Page 69 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019
P. 69
RICK ALLEN
knocked at a local house looking for ice AFTER THE CAR ACCIDENT I JUST
in which to pack my arm… Those two
things: me tensing up to the point where I REMEMBER STANDING UP IN THIS
didn’t bleed, and Roger and Eileen just
being right there – kind of those angels- FIELD IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
on-earth that you meet occasionally –
saved me.
THINKING: ‘I’M A DRUMMER
You speak their names as if you’re still
in touch… AND I’VE LOST MY ARM…’
Oh sure, they came to our wedding. I do
keep in touch. They’re just really special IT WAS SURREAL.
to me. I was in the middle of nowhere…
[His voice trails off]
mental stuff that was going on, I didn’t
You were 21 when it happened. More really understand that… the real depth of
than half your life has passed since – the trauma.
yet people, like me, are still fixating on So I’m at home for a couple of weeks
it. Does that feel odd to you? and I ended up getting right back on it.
Well, I’ve put it to good use. What was a Within seven weeks I’m back in Holland
horrible, horrible thing to me has become working with Def Leppard. As you can
a blessing. [With the Raven Drum imagine, being around Amsterdam, it was
Foundation] I work with a lot of warriors, very easy for me to get into all kinds of
a lot of wounded soldiers and it’s self-medication, and that was a huge
interesting – they think I’m doing it mistake. I should have spent more time
for them but really I’m doing it for just taking care of me. But all of that only
me so it becomes a win-win, a two- came up after the fact. All of the triggers,
way street. There are some all of the things I now hear people talking
warriors with more experience of about after their extreme traumas… But it
PTSD than me, how to manage led me on another journey, you know?
life after extreme trauma… I learn I got there eventually. But I’ll never tell
a lot from them. anybody that I’m healed. I just tell people
So I can only think of it now as that I’m a work-in-progress. If you think
a huge blessing. Don’t get me about it, we all are – it’s just that some
wrong – it’s a huge inconvenience, of us are more traumatised than others,
too! There are many things that I ha ha ha!
really want to do embark upon
that I can’t – but the bonus is I can I watched a soundcheck clip of you on
still play drums. But I can’t jump YouTube and you’re trying to put on a
out of a plane to parachute… or pair of headphones [Rick laughs] and
ski. But, generally I feel like I’m a I thought… which day-to-day things
happier person than I was – even wind you up the most?
before my accident. There are certain things that I’d like to do
with my daughters that I just can’t. Just
You talk about PTSD and these playing with them, picking them up…
days we all know what Post Shoelaces, chopping up vegetables and
Traumatic Stress Disorder is – but stuff like that there are alternatives for. But
back when you had your accident it there is always that feeling that I never got
was a relatively unknown study. Did the opportunity to spin my daughter
you receive any counselling back then? around. So at this point in my life it’s
No. And I think that’s one of the biggest really about my relationship to my family
mistakes I made – coming straight out of and friends and how it impacts on that.
hospital. They said, ‘You’re going to be in
hospital about two or three months’ but The idea of drumming using pedals with
within a month I was straight out of there both feet came after a hospital visit
because I was so determined to move from your friend Pete Hartley, correct?
forward. But I forgot about me – the Pete was an electronics guy – he passed
physical wounds are one thing but the away about a year ago, which was sad
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