After losing his arm in a car accident in 1984, Rick Allen of DEF LEPPARD said, “I honestly thought that was it” for his drumming career.
During an appearance on “The Greg Hill Show”, DEF LEPPARD drummer Rick Allen was asked if he thought he was done playing drums when he famously lost his left arm to amputation after a near-fatal auto accident in England in 1984. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I did. I honestly thought that was it. When I finally realized that I’d actually lost my arm when I
when I awoke in the hospital, I truly didn’t want to be here or see anyone. My brother and my parents were the only people I thought I wanted to see, yet all I wanted to do was go away. I was really self-conscious. And then one of my friends, [Robert John] ‘Mutt’ Lange, our producer, came to visit me. He just made me feel better and focused on what I could do instead of what I couldn’t. He really helped me dig deep and discover the strength of the human spirit, and that’s what finally pulled me out of it.”
Regarding the fact that he was able to return to drumming at world-class level with DEF LEPPARD, Rick said: “When I look back now, I realize what that must look like from the outside. But I was very fortunate that all that information of having two arms was in my head, and it was almost like this natural thing. All the information that used to go to my left arm kind of went to the rest of my limbs, so I was able to express myself, even though it was in a in a different way, but I was still able to emulate a lot of the things that I did prior to losing my arm.”
In addition, Allen shared his experiences as an encouragement to others with disabilities and life’s obstacles during the forty years since he had to relearn how to drum.
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