Watch Nicko McBrain Play His Last Iron Maiden Show

Nicko McBrain performed his last show with Iron Maiden Saturday night.

The band’s longtime drummer announced that he would be leaving the group earlier that day. “After much consideration, it is with both sorrow and joy, I announce my decision to take a step back from the grind of the extensive touring lifestyle,” McBrain explained Saturday morning on IronMaiden.com. “Today, Sat, Dec 7th, Sao Paulo will be my final gig with Iron Maiden. I wish the band much success moving forward.”

Early in the show, singer Bruce Dickinson addressed McBrain’s imminent departure: “Tonight is a very special, night, as some of you, I think probably all of you, will know, because this morning we announced, Nicko announced that he was stepping back from playing live drums with Iron Maiden. For 42 years, Nicko’s been in this band. He was a drummer before I was a singer, he was a pilot before I was a pilot and now he’s not leaving the band, but he’s just not playing live with us anymore. So we have a lot more music to get to tonight and I want the rest of the night to be a celebration of Nick, a celebration of the joy that he’s brought to everybody around the world.”

Watch Bruce Dickinson Pay Tribute to Nick McBrain

After a set-concluding performance of “Wasted Years,” McBrain’s bandmates took turns hugging him as the crowd of 45,000 roared and sang his name. The teary-eyed drummer soaked in the love while throwing a variety of drum heads, sticks and arm bands out into the crowd.

The band’s drummer since 1982, McBrain suffered a stroke in January 2023 but was back on stage with Iron Maiden just four months later.  At the time he revealed that he wasn’t fully recovered yet, and was having difficulty with some of the band’s trickier material: “I unfortunately haven’t been able to give you lot 100 percent of my performance.”

To accommodate their longtime bandmate, Iron Maiden changed their setlists: “It ain’t the old Nicko – it’s not the old one by a long shot,” McBrain stated in July 2024. “But at least it’s part of me. And my band, bless their hearts, Steve Harris and the rest of the guys turn around and say, ‘If you can’t do something in a song, we just won’t do that song.’”

READ MORE: Iron Maiden Announce New Drummer After Nicko McBrain’s Final Show

“Thank you for being an irrepressible force behind the drum kit for Maiden for 42 years and my friend for even longer,” Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood said of McBrain. “I speak on behalf of all the band when I say we will miss you immensely! …As Steve Harris says, ‘Nicko is and will always be part of the Maiden family.'”

The show brought Iron Maiden’s 2024 The Future Past tour to an end. The band will return to the road in May 2025 for their 50th anniversary Run For Your Lives tour. Early Sunday mormning they announced that Simon Dawson, who’s been playing with Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris in the band British Lion for over a decade, will take over for McBrain.

Watch Nicko McBrain Say Farewell at His Last Iron Maiden Show