Nicko McBrain talks about when he gave his heart to Jesus

Published on july 26th, 2020 | by Anthony Martínez

Recently, the drummer of the British band Iron Maiden, spoke in an interview with the Brazilian channel TVMaldita, about his conversion to Christianity in 1999 and how he has carried his faith all these years while being part of one of the biggest metal bands in the world. Below, you can read a little bit about what he said in the interview.


"When I was a kid, I was very versed in Christianity — I went to Sunday school, and we had religious instruction as a lesson in schools in those days," he told host and fellow drummer Aquiles Priester . "As I got older and I started to get wilder, religion didn't really play much of a [role] and I wasn't God-focused. In the '90s — probably '98, somewhere around there; maybe earlier — my wife was born again, and she started reading the Bible a lot. And she basically said, 'You wanna come to church with me one day?' And I said, 'Yeah, sure. I'll come with you.' And it was Sunday morning. I was sleeping. My wife thought, 'Is he coming? 'Cause I'm ready to go.' And I'll tell you what — it was as though God had gone like this: 'Get up. Come on. Enough.' So that was the first thing that I felt was really important. Anyway, we go to this church, and it was a little church, and I wasn't that impressed. It was all about raising funds and stuff. Now I know that to function and do charity work and missionary work, they need money. But this particular sermon wasn't cup of tea… Anyway, we went to a different church called Spanish River church. They had a chapel, and later on, they built a bigger church. The band was phenomenal. The music was just… I'd never been to a church where there was this contemporary rock music. And I remember standing, listening to this music, thinking, 'This is fantastic.' The pastor comes out, starts his sermon and he said a prayer. Normally, later on, he would close in prayer. And he basically said, 'Where you're standing now, ask God into your life. Ask Jesus Christ to come in there. Give your heart to him.' And I stood [with] closed eyes, and I swear that God and Jesus pushed me, and I kept moving forward as though I was being pushed over. I couldn't feel anything. And this is the God's honest truth — I thought, 'I haven't had a drink. I'm not in a hangover here.' I felt his presence. And right there and then, I gave my heart to God, and I asked Jesus in my life."

 "And believe me, when you've gone focused and Jesus Christ-centered, it changes your life," he said. "I didn't stop drinking straight away — I still was partying. And then, looking at what happened to Bruce Dickinson, when he had his cancer scare, and sitting on a plane with a serious hangover, basically, I said a prayer to God and said, 'Dear Lord, I promise I'm not gonna have another drink.' And that was five years and two months ago.

"The way it changed my life is it never makes you sinless, it makes you sin less," Nicko explained. "We've all got crosses to bear, baggage that we always hang around, and sometimes when you love the Lord, you read your Bible, you say your prayers to the governor, some of that baggage, all of a sudden it's gone. And it's a great savior for me."

A few years ago, McBrain spoke to Canada.com about how his faith allows him to play songs like "The Number Of The Beast", with lyrics like "666, the one for you and me." McBrain reasoned: "It's a story. If you look in the Book of Revelation, it tells you about all that, all that grief, all that business. And that, by the way, was a song written from a nightmare that Steve Harris had.

"I can tap people on the shoulder and say, 'I'm not glorifying him [the devil]'; if I was, then I wouldn't be Christian. Because I understand, and most Christian people understand, that sin is the Devil's domain, and the ultimate sin is death, but we have a way up, and that's where your faith and your Christianity comes into play. Sometimes I've had an opportunity to talk to people about my faith, and what I feel, and maybe that's the way the good Lord's working with me."

He continued: "To still be able to be in such a great band, where people think we're demonic or Satanic, most people that know and have a modicum of sense and intelligence know that not to be true. It doesn't take an Einstein to listen to the records and listen to the lyrics of the songs to know what's going on.

"Okay, so Eddie's the mascot of the band, right? And he's a… sort of… well, he's a demon, you know! He's whatever you want him to be, you know? I mean, listen here, look at the number of the Beast, here he is, the Devil's the puppet! But you know, we're not glorifying Eddie as being evil. It's just … he's just a cartoon character.

"But people can look at that and say, 'Wait a minute, Nick. How can you say you're a Christian when you're playing in a band that's got this kind of stuff going on?'"

Watch the video of the full interview