Def Leppard 's history is marked by hits like "Photograph" and "Pour Some Sugar In Me ," but the band members have also experienced moments of personal tragedy throughout their career. In the case of drummer Rick Allen , a terrible accident almost prevented him from practicing his profession.
Passionate about drumming from a young age, the skilled Allen was only 15 years old when he passed an audition for Def Leppard in 1978, even before the recording of the band's debut album, On Through the Night , which would only arrive in 1980.
On December 31, 1984, Rick Allen was involved in a serious car accident. According to the archives of Def Leppard UK , the drummer was returning from a visit to the Ladybower Reservoir in England when he was overtaken by another car in a challenging maneuver.
Accompanied by his then-girlfriend, Miriam Barendsen, the 21-year-old musician quickly realized that the other vehicle was inviting him to a sort of race, and Rick joined in the game of overtaking the other car for a while, until he noticed a curve too late and lost control of the car.
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The vehicle, a Corvette Stingray with a sunroof, rolled several times and crashed into a wall. Unfortunately, the seatbelt was improperly fastened and came undone, trapping Rick Allen's arm in the car, while the musician's body was thrown through the sunroof. The drummer's girlfriend was trapped in the seat of the overturned car, but did not suffer serious injuries.
“What saved my life was that I stayed tense and didn’t bleed, I wasn’t unconscious. There was an off-duty police officer and a nurse who helped me,” Allen recounted in an interview with Forbes . “About minutes later, an ambulance arrived and took me to the hospital. It was only after that that I actually started bleeding and they gave me anesthesia.”
After the rescue, the medical team responsible for treating the Def Leppard drummer managed to reattach Rick's arm, but an infection resulted in the permanent amputation of the limb. All of this happened while the artist was in a two-week coma.
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Despite an initial prognosis of a six-month hospital stay, the musician left the hospital on January 29, 1985, and quickly resumed activities with the band, which remained offstage until the following year and retained drummer Jeff Rich as a backup in the first performances after the accident.
Despite hearing people questioning his bandmates about whether the "freak" would continue with Def Leppard, as he told LouderSound , Rick Allen went ahead and managed to regain his ability to play drums with the support of an electronic drum kit made especially for him.
“In the beginning, even walking was a challenge, but I locked myself in a room at my parents’ house and played non-stop. There were times when I didn’t believe I could do it and thought about giving up, but I persevered,” he wrote in an account published by LouderSound .
In an interview with Page Six , Allen confessed to a period of deep sadness after the accident, but the support "from bandmates, fans and family" was essential for his recovery. "They tried to help me get back on my feet and I finally understood, I realized I was capable of doing this," he said. In 1987, Def Leppard released Hysteria , one of the band's biggest commercial successes. Rick Allen remains active to this day and will come to Brazil next year for The World Tour with Mötley Crüe .
Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe in São Paulo
- Date : March 7, 2023 (Tuesday)
- Location : Allianz Parque – Av. Francisco Matarazzo, 1705 – Água Branca, São Paulo
- Schedule : Gates open: 4 PM / Opening act: 6:15 PM / Mötley Crüe show: 7:30 PM / Def Leppard show: 9:30 PM
- Tickets available on the official Eventim website.
- Upper Tier Seats - R$ 180.00 half-price and R$ 360.00 full price
- Track – R$ 220.00 half-price and R$ 440.00 full price
- Lower tier seating – R$ 280.00 half-price and R$ 560.00 full price.
- Premium yellow track – R$ 380.00 half-price and R$ 760.00 full price.
