The day Def Leppard thought they had lost their drummer

Last week, Rick Allen, the 59-year-old Def Leppard’s drummer, was attacked outside of the Four Seasons in Fort Lauderdale, a day after the band played at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel. He is okay and the perpetrator was arrested and charged with different counts but the incident reminded me of one of those cool stories that are worth remembering. If you know Def Leppard, you probably know what I’m talking about, but if you don’t keep reading!

On the afternoon of 31 December 1984, on his way to a party to celebrate the approaching year, Rick Allen was involved in a car crash with his then girlfriend that took Rick’s left arm and nearly his life. The then-21-year-old was driving his Corvette Stingray and the accident took place when he tried to pass another car at high speed in a countryside road just a few miles far from Sheffield.

Rick Allen’s car after the accident

Allen was thrown from his car in the accident and his arm apparently was caught in the seatbelt and was severed from his body. In the first moment the doctors successfully reattached the arm but it had to be later amputated after the procedure failed due to infection. And here comes the extraordinary part of this story.

Rick Allen playing drums with Def Leppard

One could think that after losing an arm, a drummer of a Heavy Metal band would just call it quits but Allen decided to continue playing. In addition to this, the band decided to wait for him to be ready to perform again, this time by using a specially designed electronic drum kit. Def Leppard with Rick Allen seated on the drums, came back on August 16th, 1986 at the Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington. To this day, he is still playing alongside the rest of Def Leppard, leaving for history an incredible story of overcoming and comradeship that, since I was a child, always impressed me.