Mistakes Mistakes Mistakes! We all do that.
In a new interview with Cosmo Music, Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain looked back on joining the band back in 1982 and meeting the guys three years before.
Since joining the fold, Nicko performed on every Maiden album starting with 1983’s “Piece of Mind.”
He said:
“I first met the guys in 1979, they were on their very first European gig and I was playing in a band called McKitty; it was a three-piece.
“I played a couple of years with Pat Travers, so my playing style suited a three-piece band – I wasn’t just a straight-time keeper, my background is soul, funk, and blues – blues being the primary of what I loved to play later in my teens and whatnot.
“That lent itself to my style of playing with Maiden. When I first met the guys, they were all genuine, down-to-earth guys.
“It was their first European show in Belgium, I was on that same bill with this other band. Three years later, I get offered the gig; in 1982, they offered me the job. 1983 was my official first gig with the band. The vibe was just so much fun.
“The mistakes I was making… We were doing songs like ‘Killers,’ ‘Number of the Beast,’ ‘Wrathchild,’ ‘The Prisoner’… I did five songs, it was all over the shop, but we had so much fun.
“And that’s the same today. There’s mistakes made. I make mistakes all the time.
“I might get ’em right one day, but there is never any anger. It’s always, ‘Oy!’ Steve [Harris, bass] will come up, ‘Oy! That kind of push-beat. Every time you f*cking do that, it ain’t in the right place.’
‘Alright, I’m sorry, Steve, I’m just trying something out.’ It’s still fun, today. When I get on that stage with the band, it’s like 38 years ago, 36 years ago.”