Modern Drummer with Rick Allen (Part 1)
Rick Allen has been playing drums all his life, and nothing was going to stop him from doing what he loves to do. Nothing.
By now we all know the story about Rick's terrible car accident on December 31, 1984, which resulted in the drummer losing his left arm. One could only imagine the horror. The future of Del Leppard started to look mighty cloudy.
But only a few short months after his accident, Rick miraculously began a whole new approach to playing, with the help of family, friends, and a special electronic kit made for him by Simmons. Two years later, he was out playing live again.
MD: What is your current setup?
Rick: My current setup is an acoustic kick and snare, with a snare sample that I can fire with my left foot as well. From left to right it's snare trigger, hi-hat, kick drum, snare drum, and tom-tom on the floor–all on pedals. And then the top tier is pretty much a carbon copy of that: I've got pads that correspond, sound-wise, to what I've got on the floor pedals. The cymbals are all real, but I've got a couple of tricks that nobody's really figured out yet.