Imagine you lose an arm at age 21. Your entire life ahead of you. And you want to keep drumming. What would you do? Rick Allen, drummer for Def Leppard, had a car accident in 1984, when he was 21 years old, and sadly lost his left arm.
How does a world-renowned drummer keep playing with 1 arm? Rick’s ingenuity and tenacity took him to modify his drum set and continue drumming to this day, filling arenas across the world.
Rick’s kit has quite a number of innovations, changes and, as you’ll see, redundancies that enable him and his tech to prepare for any mishap that could happen during a show.
How does this modified drum set work? Here's a brief overview:
Rick Allen's drum set breakdown:
- Regular hi-hat.
- Electronic kick.
- Electronic snare.
- Electronic floor tom.
- Acoustic snare (usually with an additional trigger, just in case).
- Closed hi-hat (with optional loops trigger).
- Open hi-hat ( with optional loops trigger).
- Closed hi-hat with snare trigger (can be changed to other triggered sounds).
- Acoustic bass drum.
- Electronic kick.
- Electronic floor tom.
- Electronic rack tom.
- Electronic kick.
- Cowbell!
Jeff, Rick's tech explains this amazing kit with more detail:
This kit is an amazing proof of how ingenuity can solve problems that at first seem unsurmountable. But as Rick himself puts it:
I felt defeated, self-conscious, wanted to just disappear. But my family, friends and hundreds of thousands of letters from all over the planet put me in a different head-space. I discovered the power of the human spirit. And that was a springboard into where I am now.
