has 'Mixed Emotions' About Finally Being Inducted Into ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME

In a new interview with Capnharris, retired IRON MAIDEN drummer Nicko McBrain spoke about being on the list of members of the legendary British heavy metal band who will be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame's Class Of 2026. Nicko, who played his final concert with IRON MAIDEN in December 2024, will be inducted into the Hall Of Fame alongside the band's current lineup of singer Bruce Dickinson, bassist Steve Harris and guitarists Adrian Smith, Dave Murray and Janick Gers, as well as ex-singers Paul Di'Anno and Blaze Bayley, ex-guitarist Dennis Stratton and former drummer Clive Burr.

Asked how it feels to finally be inducted into the Rock Hall, Nicko said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Mixed emotions. It's a wonderful accolade to have regardless of the politics behind it all. And I personally think it's a wonderful thing to have in terms of tipping the hat with the fans. Although it's not voted for by fans — I don't believe it still is; I know that's their policy, was there was a board of guys that decided who made it and who didn't. But, yeah, I think it's a great opportunity. I can't speak for everybody else, but that's my feeling."

The 2026 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony will take place on November 14 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. It will air on ABC and Disney+ the following month.

IRON MAIDEN will miss the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony, the band's manager Rod Smallwood confirmed, because MAIDEN has dates scheduled in Australia this November.

On November 14 IRON MAIDEN will be in the middle of an Australian tour, with dates booked for November 13 in Melbourne and November 15 in Sydney.

While MAIDEN has been eligible to join the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame since 2004, the band had only been nominated twice before — in 2021 and 2023.

Even though artists are eligible for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame 25 years after the release of their first album or single, iconic hard rock and metal bands like MOTÖRHEAD have yet to be recognized by the institution, which inducted GUNS N' ROSES in that group's first year of eligibility.

The only metal or metal-adjacent acts to have made it into the Rock Hall so far have been BLACK SABBATH, LED ZEPPELIN, METALLICA, AC/DC, JUDAS PRIEST, KISS, VAN HALEN, RUSH, GUNS N' ROSES, Ozzy Osbourne and DEEP PURPLE.

IRON MAIDEN finished in the fourth place in the fan vote for the 2023 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction class.

Nicko also talked about his upcoming autobiography, "Hello Boys And Girls!", which will be published into hardback, ebook and audio on October 22, 2026 via Harper NonFiction, a division of HarperCollins. Asked how it feels to be "a future published author", Nicko said: "Fantastic, actually. I did have a deal with a publishing house about 10 years ago, and I embraced writing. About five months later, I just went, 'Oh, shoot.' They talk about writer's block and all that. I hit a brick wall. So I thought, 'Oh, bollocks.' I wrote 21 chapters in about the first year of the book, and it was like a chapter per year of my life. So when I went pro, that's when I stopped actually writing — for no reason at all. I just hit this brick wall, and I got lazy and I was touring anyway… So I got to the 21st chapter, and I hit this brick wall. And then the publishing house turned around and asked for their advance back. So I had to go back and give them their advance money back. This was way back. And then when I'd retired in '24, uh, Rod, my manager, turned to me and said, 'Oh,' he said, 'You need to finish that book off.' And so I went, 'Okay.' And he said, 'We're gonna go and work a deal, go to a publishing house for you.' And HarperCollins picked it up. And then it went from there. And I took another year. And this year was when it all started to come together. And the book that I presented on the day of the [MAIDEN documentary film] 'Burning Ambition' [premiere] back in May, it was just a cover. It wasn't the finished book, boys and girls. Just so you know. But it was nice to be able to actually finally announce it to everybody."

