Iron Maiden have been on manoeuvres this summer, celebrating their 50th anniversary as a band on their Run For Your Lives tour. It’s also been the first tour since the early 1980s not to feature long-serving and much-loved drummer Nicko McBrain, who retired from touring last year, after suffering a stroke in 2023.
McBrain has been replaced by Simon Dawson from Steve Harris’s British Lion side project, and in a new interview with Rock Of Nations, Bruce Dickinson has been talking about the adjustments the band have been making.
Asked whether it was ‘weird’ to have Dawson behind him now on the kit, the singer said: "It's not weird from the perspective that what I'm hearing behind me is not Nicko. So I don't expect to see Nicko because everything about Simon is different.
"His drums are tuned differently, he plays the songs with a different feel to Nick. So because of that, I don't turn around and go, 'Oh, shock. Nicko should be there,' because it's obvious he's not there from the sound."
"The drums are tuned a lot lower, they're much fatter,” he explained. “And Simon kind of sticks with the programme in terms of the tempo of the song and everything. He's absolutely scrupulous about cutting the right tempo every time.
"So we actually, as a band, really kind of appreciate that. 'Cause all the guitarists have big smiles, like Cheshire cats, Steve (Harris) the same. 'Cause everybody's not feeling, like, 'Whoa, hey, steady on there, trigger. Whoa, slow down there.'"
"So that's what Simon brings to it - there's stability. And he's doesn't try to be Nicko. You can't be Nicko. I mean, there's only one Nicko; he is unique. That's why we didn't pick a clone. And there were plenty of drummers who could copy what Nicko did, but we don't want one of those.
"We wanted somebody that had a different feel."
In another interview, with Sirius XM’s Eddie Trunk, Dickinson also shared some thoughts about the idea of Maiden playing the opulent Las Vegas venue The Sphere. In short: he’s not keen.
“It’s not Maiden,” the singer said, bluntly. “Maiden’s about the relationship between the band and the audience, and the show, whilst it’s a show, is an enhancement to what we do. The Sphere, as far as I can gather… I mean, I appreciate what you’re saying about it - it’s all encompassing, it’s this and that, it’s the other - but I think the band would be very uncomfortable with the idea.”
“I mean, we just do a lot of stuff: we run around, we go around, and at the Sphere, what’s the point? What’s the point? In fact, what’s the point of even being there, if you’re a band?”
With Maiden’s 2025 European tour now wrapped up, the singer is about to embark on a solo US tour, which kicks off in Anaheim, California tomorrow night. For more details click here.
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