life- savers on a New Year’s Eve nearly 40 years ago, Allen might not be here to
tell the tale. On Dec. 31 of 1984, Allen and his girlfriend Miriam Barendsen were on an afternoon drive through the Yorkshire countryside. The band’s third album, 1983’s Pyro- mania , had gone multi-platinum on the strength of several songs in heavy rotation on MTV and rock radio, pitting Def Leppard on the cusp of international superstardom. Rick Allen was on top of the world. But in the blink of an eye his world turned upside down. While trying to pass an aggressively driving Alfa Romeo, Allen lost control of his Corvette, sending the vehicle careening into a stone wall, throwing him more than 100 feet into a field—and severing his left arm, which was caught in the seatbelt strap. (Barendsen was slightly injured, but able to come to Allen’s aid.) As fate would have it, among the first people to arrive at the scene were an off-duty policeman, as well as an off-duty nurse, both of whom happened to be in the vicinity when the crash oc- curred. “There’s no such thing as an off duty first-responder—it’s the way they’re wired,” Allen told NBb recently. “If they see a situation in which they could help, they automatically do. It’s part of their DNA. “I was one of those fortunate recipients of two incredible an- gels on earth.” The quick arrival of first responders to the scene saved Allen’s life—icing his severed arm and stabilizing him long enough to get to a hospital before blood loss became life threatening. After an initially successful surgical reattachment, his arm suffered an in- fection and was amputated. In 1985 the concept of a professional drummer with only one arm was unheard of, especially in a hard- driving rock band. On the brink of becoming one of the biggest bands in the world, it was roundly assumed Def Leppard would have to carry on with a different drummer.
“Is anybody out there, anybody
there—does anybody
wonder, anybody care?”
—Def Leppard, “Foolin’”
F ollowing the 2017 wildfires, thousands of North Bay residents owed a debt of thanks to first responders. Rick Allen understands that gratitude toward first re- sponders. He owes them his life. Allen is renowned as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame drummer for Def Leppard—the Sheffield, England-born band that launched in the late 1970s as darlings of heavy metal’s “new wave” and went on to release a string of best-selling albums throughout the 1980s and ‘90s. Their string of hits includes “Photograph,” “Foo- lin’,” “Rock of Ages,” “Hysteria,” “Animal,” “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” “Let’s Get Rocked,” among others staple of classic rock radio. Def Leppard’s rise to rock royalty out of a working-class York- shire city known for its steel industry and mushy peas was unexpected in itself. Even more unexpected was Allen’s personal rise from tragedy to triumph—a journey that brings him full cir- cle Nov. 1 to Rohnert Park where he’ll speak out for the health of first responders at the annual gala for North Bay nonprofit First Responders Resiliency, Inc. Because if it wasn’t for the rapid response of a few dedicated
24 NorthBaybiz
October 2025
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