Def Leppard News - (38 Years Ago) 15 Year Old Drummer Rick Allen Joins Def Leppard

(38 Years Ago) 15 Year Old Drummer Rick Allen Joins Def Leppard

Sunday, 27th November 2016

Def Leppard 2016.
Pic By Chele Drappel

Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen joined the band exactly 38 years ago today in Sheffield, England.

Rick joined the band on 27th November 1978 after responding to a story in a local newspaper titled "Leopard Loses Skins".

Rick replaced original drummer Tony Kenning who had been fired on 18th November just before they recorded their first record,The Def Leppard EP at Fairview Studio in Hull.

The day after they got back to Sheffield Rick Allen attended his audition and got the position as the drummer in Def Leppard which he still holds to this day.

Rick celebrated his 53rd birthday earlier this month.

This past August was the 30th Anniversary of his triumphant comeback to the stage after recovering from the December 1984 car accident which took his left arm.

View some photos from the 2016 tour which ended in Cedar Rapids, IA on 10th October.

Animal Instinct 1987 Biography Quotes

Rick Allen Joins Def Leppard

"Some time during the week between Tony Kenning's dismissal and the recording of the EP, Joe asked Frank Noon if he would consider joining Def Leppard permanently. Noon declined, remaining faithful to the Next Band. But Keith Strong's "Leopard Loses Skins" item did not go unnoticed. A fifteen-year-old wunderkind, Richard Allen, somehow contacted one of the Leppards and arranged a meeting at the Limit club."

"Rick and two Leppards of undetermined identity had a nice chinwag in the men's toilets at the Limit the week before the band went to Fairview Studio to record."

"But at his audition, the day after Def Leppard returned from Fairview Studio, Rick wowed the band with his whiplash timing, riffle crack sound and his nifty Pearl all-chrome kit. Another drummer turned up for the audition, but he didn't stand a chance. After one number, he was swiftly dispatched into the night. According to Joe, Tony Kenning also turned up and made vague murmurs about getting his old job back. He was too late."

"We asked Rick if he knew Emerald by Thin Lizzy," says Sav. "We played that and suddenly the song sounded six times better than the way we usually played it. We were now in the company of a proper drummer. Even at fifteen he was outstanding."

Rick Allen Live 2016 - Photo Gallery

Photos by Chele Drappel/Curt Taft/Michelle Lydon/Steve Kelley.