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Part of the upcoming “The Moth (The War – Live in Groningen)” release.

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Nicko McBrain says he turned down a round of golf with Donald Trump, and he’s told a British newspaper what he thinks of the president in terms that leave no room for a second invitation.

The retired Iron Maiden drummer, who lives in Florida and describes himself as ‘not politically inclined,’ says a Republican friend asked whether he’d like to play ‘with the president.’ His answer: ‘No. No, mate.’ Asked for his view of Trump, he went further: ‘My last word on Trump and his bunch of cronies is, they should be put in jail.’ The comments come the day before his memoir, Hello Boys And Girls!, is published.

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‘No. No, Mate’: The Golf Invitation

Speaking to The Telegraph ahead of his book’s release, McBrain said he was ‘actually invited to go and play golf with him,’ via a Republican friend who asked if he wanted a round with the president, and that his reaction was ‘[expletive] what?’ followed by ‘No. No, mate.’

McBrain, 74, has lived in Florida for decades and is a keen golfer, so the invitation isn’t as strange as it sounds; the president’s clubs and the drummer’s social circle overlap more than most Maiden fans would guess. What’s notable is how quickly he says he declined, and that he’s chosen to tell the story now, in the week he’s selling a book.

He didn’t frame it as a political act. ‘I’m not politically inclined,’ he said, ‘although I must be because I have my thoughts about him.’ Then he shared them.

What McBrain Said About Trump

McBrain told the paper he is ‘not amused by the narcissism, and all this kerfuffle about the Epstein files and whatnot,’ criticized what he called ‘the debauched war that he’s put on Iran,’ and closed with: ‘My last word on Trump and his bunch of cronies is, they should be put in jail.’

He also singled out the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, predicting that Hegseth ‘is going to be put in prison.’ Those are McBrain’s opinions, offered in an interview, and the article reports them as such; he gave no further detail on what he believes either man should be charged with.

It’s unusually direct for a member of Iron Maiden, a band that has spent forty-six years writing about war, history and religion while keeping its members’ personal politics largely out of the press. Steve Harris doesn’t discuss his. Bruce Dickinson told Vice in 2017 that his autobiography avoids politics because a musician’s views shouldn’t carry extra weight, and described himself as ‘right of center, but not very far.’ Dickinson’s closest brush with the current administration was a joke from the stage in August, after the executive order renaming Lake Ontario, about crossing the ‘Lake Of Ontario’ on the way to Toronto.

Why Nicko Is Talking Now

McBrain retired from touring with Iron Maiden on December 7, 2024, after his final show at Allianz Parque in São Paulo; his memoir Hello Boys And Girls! is published October 22, 2026 by Harper Nonfiction, and a spoken-word tour opens in Frankfurt on October 26.

The book covers forty-two years behind the Maiden kit, from Piece Of Mind in 1983 through the Legacy Of The Beast and Future Past tours, and the 2023 stroke that led to his decision to step back. Simon Dawson, who played on Harris’s British Lion records, has replaced him on the road; Maiden’s Run For Your Lives tour reaches its final North American dates in May 2027. McBrain remains, by any ranking, one of the great drummers in metal, and the spoken-word dates (Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Ireland and the UK) are built around the stories in the book.

He lives at home in Florida with his wife Rebecca, their cat Lola, and two Yorkshire terriers named Tigerlily and Tinkerbell. That’s the context for the golf story: this is a retired Englishman in Florida with a Republican friend and an opinion, not a musician on a campaign.

Metal And The President

McBrain joins a growing list of hard rock and metal figures who’ve addressed Trump publicly in 2026, from both directions.

Nikki Sixx argued earlier this year that bands should keep politics off the stage, and was answered by fans on both sides. George Lynch compared Don Dokken to Trump and meant it as an insult. Kid Rock and Ted Nugent remain the administration’s most visible supporters in rock. Maiden fans in the US, a core of the band’s audience since the first two albums broke here in the early 80s, will have their own views, and the comments on this one will be long.

What McBrain hasn’t done is apologize or soften it. Asked for a last word, he gave one.

TL;DR

• Nicko McBrain says a Republican friend invited him to play golf with Donald Trump and he declined: ‘No. No, mate.’
• He told The Telegraph he is ‘not amused by the narcissism,’ criticized ‘the debauched war that he’s put on Iran,’ and said Trump ‘and his bunch of cronies’ should ‘be put in jail.’ He also predicted Pete Hegseth ‘is going to be put in prison.’ All are McBrain’s opinions.
• He describes himself as ‘not politically inclined.’ Bandmate Bruce Dickinson has called himself ‘right of center, but not very far’ and keeps politics out of his own book.
• McBrain retired from touring with Iron Maiden in December 2024; his memoir Hello Boys And Girls! is out October 22, 2026, with a spoken-word tour starting October 26 in Frankfurt.

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The post Iron Maiden Legend Nicko McBrain Rejected U.S. President’s Golf Invite, Declares He Should Be Put in Jail appeared first on Loaded Radio.

If (like me) you’re a child of the nineties, when Spotify and instant access to every song ever weren’t a thing and the likes of Scuzz and Kerrang! were your gateway to musical discovery, then Mira Disconnect might be for you. Their sound has a feel of the late nineties and early noughties to it, … Continue reading EP Review: Mira Disconnect – Entangled

Ignea’s new album “Monumental” will be out later this week.

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There’s also a new remix of “I Wish You Were Dead” to be heard.

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A ship caught in a sorcery-induced storm provides the opening scene for NECROPANTHER’s next album. Drawing partly on Shakespeare’s play, new single ‘The Tempest’ introduces The Book Of Change, the Denver quartet’s fifth full-length, arriving digitally on 13 November 2026. “We’ve often embraced maritime themes as a band, so this is our storm to bring […]

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The authority once held by Ireland’s bards and druids provides the subject for ‘Mallachtaí’, the new single from WAYLANDER. The Northern Irish pagan and Celtic metal band turn their attention to satire as a weapon: words capable of damaging reputations and exerting influence within society. “Mallachtaí deals with the power of satire which the bards […]

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Sugar Spine & Spire Of Lazarus will be playing select shows as well.

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