Longtime Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain revealed Thursday he was partially paralyzed when he suffered a stroke earlier this year as he feared his “career was over.”
McBrain, 71, detailed his serious heath struggles and said he experienced a transient ischaemic attack (TIA), also known as a ministroke, in January.
“It left me paralyzed on my right side from my shoulder on down, of course, I was very worried that my career was over,” McBraid wrote in a message to fans on the band’s YouTube channel.
The English rocker underwent an intensive 10-week physical therapy program to regain his strength right before the band started rehearsals for the band’s “The Future Past Tour,” which started in June.
McBrain said he bounced back to “somewhere near 70% recovered” as he praised his doctors, therapists, family and wife Rebecca.
“I feel it’s important to let you know about this now instead of earlier as I was mainly concerned with doing my job and concentrating on getting back to 100% fitness,” he wrote.
“I’m not there yet but by the grace of God I’m getting better and stronger as the weeks go by.”
The drummer only shared the news before the band’s last show of the European leg of their tour.
McBrain revealed he wanted to concentrate on regaining his ability to perform as he usually would for the band’s devoted fan base before sharing the news about his health.
“We honestly did not know if he would be able to play a whole show until band rehearsals started in May,” Iron Maiden’s manager Rod Smallwood said. “There was just so much support for him from the band and then genuine relief for all when we saw he was going to be able to do it!”
McBrain, who assured fans how “handsome and well” he has been since the health scare, said he’s “feeling 100 percent well, but I haven’t been able to give you 100 percent of my performance.”
Smallwood praised McBrain for the “incredible belief and willpower” the musician showed as he worked his way back from the stroke to perform for the band’s fans.
“Nicko being Nicko he did not want to make a fuss and cause any distraction to the tour at the time but, now that he is sure he will soon get there, he thought you fans should know straight from him rather than by any rumors,” Smallwood wrote in the same press release.
McBrain was introduced as Iron Maiden’s drummer in 1982 after the band fired drummer Clive Burr.
He made his debut on the release of one of the band’s most commercially successful and fan-favored albums, “The Number Of The Beast,” along with new frontman Bruce Dickinson.
Following the end of the band’s tour on Friday, Iron Maiden has shows lined up in US and Canada later in the year.
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