For Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen, June 14, 2009 was a special day. Leppard’s headlining appearance at the Download festival on that date marked an emotional return to Donington Park – where, 23 years earlier, Allen played his first major gig with the band since losing his left arm in a car crash on New Year’s Eve 1984.
Here, Allen talks candidly about the accident, the comeback at Donington, how Ozzy Osbourne branded him a “freak”, how he became a role model for children with disabilities, and how he discovered the meaning of life.
