Richard John Cyril Allen (born 1 November 1963) is an English drummer who has played for the hard rock band Def Leppard since 1978. He overcame the amputation of his left arm in January 1985 and continued to play with the band, which went on to its most commercially successful phase. He is known as “The Thunder God” by fans. He is ranked No. 7 on the UK website Gigwise in The Greatest Drummers of All Time list.
Rick lost his left arm in a car crash on 31st December 1984 while driving back to Sheffield on the A57 road. He recovered, re-learnt to play drums using an electronic kit and continues to play for the band to this day.
Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen lost his left arm in a car crash today in Sheffield, England on New Year’s Eve 1984. Surgeons managed to reattach the arm, but sadly on 4th January 1985 it had to be amputated due to an infection. Rick then left hospital on 29th January 1985 and was back with the band at Wisseloord Studios in Holland on 22nd February. Rick managed to recover to play drums again within 3 months of his accident, and has continued to be the drummer with Def Leppard to the present day.
Rick, was driving back from the Ladybower Reservoir outside of Sheffield, England on the A57 road with girlfriend Miriam Barendsen when he was involved in an accident after trying to overtake another car. Rick lost control of his left-hand drive Corvette Stingray coming off of a sharp left-hand turn. The car flipped over and hit a wall. His seatbelt came undone and took off his left arm as he was thrown through the sunroof.
Luckily a local nurse, another district nurse and a policeman all stopped to help. One of the nurses, Eileen Pierce, later married another of the police officers who attended the scene, Roger Pierce.
Initially Allen felt ‘defeated’ but, buoyed by ‘family, friends and hundreds of thousands of letters from all over the planet’, he decided to continue playing drums with Def Leppard, and adopted a specially designed electronic drum kit. The band took a hiatus from onstage performances until 5 August 1986, (Rick Allen’s first live performance since losing his left arm) instead doing a small run of public rehearsal shows in Ireland in advance of their 16 August 1986 Monsters of Rock festival performance at Castle Donington. He has since re-adopted partially acoustic drum kits, depending on the setting. After a new electronic drum kit was developed. Sadly, local Sheffield electrician Pete Hartley, who designed his first foot pedals, passed away in 2015.
Allen has used custom-manufactured cable routing by Whirlwind. He uses four electronic pedals for his left foot to play the pieces he used to play with his left arm, which from left to right trigger sounds of a closing hi-hat, bass drum, snare drum, and a tom drum.
In 2009, Yamaha announced the addition of Rick Allen to their artist roster. Allen plays Yamaha Oak Custom drums with a matching subkick. Allen also uses Remo drumheads (usually he has coated Ambassadors on his drums and a clear Powerstroke 3 on his bass drum), Zildjian cymbals (mostly K customs, Z Customs and A customs), Ahead drumsticks and an LP rock cowbell. He previously used Paiste 2002, RUDE, and Sound Creation cymbals.
Rick and his wife, Lauren, founded the Raven Drum Foundation in 2000. It is a nonprofit organization that helps the physically challenged, which employs spiritual methods as well as music and ancient wisdom to achieve this.
Rick received a humanitiarian award on August 29, 2001 for his efforts with this cause. On March 18, 2007, Rick and Lauren were presented with a “Hero Award” for their efforts to provide nonviolence and peace within the community through Raven Drum.
In 2005, as part of an outreach program, Rick began inviting soldiers who have returned from Iraq as amputees to meet him. Many of these men and women are around the same age that Rick was when he lost his arm, and he feels a strong desire to reach out to them.
In 2007, Rick organized the “One Hand Drum Company” in an effort to aid funding to the outreach projects Raven provides. Part of this includes artwork of Rick’s now famous “Stick Rick” drawings.
In the summer of 2010, Rick became involved as a supporter of “Amy’s House,” a respite care center in Sheffield, England that offers care to children with disabilities.
In October 2012, Rick received the Carry Forward Award from the Wounded Warrier Project for all the work he and the Raven Drum Foundation have done for veterans.
