Nicko McBrain has no memory of Ozzy Osbourne saving his life. He only knows about it because Osbourne told him.
The retired Iron Maiden drummer, 74, told Metal Hammer that he first met Osbourne on a boat crossing the English Channel, a journey he recalls very little of. The next time the two met, Osbourne reminded him of it.
“I thought there was no way Ozzy would remember meeting me for the first time,” McBrain said. “He came into my room while we were on this boat with all these drugs falling out his hands. But he did, crystal clear when we ran into each other again later.”
“He said, ‘Do you remember me saving your life?’ I was like, ‘No?’ He said I was so out of it, I was stumbling towards the railing and he grabbed me before I went over,” he continued. “All I remember was it was a rough crossing, going over the Channel. But apparently he’d saved me!”
Osbourne was fired from Black Sabbath in 1979 and went on to one of the biggest solo careers in metal. He died in July 2025.
McBrain is not the only member of Iron Maiden with an Osbourne story. In a 1999 interview with Jeremy Clarkson, Bruce Dickinson recalled a night out that nearly ended in theft.
“He had a couple beers and said to me, ‘Let’s nick a taxi,’” Dickinson said at the time. “I asked, ‘How you gonna do that?’ He said, ‘Well, you call it and I’ll distract him – no, you distract him and I’ll hit him over the head! Can you drive?’ When I said yes he went, ‘Good, I can’t.’”
McBrain joined Iron Maiden in 1982, replacing Clive Burr. On Jan 19, 2023, he suffered a transient ischaemic attack, a form of mini-stroke, at home in Florida. In his own account, it left him paralysed on his right side from the shoulder down. Four months later he was back behind the kit for the opening night of the “Future Past” tour in Ljubljana on May 28, 2023, and he stayed with the tour until its final show in São Paulo on Dec 7, 2024. That night he announced he was stepping back from touring. Simon Dawson has played drums with the band since.
He told Metal Hammer he had only around 70 percent of the feeling in his hand during those shows.
“It was incredible to get any use back out of it at all … Like, I couldn’t do the drum fill in the intro of [1983 single] ‘The Trooper‘, so I had to adapt it. Steve [Harris] and the band were so supportive, but my body just wasn’t bouncing back,” he said.
He remains Iron Maiden‘s official drummer, and says he would record with them again.
“If Iron Maiden went into the studio, I’d be delighted to get back on with them,” he said. “But it’d have to be something more simple really.” He named “Stranger In A Strange Land” and “Wasted Years” as the kind of songs he has in mind. No new Iron Maiden album has been announced; the most recent is 2021’s Senjutsu.
McBrain‘s autobiography, “Hello Boys And Girls“, is published on Oct 22 by Harper NonFiction. He is currently touring the US with his Iron Maiden tribute band, Titanium Tart.
Iron Maiden are also in North America, on the “Run For Your Lives” world tour marking the band’s 50th anniversary. The set draws on their first nine albums, from 1980’s Iron Maiden to 1992’s Fear Of The Dark, and the tour closes in Yokohama, Japan, on Nov 25. The same nine albums are being reissued in a vinyl box set on Dec 11.
