Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain has shared his thoughts on the band’s latest nomination for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2026, calling it an honor while acknowledging the institution’s long-standing controversies. The comments came during a recent appearance on the Rock Of Nations With Dave Kinchen & Shane McEachern podcast.
Maiden has been eligible for Rock Hall induction since 2004, yet this marks only the third time the band has received a nomination — previously in 2021 and 2023. When one of the hosts pointed out that the Hall needs to “get it right this time,” McBrain kept his expectations measured.
“Yeah. You just never know, do you? I mean, it has been a long road. Many nominations — I’m not sure how many this is; maybe the third or fourth one, perhaps.”
The 2026 nominee class spans rap, R&B, hip-hop, Britpop, blues rock, metal, and pop — a range that McBrain addressed directly, questioning what the Hall actually represents at this point.
“Yeah, in the greater scheme of things, it’s not really a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame anymore, but it’s still a wonderful accolade to be given finally to hopefully — the guys may go, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna induct them.’ But at the end of the day, it’s really something that the whole of the band has talked about over the years, and it’s not something that’s voted for by your fans, although they do open it up to their fans to be voted in. At the end of the day, it’s the board that decides. And so that kind of puts a bit of a question mark about the authenticity of fans voting you in. But, yeah, it’s still, in my book, something that’s a great accolade to even be considered again.”
McBrain also acknowledged the broader issue of aging and death outpacing recognition, a pattern that has left too many artists without their due.
“I mean, mind you, if you think to yourself, there’s so many great bands out there that have not been inducted or even nominated over the years, and as you say, certain members are getting long in the tooth or passing away, and you look back and go, in retrospect, man, these guys should have been [inducted] and they weren’t. But, yeah, it’s something that there’s a lot of controversy over it, and there has been.”
On the subject of Jann Wenner — the Rolling Stone co-founder and longtime Rock Hall board member who faced years of criticism for alleged bias against metal and other genres, and who was removed from the board in 2023 after making comments widely condemned as denigrating to Black and female musicians — McBrain was cautiously optimistic.
“And if somebody who was very controversial is no longer a part of the voting board as such, then who knows where it may go? As I said, for me personally, it’s a lovely accolade to have, but one that it’s steeped with controversy in terms of what the Maiden camp feels.”
The official 2026 inductees will be announced in April, alongside the “Musical Influence,” “Musical Excellence,” and “Ahmet Ertegun Award” recipients.
Should Iron Maiden be inducted, the recognized lineup would include current members Bruce Dickinson, Steve Harris, Adrian Smith, Dave Murray, and Janick Gers, along with former members Dennis Stratton, Paul Di’Anno, Clive Burr, and McBrain himself.
For context, the only metal or metal-adjacent acts recognized by the Hall to date are Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, AC/DC, Judas Priest, Kiss, Van Halen, Rush, Guns N’ Roses, Ozzy Osbourne, and Deep Purple — while bands like Iron Maiden and Motörhead remain on the outside. Guns N’ Roses were inducted in their first year of eligibility.
Iron Maiden placed fourth in the fan vote for the 2023 induction class, only to be passed over once again.
The band’s own members have historically taken a relaxed stance on the whole affair. Harris told Rolling Stone that recognition, while appreciated, was never part of the plan: “I don’t mind that we’re not in things like that. I don’t think about things like that. It’s very nice if people give you awards or accolades, but we didn’t get into the business for that sort of thing. I’m certainly not going to lose sleep if we don’t get any sort of award, not just that one, any award. I don’t think we deserve to have this or that necessarily. With what we do, whatever comes of it is great. Whatever doesn’t come of it is great, too.”
Dickinson took a considerably sharper line back in 2018, calling the Rock Hall “an utter and complete load of bollocks” during a spoken-word show in Australia and describing the Cleveland institution as “run by a bunch of sanctimonious bloody Americans who wouldn’t know rock and roll if it hit them in the face.”
He later told The Jerusalem Post that his remarks were taken out of context.
“I’m so annoyed with that coverage because they took my statement out of context to make it seem like I was upset that we weren’t in the Hall of Fame. “I’m really happy we’re not there, and I would never want to be there,” he continued. “If we’re ever inducted, I will refuse — they won’t bloody be having my corpse in there.
“Rock and roll music does not belong in a mausoleum in Cleveland,” Bruce added. “It’s a living, breathing thing, and if you put it in a museum, then it’s dead. It’s worse than horrible, it’s vulgar.”
