Readers of Music Radar have voted Def Leppard’s Rick Allen “Best Rock Drummer In The World”! Here’s an example of his skills from 2017 Rock in Rio.
Here’s the rest of the Top 10
No. 2 - Jon Larsen - Volbeat
No. 3 - Aston Irwin - 5 Seconds Of Summer
No. 4 - Scott Phillips - Alter Bridge
No. 5 - Simo Phillips - worked with Jeff Beck, The Who, Toto, Judas Priest, and more
No. 6 - Roger Taylor - Queen
No. 7 - Tommy Lee - Motley Crue
No. 8 - Travis Barker - best known for his work with Blink - 182
No. 9 - Dave Grohl - best known for his drumming with Nirvana
No. 10 - Phil Rudd - AC/DC
It was 36 years ago this month when Rick Allen’s accident changed his life. He had to relearn to play the drums again, but with one arm. He spoke recently with Modern Drummer about what got him through it all “I got encouragement from everywhere — from my family, from the guys [in the band], from people all over the world. And I don’t know what happened, but I discovered the power of the human spirit and just said, ‘You know what? I can do this.’ It was really a collective thing. It was all this encouragement I was getting from other people, and then it just manifested in wanting to succeed. And that’s exactly where it came from.”
He also talked about how his bandmates in Def Leppard helped too, “They left the decision to me, whether I wanted to go on or not, and they gave me time to grow and develop, really, a whole new style [of playing],..I think that was the most important thing — just that time that they gave me just to find myself.”
Now, Rick Allen is the “Best Rock Drummer In The World”!
-- Doug O’Brien