11/28/2010 - ::Extra Goodies:: - On This Day in Rock History .. Rick Allen of Def Leppard

I think any music fan is familiar with the jest of the story of Rick Allen, drummer of Def Leppard. 

I learned many new tidbits while watching a BBC documentary the other night and a few other goodies I found on the grand ole YouTube.  I didn't realize that Rick Allen was only 15 years old when he joined Def Leppard.  That ... by the way ... was on this date in 1978. 



Now here's the kicker ... and I find this so gosh darn funny because I have a 'nosey mother' of my own ...

Rick Allen got the job with Def Leppard because his mother replied to an ad placed by the band to replace Tony Kenning. :)  I love that part :)

Anywho, lots of details on Rick Allen story below,
including a BBC interview hosted by TV's Lynn Redgrave.
((  Part 1 of that documentary is posted here - you can find the rest on YouTube -
I have to leave for a photo shoot very soon and I'm running out of time :)     ))

DO take time to digest this story - and do share it with your friends who are on the path to their dreams.  This story reminds us that sometimes our greatest path produces the greatest obstacles.

So the next time you think the Universe is peeing in your cheerios and everyone on earth is trying to rain on your parade ... come back and digest this blog again ... and again ... and again ...
 and think about how difficult it is to be an incredible drummer when you've only one arm.

Then hitch up your panties, make yourself a brainstorming sheet and get a move on!

~The video directly below is a portion of the Def Leppard Movie - Hysteria~

::WIKI "Facts"::

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".

Allen was born in Dronfield, Derbyshire, England

He started out drumming with his mother's kitchen utensils when he was five, using a tambourine as additional percussion. At about the age of 10, he persuaded his parents to get him a drumkit; by agreeing to take lessons and paying half of the cost of the set. He got a red sparkle Del-Ray drumset; after six months of lessons he began playing with his first band, Smokey Blue. Later on he played with bands called Rampant and the Johnny Kalendar Band.

When Allen was 15, 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 28 November 1978, 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 31 December 1984, on the way to a New Year's Eve party at his family's home in Sheffield, England, 21-year-old Allen was driving his Chevrolet Corvette 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 seatbelt was not properly fastened. The car ended up upside down, with his girlfriend Miriam Barendsen secure in her seat. She was not seriously injured, and found Allen in the field. They were helped by a passerby, who was a nurse, and Allen was taken to a hospital. Doctors initially reattached Allen's arm, but because of infection it was removed again. He left the hospital three and a half weeks later and was back with Def Leppard in the Netherlands two weeks after getting out of the hospital with recuperation expected^{[citation needed]} 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, stopped by to see Allen in an attempt to cheer him up. Soon after, Elliot and Allen sat down with some engineers and started to design a drum set to assist Allen's drumming. After all of this, he could still play some drum beats with one hand, using his left foot (typically for hi-hat pedals in common drumsets), to play the snare drum. Former Status Quo drummer Jeff Rich was a source of help and encouragement during Allen's 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 onetime 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. In August 1987, the band released their fourth album, Hysteria, which, after a relatively slow start in the U.S., ultimately became another huge success, selling over 20 million copies worldwide.

Rick Allen and Lauren Monroe are the co-founders of The Raven Drum Foundation, a charity located in Malibu, California, with a mission to serve, educate, and empower veterans and people in crisis.

Allen was married on 10 October 2003, to Lauren Monroe. Allen also has a daughter from a previous marriage, Lauren Shane, born on 20 May 1997.

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::Extra Goodies::

In May of 2008, Gigwise Magazine compiled a list of The Greatest Drummers Of All Time! on which they placed Rick Allen at #7.  Ranking above Allen were Jimmy Chamberlin of the Smashing Pumpkins for enduring Billy Corgan's ego and Neil Peart of Rush for his ability to use the bottom end of his drumsticks, among other things.  Coming in at #2 and #1 were Keith Moon and John Boham.

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www.ravendrumfoundation.org - Throughout the years our community and healing drum circles have been at the core of our work and outreach. We have brought the Raven Drum Circle to safe houses for women and children suffering from domestic violence, cancer care centers, hospitals, veteran centers, juvenile detention centers and probation facilities, addiction and recovery facilities, child special needs centers, child physical rehabilitation organizations, HIV teen support groups and torture survivor support groups across the United States. We have brought circles and workshops to the U.K., Haiti, and Mexico and continue their outreach to people in crisis including wounded warriors and their families.
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"If I couldn't play drums it would have destroyed me. If you're thrown in the deep end you swim, and that's basically what I did. I had to do it and with the rest of the band behind me and the encouragement I got from people from all over the world, I knew that I was going to play." - Rick Allen

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