"Every time you speak to Rick you come away with a big grin on your face because he’s in such good spirits. He’s handling it better than I thought he would. He’s matured 10 years overnight. He’s totally accepted the fact that he’s only got one arm and he’s being very realistic about coming back into Def Leppard. He’s mad to go for it, though, and we’re mad to let him try..."
That drummer Rick Allen will try, however, isn’t in doubt. He’s adamant about it and Leppard vocalist Joe Elliott is equally adamant that the band will give him their unrestrained support. As they’ve said all along, the decision is totally his."
"We aren’t trying to show off or get sympathy," spells out Joe, "it’s just the way we are. Def Leppard is simply five lads - we could have been a football team, we could have been international bank robbers, Rick’s a mate, and just because he’s had an accident doesn’t mean he can’t still be in the band. If he physically can’t do it then obviously there’s going to be problems, but with the technology available today I don’t see why he can’t play snare drum with his left foot, say. And if he can do that, and maybe have tom tom fills already recorded on a trigger, then the kit would look exactly the same."
"Bill Ludwig, who build’s Rick’s kits, actually got in touch with him as soon as it happened, and it seems that there’s a lot of one armed drummers - guys who came back from Vietnam, y’know. The thing is, they tend to play Holiday Inns and places like that; it’s a different approach to drumming."
"Rick has a very John Bonhamish style - I mean, the guy doesn’t need monitors, he’s ridiculously loud! - and and he’d never be able to do with one hand what he did with two for an hour and three quarters. It would kill him! So he’s gonna need the technology. It’s just down to whether he can accept the fact that there are gonna be people in the crowd trying to peer through the cymbals to see a plastic arm. He’ll have to wear a shirt now, whereas before he’d always go bare-topped."
The details of the car crash that removed 21-year-old Rick (temporarily at least) from the Leppard ranks have been pretty well documented, grabbing column inches in the ‘Nationals’ and beyond. The bare fact seems plain enough,: at 12.50pm on New Year’s Eve, while driving his corvette along the A57 from Sheffield to his parents’ home in Dronfield (Derbyshire), Rick was involved in an incident which sent his car spinning out of control, turning over several times, injuring his female passenger and removing his left arm in the process. He remembers what happened vividly, and really can count himself fortunate to be alive. When the debris from the accident was examined it was found that the top half of the steering wheel had been bent back, Rick’s particular power clearly preventing the steering column and dashboard from crushing against his chest.
But why did it happen?
Picking through the events with Elliott it soon becomes obvious that the whole is a little more complex than yer typical life-in-the-fastlane pile-up. Think about it...
When you’re young and successful, with a streamlined US car and a female companion to match, it can sometimes sting the nasal membranes of the folks you’ve abandoned to a dole queue existence in your humdrum hometown rut. People have been known to glow green with jealousy, and on New Year’s Eve people have been known to take a drink. Sometimes even a life...
"Yeah," says Joe quietly, "There was another car involved in the accident."
Mucking Rick around you mean?
"That’s right. But the people have denied it and there’s nothing we can do. The coppers have interviewed them but it’s no good. I’d love to go round and kill ‘em!"
Joe takes a moment to collect his thoughts, then continues. "The arm was placed in a bucket of ice gathered from all the houses nearby and Rick was in hospital (the Royal Hallamshire) within 19 minutes, which is unbelievable. He underwent an 11-hour operation; his arm was back on by ten to one the following morning, but infection set in and after three days they had to take it off."
"His nerves are still alive, though. They’ve got them wrapped up like spaghetti. And it’s possible to have them connected up in a way that can give movement to a prosthetic arm. So the Steve Austin ‘Six Million Dollar Man’ thing is not beyond the realms of possibility one day. Rick still feels his arm because of the nerves."
When did you hear what had happened?
"I heard at about ten to four the same afternoon and I couldn’t believe it. I cried like a baby for about three hours - my face was hurting. Peter (Mensch, manager) rang and said, ‘Rick’s had an accident, his arm’s off, but they’ve sown it back on’. I’ve heard of that working before but unfortunately it was torn off, not cut off, so everything snapped and stretched in different places, which made it more difficult."
How soon after the accident did you visit Rick in Hospital?
"I saw him two days after it happened. It was the worst experience I’ve ever had...but he was walking a week earlier than expected and telling the nurses to F**k off after three days because he was fed up having his bandages changed. He sounds in fine form now and wants to get back; drumming’s all he’s ever done, and he’s done it very well."
"It’s just up to him if he can stand the strain. I mean, he’s going to go through some crap. He’s not had it yet, but he’s gonna suffer from depression; bad depression. He’s being very realistic about it, though. He said to me, ‘When it comes, it comes’. He wants to come out here to Holland but he knows he can’t."
Presumably he won’t be ready to play a part on the forthcoming tour?
"No and he knows that. Somebody will guest with us until we know the result of Rick’s convalescence."
Would you consider using two drummers on any subsequent tours?
"Possibly, yeah, and Rick could do specific bits. We’ve definitely thought about that, but he’s got a lot to learn first. I mean, there’s certain things that are now a fact of life. If Rick wants to wear baseball boots, for example, he’s gonna have to wear Velcro ones. And he’s probably gonna need press stud trousers. He’s got to learn to bath himself even."
"The thing is, at the moment his right arm doesn’t work. The ball is smashed so they’ve had to pin it. He‘s got a six inch pin as big as a poker in there. Imagine if your elbow was sown up to your hip; well that’s all the movement he’s got. I guess he’s a bit of a mess, though mentally he’s the best he’s ever been."
What would happen if Rick returned to the band yet clearly wasn’t cutting it? Would you have to tell him?
"No, because he’d know himself. He’s said that to me on the phone. He’s being realistic - if he can’t do it he can’t. They’ll come a time when Rick will say, ‘I’m ready’, and we’ll get together in a rehearsal room for a month and see what he does. He’ll either turn round and go ‘Yes!’ and we’ll go ‘Yes!’, or else he’ll say ‘Sorry, I’m not coping with it’.
"The important thing is that he tries, otherwise he’ll never know, and that would be awful. I know he’d rather fail than not try at all. Besides, it’s no big secret that we use drum machines on the records so, whatever happens, he could still be involved on that side. We would just take a session drummer out on the road."
"At the moment, we’re trying not to get too depressed about the whole situation, but we were mega-depressed at first. I was in a real state, like a zombie for five hours, and for quite a time after I just didn’t want to get into a car. I know it’s daft but it’s true."
A Bonham of the biscuit tins, a Titan of the tupperware, since the age of 11 Rick Allen has thought of little else outside of drums and drumming. At the moment he’s at home, probably watching Cheech & Chong videos on the new system bought for him by Phonogram Records. But chances are that his thoughts are elsewhere, no doubt wafting with the music around the booths and corridors of Wissleord Studios near Amsterdam, Holland, where Leppard are recording their fourth, as yet untitled, LP. As always, he’s with his colleagues 110 percent (for now can be in spirit only), a continued commitment that should spur him on through the tough weeks and numerous hospital visits ahead.
Prior to the accident, he’d laid the groundwork for eight backing tracks, and the remaining two songs on the album were always destined to feature a less human touch, the band specifically wanting a more clinical punch, so there’s no problem on that front. As for his work on the backing vocals, well, Elliott can easily deputise in that department, leaving Rick free to concentrate on the speediest recovery possible and, as Elliott puts it, "Learn to live again. He’s having all these drums built and a special car designed, all sorts of stuff..."