Nicko McBrain Recalls How Ozzy Osbourne Saved His Life

Semi-retired Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain has shared a surreal piece of heavy metal history, recalling his first encounter with Ozzy Osbourne and the Prince of Darkness’s claim that he once saved his life.

Speaking to Metal Hammer, the 74-year-old drummer recounted that they initially crossed paths on a boat journey across the English Channel. While McBrain’s own memories of the trip are hazy, he ran into Osbourne again later on, and the Black Sabbath singer vividly remembered the encounter—alleging that he intervened just in time to stop a heavily intoxicated McBrain from tumbling over the ship’s railing.

“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. All I remember was it was a rough crossing, going over the Channel. But apparently he’d saved me!”

Metal Legends and Unhinged Encounters

Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain (Mike Lawrence, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

McBrain is not the only member of Iron Maiden to cross paths with Osbourne in chaotic circumstances. Back in a 1999 interview with Jeremy Clarkson, frontman Bruce Dickinson shared his own drunken memory of conspiring with Osbourne to steal a taxi.

“He had a couple beers and said to me, ‘Let’s nick a taxi,'” Dickinson recalled at the time. When Dickinson asked how he planned to pull it off, Osbourne suggested a plan involving distraction and a blow to the head, before asking if Dickinson could drive. Upon learning that he could, Osbourne replied, “Good, I can’t.”

Drumming Updates and Upcoming Memoir

The reminiscing arrives as McBrain enters a new chapter following his retirement from Iron Maiden’s live touring lineup in December 2024. His step back from the road followed a transient ischaemic attack (TIA, or mini-stroke) that paralysed his left side in early 2023. Although he managed to return in time for the band’s Future Past world tour in June 2023, he admitted that his physical abilities remained limited.

“It was incredible to get any use back out of it at all,” McBrain noted, adding that he could only feel about 70 percent of his hand during those shows. Due to the lingering effects, he had to adapt specific parts, such as the drum fill in the intro of the 1983 single “The Trooper.” While Simon Dawson has taken over live drumming duties, McBrain remains officially in the band and expressed interest in contributing to future studio albums—provided the material is kept simpler.

Meanwhile, McBrain is set to release his autobiography, Hello Boys And Girls, on October 22 via Harper NonFiction, and is currently playing US dates with his Iron Maiden cover band Titanium Tart. Iron Maiden itself is also on the road in the United States, continuing the 50th-anniversary Run For Your Lives world tour, alongside a vinyl box set reissue campaign covering their first nine albums.