In a new interview with Chile’s Radio Futuro, Rod Smallwood, who has managed IRON MAIDEN for 47 years, was asked if he misses the band’s longtime drummer Nicko McBrain who announced his retirement from MAIDEN in December 2024. Rod said: “I met Nicko about 10 years before he was brought into MAIDEN. And we’ve been friends for a long time before then. And he’s an amazing character. It’s so sad his career was curtailed a bit by the stroke. But he’s still very active. He’s got his book coming out soon. He’s doing a speaking tour of Europe, which he started last weekend. So he’s in good shape.”

Smallwood, who has managed MAIDEN continuously since he first shook hands with the band’s founder, bassist Steve Harris, in 1979, was also asked what it has been like to run such a big organization with a lot of responsibility. He responded: “Well, I have a business partner, Andy Taylor. We were at university together way back in the late ’60s. And he does the business side. I do everything else. I do the creative. And so I don’t have to worry too much about that side of things, which leaves me free to work on, actually, more fun aspects, but also creative aspects.”

Asked about MAIDEN‘s future plans after the completion of the band’s ongoing “Run For Your Lives” world tour, Rod said: “Well, to be quite honest, if I told you that, I’d have to shoot you. We keep our plans strictly to ourselves. We let the fans know when it’s definite. We don’t like rumors. We deal with things in a certain way and always have. So, you really don’t wanna know anything. (Laughs)”