Page 142 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

down. I just figured the more time I could
get behind a drum kit – and especially a new
kind of electronic drum kit – the more
knowledge I would gather. The guys were in
there too [recording Hysteria], and I was in
what was almost like a sound booth. So
I could see everything that was going on
around me, and that inspired me even more.
I got a lot of encouragement from the guys.
They obviously wanted me to succeed. At
other times I just needed to be left alone.
Did you push drum technology forward?
Phil was over at our rehearsal studios a few
months back, and Neil Peart was in the
studio next door, and he was getting
prepped for the Rush tour. And Neil said to
Phil: “If it wasn’t for your drummer Rick,
electronic drums would not be where they
are today.” I thought that was a massive
compliment, especially coming from
somebody like him.
Do you think Leppard have had the critical
respect they deserve?
There was a bit of a stigma attached to rock
bands. I don’t know what it was. It amazes
me that sometimes people don’t see that
we’re a working band, and we continue to
get better. I was really surprised that certain
journalists didn’t see or feel it the way I did,
because I felt like we were a force to be
reckoned with. And I think now, more and
more people are getting that.
Do you mind Joe being the mouthpiece of
the band?
He’s the master of ceremonies. He has
a vast knowledge of music. He was the
driving force behind Leppard, and I love the
fact he can do that. When I’m on stage
I have a drum kit to hide behind. He has
a microphone. It’s the fact that he can put
himself out there with so much confidence,
be comfortable in his own skin. That’s
something that I couldn’t do. In the same
way that he’ll admit he can’t do what I do.
Do you think Def Leppard are a lucky or an
unlucky band?
A bit of both. There were plenty of ups and
downs. And it’s the downs that make you
grow, whether that’s what happened to me,
or Steve, or Pete not being with us any more.
I think all of those things build character.
Have the friendships within the band
changed over forty years?
Everybody’s got their idiosyncracies,
including myself, and I’m sure I’ve pissed
people off along the way. But I think
ultimately there is a bond, a brotherhood,
that just gets stronger. I think the one thing
that keeps us strong is realising the
chemistry of the band, and not allowing
those negative times to pull us apart.
Forty years. That’s a hell of a milestone.
Yeah. We didn’t think we were going to
make it past next week. We’re a work in
progress and we keep learning from our
successes and our mistakes. That’s what
keeps it vibrant.
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serious spin mode. Your skin goes cold and
clammy. You’ve got these weird mental
and physical emotions going off.
I remember bursting into tears and
thinking: poor kid. He was twenty-one.
And he’s just come off a six-million-selling
record, and it’s probably all over. Because
I did think that for a couple of days. Why
would I not?
I went to visit him when they’d actually
reattached the arm. His brother said: “His
hand is warm – touch it.” I didn’t want to.
But I did, and his hand was warm. His arm
was back on. Wow, great. We leave and –
boom! – they take it off again. They were
scared that gangrene would set in. So that’s
a double whammy. Thank God for him he
was in an induced coma, so he never went
through that emotion of knowing he’d had
it back and it’d come off again – till long
after the fact.
Out of all that was why the album was
called Hysteria. We had paparazzi trying to
take pictures of him in hospital. So we had
security and he was up on the eleventh
“I want to change the carpet in the control Rick Allen with floor. Crazy. Then later, when we were
room, I don’t like the colour.” He’d already the drum kit that trying to come with a title for the album,
had the carpet changed in his hotel. At saved his career. Rick just said: “Why don’t we just call it
meals, you’d pass him the menu and, blasé, Hysteria?” Harking back to all that
he’d just toss it to his personal [assistant] ridiculousness. Because hysteria can go
and go: “Just order one of everything.” two ways: it can be running to the front at
Yeah, but we’re paying for that! Fuck off! a Cheap Trick concert, or it can be running
from a hydrogen bomb.
With Steinman gone you eventually Within two months of the accident, he
worked your way back to was back in the studio. Pete
having Mutt come in and do Hartley was a local drum
the job. Only by then Rick technician and electronic genius
had lost his arm. That became “We wanted global in Sheffield who’d started to
such a defining moment in domination. build Rick this kit where,
the Def Leppard story. We didn’t see basically, instead of hitting the
Rick losing his arm put the snare drum with his hand, he
Steinman thing in the shade. ourselves as this hit a pedal on the floor with his
We had a Christmas break. I’m foot. Rick locked himself away
living in Cobham, in Surrey, little local band.” in a little room in Wisselord
very nice, and my mum and dad studios, in Amsterdam,
were down with me and my girlfriend, for wouldn’t let anybody hear him play for five
the holidays. The afternoon of New Year’s months. Not a peep.
Eve, the phone rang, and I was expecting Then one day he came into the control
“Happy New Year” from Pete Way or Brian room and said: “I want you all to come and
May, whoever. No, it was Mensch. He said: listen to something.” We went in and he
“Are you sat down?” Which immediately played When The Levee Breaks by Led
told me someone had died. Then he told Zeppelin. And it was like our bones
me that Rick had crashed his car. I said: Savage and melted, because we all just sank to the
“Is he dead?” He said: “No. But he’s lost his Elliott with Jim floor. It was amazing. We couldn’t believe
arm.” He’s a drummer, he can’t lose his Steinman at it. I mean, he still had a long way to go
Wisseloord
arm! That’s when your brain goes into studios in 1984. before he’d be ready to get back on stage,
and it wasn’t all plain sailing; he got
addicted to some really bad drugs for
a while. But I look back at it now and I go:
“I’m not surprised.”
That drum kit was state of the art in
1985, and it’s been replaced over the
years as technology has improved.
Does Rick still have it?
When we did the Viva Hysteria shows, we
had a little Def Leppard museum in the
lobby and I saw the original kit. Oh my
God! It looks like Jurassic Park compared to
what he’s playing now.