“I wondered if I was insane for wanting to do this”: How Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen learned to play again after losing his left arm

Rick Allen of Def Leppard.

On the morning of New Year’s Day 1985, Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott was at his house in Cobham, Surrey, with his parents visiting, when he received a phone call from the band’s co-manager Peter Mensch. This was not a social call. Mensch was telling Joe that something terrible had happened to Rick Allen, Def Leppard’s drummer.

At first, Joe could not believe what he was hearing: “Rick’s crashed his car,” Mensch said. “And he’s lost his arm.”