Deep Purple's Ian Paice, The Damned's Rat Scabies and the Sex Pistols' Paul Cook have all spoken about how drummers cope with the physical demands of live performance as they get older.
Interviewed by Classic Rock writer Michael Hann in The Guardian, the three drummers all say that they've changed their approach to drumming in order to keep playing.
"Many of the things I found easy when I was much younger are now difficult,” says the 76-year-old Paice, who played 64 shows with Deep Purple in the second half of 2024. "But I know a lot more now than when I was younger.
"So you substitute things: that is going to be difficult, but I can do that instead. Anybody who thinks they can do exactly the same thing they did 50 years ago is mad. There aren’t many guys of my generation left playing what I call ‘powerful drums'."
In 2016, Paice suffered a mini-stroke while on tour with Purple but was able to resume after two shows were cancelled.
"Some of the songs even benefit from being pulled back a few beats per minute," says Scabies, whose current setlist with The Damned packs 22 songs into 90 minutes. "Back in the day we were just hell for leather – whoever gets to the end of the song first is the winner."
Meanwhile, Paul Cook reveals that he now works with a nutritionist, and prepares for each tour by doing cardio and upper arm workouts.
"But I’m not a health fanatic,” he says. “I haven’t turned into a lentil-eating hippy."
Late last year, Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain announced he was retiring from live work. McBrain, who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis in his hands, also suffered a mini-stroke in January 2023 and struggled to fully recover.
"I don’t play The Trooper fill anymore because I can’t get it," he told The Washington Tattoo podcast last August. "It’s the speed of it. I can do everything slow, but I’ve had to make sure that as long as I can keep the groove of the song, which is normally…”
The previous month, McBrain told an audience at Piper's Pub venue in Pompano Beach, Florida, that Maiden leader Steve Harris had devised a compromise that allowed McBrain to play a section of Caught Somewhere In Time he'd been struggling with.
