Nicko McBrain, the drummer in the band Iron Maiden, recently took to Instagram to share an update about his health with his fans. It turns out that he had a stroke in January 2023 but waited until August to share his health journey with his fans and followers.

McBrain posted a humorous video of himself claiming that he’s “the good looking one from Iron Maiden,” but the lengthy caption that accompanied the video was quite a bit more serious. McBrain shared, “The reason I’m writing to you all today is to let you know of a very serious health problem that I have been through.”

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Then McBrain got into the nitty gritty of what he’s been through the past few months starting with details about the health problem he experienced. He wrote, “In January I had a stroke, thank the Lord it was a minor one referred to as a TIA. It left me paralyzed on my right side from my shoulder on down, of course I was very worried that my career was over but with the love and support from my wife, Rebecca and family, my doctors, especially Julie my OT (Occupational Therapist), and my Maiden family I was able to bounce back to somewhere near 70% recovered.”

McBrain shared that he had “10 weeks of intense therapy” before starting rehearsals with the band. He explained that he didn’t share this information earlier because “I was mainly concerned with doing my job and concentrating on getting back to 100% fitness.” He added that even though he’s not 100% better yet, he’s “getting better and stronger as the weeks go by.”

McBrain’s manager, Rod Smallwood, added a statement to the post writing, “The rest of the band and l think that what Nicko has been able to achieve since his stroke shows incredible belief and willpower and we are all very proud of him.” He added that he and the band “honestly did not know if he would be able to play a whole show,” but McBrain has proven “he was going to be able to do it!”

Smallwood added that McBrain “did not want to make a fuss and cause any distraction to the tour,” but now that he knows he has recovered enough to go on tour, he wanted to be the one to tell his fans about his health “rather than by any rumors!”