Def Leppard Drummer Rick Allen Breaks Silence on Unprovoked Attack by 19-Year-Old

Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen spoke about being randomly attacked outside a Four Seasons hotel for the first time.

“I heard a couple of steps and then I just saw this [flash] and the next thing I knew was I was on the ground,” Allen said during an appearance on “Good Morning America.” “I landed on my backside … hit my head on the pavement.”

“I am no threat to you,” Allen recalled saying to the 19-year-old boy who had seemingly come out of nowhere and tackled the musician to the ground.

“I don’t think he knew who I was, but he must have seen that I wasn’t a threat because, you know, I’ve only got one arm,” Allen explained. Allen was involved in a near-fatal car crash that took his left arm in 1984.

Allen was smoking a cigarette outside the Four Seasons near the valet on March 13 when 19-year-old Max Hartley, who had reportedly been hiding behind a pole, ran at the musician and allegedly knocked him over. The fall caused Allen to hit his head on the ground, causing injury, police reported.

A woman came out to help after Allen was attacked. Hartley then allegedly attacked the unnamed woman and knocked her to the ground before repeatedly striking her. She was able to run back into the hotel, but was followed by Hartley, who allegedly grabbed the woman by her hair and dragged her outside, according to the report.

Hartley was arrested later after fleeing the area. He has been charged with two counts of battery and four counts of criminal mischief and pleaded not guilty.

Since the attack, Allen has focused on his drumming as he recovers and is performing in Sheffield, England, the location of the car accident that took one of his arms.

Read the full story here.

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