Def Leppard's Rick Allen opens up in first TV interview since Florida attack: 'I saw this dark sort of flash'
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Rick Allen is ready to talk about his recent assault. The Def Leppard drummer appeared on Good Morning America Monday for his first TV interview since he was attacked in Florida earlier this year.
On March 13, one day after Def Leppard performed at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood alongside Mötley Crüe, the 59-year-old rocker was standing outside the nearby Four Seasons Hotel smoking a cigarette when, he says, a 19-year-old man rushed up to him and knocked him to the ground. When a woman ran out of the hotel to assist Allen, the assailant allegedly assaulted her. She tried to flee back into the hotel, but he grabbed her by the hair and dragged her out of the lobby and back outside before fleeing the area, per a police report obtained by EW.
Stephen Lovekin/Shutterstock Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen
In the new interview with GMA, Allen opened up about the incident.
"I heard a couple of steps, and then I just saw this dark sort of flash, and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground," Allen said. "I landed on my backside, and then continued on, hit my head on the pavement."
Allen recalled, "I reach my hand up into the air because I thought I was going to 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 I wasn't a threat because I've only got one arm."
Allen lost his left arm in a car accident in 1985, but he refused to quit music. With the help of specially modified drum kits, he has continued performing with Def Leppard. Allen told GMA that the experience of recovering from that accident "absolutely" prepared him for recuperating from this more recent incident.
Police arrested 19-year-old Max Hartley for the attack and charged him with criminal mischief and aggravated battery. Hartley has pleaded not guilty.
Watch Allen's new interview above.
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