#rickallen #defleppard #rockfileradio
Richard John Cyril "Rick" Allen (born 1 November 1963) is the drummer for the English hard rock band Def Leppard. He is famous for overcoming the complete amputation of his left arm and continuing to play with the band, which subsequently went on to its greatest popular success worldwide. His fans now call him the Thunder God.
When Allen was 14, his mother replied on his behalf to an ad placed by a band called Def Leppard looking for a drummer to replace Tony Kenning ("Leppard loses skins" was the ad's headline), and on 1 November 1978, his fifteenth birthday, Allen joined the band. In 1979, he dropped out of school (other band members quit their jobs around the same time) to concentrate on a career in music. In September of that year, they opened for Sammy Hagar at London's Hammersmith Odeon and in October and November played shows as a support act for AC/DC. Allen celebrated his 16th birthday with a performance at the Hammersmith Odeon. On 14 March 1980, the band released their first album, On Through the Night. Since their first album, Allen still continues to record and tour with the band.
On December 31, 1984 Allen was involved in a street-racing accident. The 21-year-old was driving in his Chevrolet Corvette on the way to a party at his family's home in Sheffield, England, when an Alfa Romeo passed him. Allen claims that the driver had been egging him on and that he would not allow him to pass. In his rage to pass this driver, he became reckless, did not see a turn up ahead and lost control of his car, which sailed over a stone wall and into a field. He was thrown from the car, with his left arm severed because the seat belt was not properly fastened. The car landed upside down and Allen's then girlfriend Miriam Barendsen stayed secure in her seat. She was not seriously injured and found Allen in the field. They were helped by two passersby (one was a nurse and the other an off-duty police officer), and Allen was transported to a nearby hospital. Doctors initially reattached Allen's arm but, because of infection, it had to be surgically and permanently removed again. He left the hospital three and a half weeks later and was back with Def Leppard in the Netherlands two weeks after his release with recuperation expected to last six months.
Allen thought that he could not continue drumming for Def Leppard and became very depressed, so Def Leppard's lead singer, Joe Elliott, visited Allen in an attempt to cheer him up. The band was on a break, so soon after, Allen met with some engineers and started to design a drum set to assist Allen's drumming. He could still play some drum rhythms with one hand and used his left foot (typically for hi-hat pedals in common drum kits), to play the snare drum. Former Status Quo drummer Jeff Rich helped and encouraged Allen during his convalescence, and they designed an electronic kit Allen could play using only one arm. (The Ludwig acoustic drum kit he used on earlier albums High 'n' Dry and Pyromania was later given away by Def Leppard's one-time management.) Electronic drum manufacturer Simmons created a kit to their specifications, and Allen made his post-accident debut in 1986 with a well-received set at the "Monsters of Rock" festival at Castle Donington.
\m/
