Nothing puts a smile on my face like talking to Rick Allen. Yup, Def Leppard’s Thunder God himself. I’ve been lucky enough to get to know the man off stage. One of the big things in Rick’s life is Raven Drum Foundation. Rick and his wife, Lauren Monroe, started Raven Drum over 20 years ago. The foundation helps out Veterans and First Responders. With Def Leppard hitting the road again, Rick is combining his life on and off stage.
We took some time to speak to Rick about this. Def Leppard will be hitting the road this year with Journey and at different tour stops the shows will also include one of either Steve Miller Band, Cheap Trick or Heart. Rick spoke about taking time while visiting these different cities on the road to visit with firefighters, police officers and veterans. Rick talked about being excited hitting the road this time, particularly because he’s never gotten to see the Steve Miller Band before and “He has so many hit songs, it’s incredible.” That’s when Rick also mentioned having been on the road with Motley Crue for 18 months and having gotten close to those guys. Rick and I discussed when the last time they were on the road with Journey was. I took a guess while we were talking, but I checked all the pics in my phone, and it turns out it was 2018.
From there we spoke about how on this tour at certain dates Rick is doing meet and greets that benefit Raven Drum Foundation. There is a lot included in these meet and greets. You can see details in this video directly below. Part of it is access to the pit at the show. The pit is situated in such a way that part of the stage will be behind you. This is quite an exclusive thing that comes with a donation to Raven Drum. I asked Rick if Def Leppard would once again do like they did on the Stadium tour and come down front on the walkway into the audience to do any acoustic numbers. He was specific in not really answering that question.
Around here we segued into talking about “Coming of age moments” through the music at the shows. That’s when the recent anniversary of the release of Def Leppard’s “Pyromania” came up. In there we talked about Rick celebrating his 16th birthday opening for AC/DC in London and about Brian May being at the show and also how he met Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell that night as well.
We also spent some time discussing an exciting show that Rick will be a part of at The Cutting Room in New York City on March 14th, 2024. The show will benefit Raven Drum Foundation. It will be an all-star show featuring the likes of Liberty Devitto who played with Billy Joel, Corky Laing from Mountain, and many more big names still to be announced. You can find more details at RavenDrumFoundation.org
There is also an event coming up on the West Coast, April 27th – 28th – Chateau Diana Drum Circle & Concert Events, Healdsburg, CA. Rick spoke about that as well.
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