Earlier this year, Nicko spoke about MAIDEN's possible Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction in an interview with Rock Of Nations With Dave Kinchen & Shane McEachern. Referencing the fact that the 2026 nominees for induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame include rap, metal, R&B, hip-hop, Britpop, blues rock and pop artists, Nicko said: "Yeah, in the greater scheme of things, it's not really a Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame anymore, but it's still a wonderful accolade to be given finally to hopefully — the guys may go, 'Yeah, we're gonna induct them.' But at the end of the day, it's really something that the whole of the band have talked about over the years, and it's not something that's voted for by your fans, although they do open it up to its fans to be voted in. At the end of the day, it's the board that decide. And so that kind of puts a bit of a question mark about the authenticity of fans voting you in. But, yeah, it's still, in my book, something that's a great accolade to even be considered again."

After one of the interviewers observed that many musicians are getting older and passing away before they get a chance to be inducted into the Rock Hall, Nicko concurred. "There is that," he said. "I mean, mind you, if you think to yourself, there's so many great bands out there that have not been inducted or even nominated over the years, and as you say, certain members are getting along in the tooth or passing away, and you look back and go, in retrospect, man, these guys should have been [inducted] and they weren't. But, yeah, it's something that there's a lot of controversy over it, and there has been."

Apparently addressing the fact that Jann Wenner, who co-founded Rolling Stone magazine and was a co-founder of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and who had long faced accusations of bias against metal, prog-rock and other genres, was removed from the Hall's board of directors in 2023 after making comments that were seen as denigrating black and female musicians, Nicko added: "And if somebody that was very controversial is no longer a part of the voting board as such, then who knows where it may go? As I said, for me personally, it's a lovely accolade to have, but one that it's steeped with controversy in terms of what the MAIDEN camp feel."

The now-74-year-old McBrain announced his retirement on December 7, 2024 in a statement on MAIDEN's web site and social media. He also said that night's concert at Allianz Parque in São Paulo, Brazil would mark his final show with the legendary rock band. McBrain has since been replaced by Simon Dawson, a former session drummer and MAIDEN founding bassist Steve Harris's longtime bandmate in BRITISH LION.

In July 2025, Nicko told "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" about his exit from MAIDEN: "I had my health issues, which was one of the primary reasons that I decided to hang it up with the guys. And I wasn't doing the songs justice because of the handicap that I had. And it wasn't fair on everybody else either in the band. They supported me 100 percent through the 'The Future Past Tour', and that was fantastic. I couldn't have asked for a better bunch of brothers to support me through my darkest hour."

Elaborating on the physical ailments which contributed to his decision to retire from touring with IRON MAIDEN, Nicko said: "Primarily, I was fed up with touring in terms of the travel and not having days to recoup my body… I wasn't so much slowing down, although we did play the songs that… I got told off at rehearsals [in 2024] because I was playing the songs too fast, 'cause I'd been playing with [my Florida-based side project] TITANIUM TART [which plays MAIDEN songs] before I went off and did the rehearsals in Australia with MAIDEN. And I actually got told off for playing too quick. So it wasn't a question of not being able to drive the band. It was just not being able to drive the band with the drum fills that I'd been used to playing for 42 years. So the question mark was raised about the performance side. And that's quite right…So that was part of the decision that I made."

When Nicko first went public with his stroke in August 2023, the drummer said in a statement that the episode left him "paralyzed" down one side of his body and "worried" that his career with the band was over.

Six years ago, McBrain was diagnosed with stage 1 laryngeal cancer and opened up about it in a single interview in 2021 but otherwise kept it mostly under wraps.

McBrain lives at home in Florida with his wife Rebecca, their cat Lola, and two Yorkshire Terriers, Tigerlily and Tinkerbell.

McBrain officially joined IRON MAIDEN in December 1982 for the 1983 "Piece Of Mind" album and tour, replacing Clive Burr, after McBrain's previous band TRUST had supported IRON MAIDEN during the U.K. leg of the "Killers" tour in 1981. McBrain brought a degree of finesse and technicality that was largely missing from IRON MAIDEN's early output. Whereas Burr was often lauded for his heavy-handed, punk-oriented style, McBrain was largely the opposite, playing with a degree of dexterity and flair that helped primary songwriter Harris take MAIDEN down more adventurous paths. He eventually became the third longest-tenured member of MAIDEN, behind Harris and guitarist Dave Murray.

Photo credit: John McMurtrie