Def Leppard’s drummer Rick Allen talked about meeting Neil Peart and his reaction towards this union afterward. In his interview in the YouTube channel The Metal Voice, Allen stated that he was ‘deeply sort of shocked’ after being asked whether or not he had met Rush’s iconic drummer Neil Peart.
Rick Allen did not give up on his drums even after losing his left arm in an accident in 1984. He continued to play drums for Def Leppard after his band-mates insisted that he should not leave the band. Not giving up on his passion for his music, Allen also continued to follow his other passion, painting. Looking at his Instagram account, during the pandemic, Def Leppard drummer worked on new drawings. One of these drawings was of Eddie Van Halen’s who recently died. This new interview of Def Leppard drummer reveals that Eddie was not the only rockstar that he had been using for his art.
As most Neil Peart fans know, he died in January 2020. Even though he is gone, he is never forgotten. Many drummers have paid tribute to him in their stages and interviews. Rick Allen also paid tribute to him in his interview and talked about meeting him for the first time.
After the interviewer asked Rick Allen a question about meeting Neil Peart, Allen replied with a story that we all probably never had heard of. As you can see in the title of this article, he stated that he was ‘shocked by the whole situation’ and that he immediately started to paint Neil after arriving home.
Here is his full answer:
“I did, briefly. We shared the same rehearsal space, so we met on occasion. But yeah, that was one of those occasions where I was just so deeply sort of shocked by the whole situation, that was the first thing that I did when I got home, I started a Neil Peart painting.
It’s actually really cool, you know, all these pieces, I get started on them, and by the time I’m three-quarters of the way through, I don’t want to let them go. I’d sell all this art, and I don’t have one piece hanging in the house, you know.”
Without a doubt, Neil Peart was one of the most important drummers of his time, and each day we face more and more stories that prove how much he is respected. Today, this story we have never heard of was granted to us by Rick Allen.
