Joe's Words
NEW
Joe on how Rick dealt with drum machines during the recording of "Pyromania":
"That was funny in itself, watching this guy sitting on the stool with an invisible drum kit and a cymbal setup and playing as though he had a kit, just hitting the cymbals. It was hard for Rick. He threw sticks at everybody. He threw one so
hard it was sticking out the wall."
On Rick's accident:
"We stuck by Rick and he stuck by us. Neither of us were going anywhere without the other."
"If I had a brother who lost his arm, I wouldn't kick him out of my family. So why would I kick my drummer out of my band?"
"Well, I just remember going into the toilet at the hospital and bursting out crying again, 'cause I couldn't stand to look at him. I couldn't stand it! His brother made me touch his hand, after they attached the arm, and said "Feel, it's warm" and it was! It felt normal!"
"Never, ever (did we consider carrying on without him). The guy was only 21 when it happened, he still has so much (of his life) in front of him... it made me think, "What would you do in his situation?" At first, we were just hoping and praying that he'd live, and then we thought he'd never play drums again. But the four of us never fell back and said, "Right, Rick's out. Who are we gonna get to replace him?" We decided that it should be Rick's decision if he want's to stay or leave - there was no way we were gonna sack him. And then, as he got better we thought, "Maybe there is a way he can play," and he's proved it. He's a very, very brave man."
"The four of us, minus Rick, went back to the studio three days after the accident, trying to carry on without him. But mentally, we were a million miles away from it. You were just with him in the hospital, and after that there was no way to just go in and make rock 'n'roll."
On Rick's return to the studio in Holland:
"We wanted to make him feel a bit more at home, so we started with the backing vocals. We just had everyone stand around the mike and started screaming our heads off. It made him feel like a part of the band again."
At the Donnington Festival, 1986:
"So I went out after he was done and said 'Ladies and Gentlemen, Rick Allen on the drums.' You could have knocked me over with a feather. The cheering was so loud they practically blew us off stage. I mean, they were louder than we were. I could barely hear Rick because of the big waves of 'YEAH' which rolled over the stage."
"The first time I saw him in hospital, I couldn't handle it, it was really, really odd. He was totally out of it, but he kept opening his eyes like and looking at me with this real heavy stare, and then he'd go again, and then he'd wake...like...he was like something out of a Bela Lugosi horror film. And I thought he was looking at me as though it was, like, my fault you know? I mean I wasn't there of course and I was looking. It was frightening because it was obviously just a bodily reaction to everything that had happened to him. It was just the shock, I guess. But, I went in and I saw him, and I was there with his brother Robert and it was, like, bite your lip time. And after about two minutes or so I said 'I've gotta get out of here.' And I just went into the bathroom and started crying, you know? I couldn't handle it, couldn't handle it at all." - 1992
"He locked himself away. He'd asked specifically to be locked away in a room where nobody could hear him make the mistakes he was obviously going to make, relearning to play. We were very lucky that we had basic drum tracks down on tape, so we could carry on making the album. So the four of us were locked in one room, and he was somewhere else playing his drums, and we just let him get on with it." - 1992
"This processed drum sound that we’re always getting criticised for; what the f**k do people expect? The guy’s got one arm! It’s very difficult for him to play an acoustic kit - just as an electric guitar is reliant on electricity. It’s taken us a hell of a long time to make that electric kit sound like an acoustic kit, but we’ve managed to do it on ‘Retro-Active’. What were we gonna do? Fire Rick because he couldn’t play an acoustic kit?" - 1993
Q: Who was the last person you punched?
Joe: "Rick, our drummer, in Spain, 1994. I was having a, let's just say, "turbulent time" in my personal life. Basically we had a scrap over women. It was all over in about two seconds. We kissed and made up the next morning."
Speaking on Rick's Raven Drum Foundation:
"It's good for him, good for the kids. Like Rick says, it's the first communication. If it's the right tempo, it can make you move -- just walk in a rhythmic way. Everything just disappears." - 2003
Joe Elliott
