Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen recently gave his first interview since being assaulted outside a Florida hotel earlier this year.
It was noted that Allen, who was in South Florida to perform a show with his Def Leppard bandmates at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, was attacked on March 13 while taking a smoke break outside the Four Seasons hotel on Fort Lauderdale Beach.
A 19-year-old man was arrested in connection with the incident, but no motive was given for the attack.
Police say the suspect, who was initially hiding behind a pole, ran toward Allen at full speed, striking him and knocking him backward and slamming his head on the ground and “causing injury.” The suspect, who is facing a charge of abuse to an elderly or disabled adult without great harm, was arrested that same day and has since bonded out of jail, records show.
Rick Allen opens up on the incident
In his first official interview about the incident, Allen told “Good Morning America“: “I heard a couple of steps. And then I just saw this dark sort of flash. And the next thing I knew was I was on the ground. I landed on my backside and then continued on, hit my head on the pavement… I reached my hand up into the air ’cause I thought I was gonna get attacked again. And I just said, ‘I am no threat to you.’ I don’t think he knew who I was. But he must’ve seen that I wasn’t a threat because, you know, I’ve only got one arm.”
Allen went on to say that losing his left arm in a car accident in 1984 when he was 21 years old made him better equipped to deal with the emotional aftermath of this attack.
“I immediately just went to that place of just feeling grateful for the fact that I have an amazing wife and an incredible family,” he said. “I just started just thanking a higher power for the fact that I’m still here.”
