Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen has opened up about being violently assaulted exterior a Florida resort two years in the past, revealing that he’s nonetheless dealing with the trauma of the assault.
Allen appeared on SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation” on April seventeenth and mentioned the rationale why he opted to not exhibit his art work on this yr’s Monsters of Rock cruise.
“I’ve been going by some difficult instances, form of associated to what occurred in Florida,” Allen informed host Eddie Trunk (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “And that entire factor is form of ongoing, after I received crushed up exterior the resort [there]. So I’ve been attempting to cope with that the perfect that I can, and actually I simply wanted to take a break from among the facet initiatives that I used to be busy with, simply so I may spend extra time at residence.
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He added: “So, that’s been an actual problem for me. Hopefully I can put all of it behind me and I can simply form of get again to as regular as I may presumably be given the circumstances. However that was very traumatic for me, and, yeah, it’s been troublesome. However hopefully I can put it behind me quickly.”
Allen, who famously misplaced his left arm in a 1984 automotive crash, defined that he already went out on a cruise because the assault and located it “troublesome to be round lots of people.”
And so I made a decision, ‘You already know what, Rick? Don’t try to chunk off greater than you’ll be able to chew. Simply cope with this, cope with what’s in entrance of you. Spend as a lot time as it’s good to at residence,’” he stated. “And I’m simply hoping, as I say, that I can put it behind me… I’d like to get again to doing a few of my facet initiatives, notably the artwork. And let’s hope I can quickly.”
To date, the drummer hasn’t let the lingering trauma intervene along with his duties in Def Leppard, because the band lately mapped out a Summer season 2025 North American tour (get tickets right here), and was additionally simply introduced as a headliner of the Rock the Tides vacation spot competition this November in Mexico.
As beforehand reported, Allen was violently assaulted in March 2025 exterior of a resort in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The assailant, 19-year-old Max Edward Hartley, was arrested shortly after the incident and was charged with 4 counts of prison mischief; one rely of misdemeanor battery; and one rely of aggravated battery (per a Fort Lauderdale police incident report).
Hartley allegedly charged at Allen, who hit his head after being knocked to the bottom. The assailant additionally apparently attacked a girl who tried to intervene within the incident, hitting her repeatedly and dragging her by the hair.
