America feels like home as much as it does here. Although it's a strange situation as I feel almost like I'm in no-man's land some of the time, because although I'm a resident, I still can't vote so I don't really have a say in what goes on where I live.
Rick Allen
And more importantly, I wouldn't be the person I am today, I wouldn't be where I am now and I may not even have been here if it wasn't for the accident.
Rick Allen
And really, it's my home life that my own personal foundation is based on and not necessarily the life within the band.
Rick Allen
At the end of the day, they're happy if you do the obvious songs towards the end of the set and you've got to try and make yourself happy by doing certain songs at the front end of the set.
Rick Allen
Before my accident I was a little too... selfish and self-absorbed and for me, to now be at the place where I can kinda give back and inspire people. I'm blessed. I'm really blessed.
Rick Allen
But I think that the most important thing was to really stop drinking.
Rick Allen
But it just so happens that when you're in the public eye, everything gets reported.
Rick Allen
But it's funny that now I'm in such a happy situation, I look more objectively at my own past and see what others have seen for a long time and I'm just so glad I've been able to get to this point.
Rick Allen
But the irony is that because the band isn't the focus any more, it allows me the chance to enjoy being a member of Def Leppard much more.
Rick Allen
But unfortunately, in my unrelenting drive to get back on that drum stool, the major casualty in all of it was that I really forgot about me.
Rick Allen
'Cause I felt I didn't have anything else to prove as a musician... and boy was I wrong about that one.
Rick Allen
Chasing the sensation. Whether it was drugs or sex or whatever. Those things had become my main focus in life.
Rick Allen
I feel so incredibly vulnerable and exposed when I have to talk into a microphone and bare my soul so to speak.
Rick Allen
I have never been one for the over-the-top.
Rick Allen
I honestly don't think people would necessarily be coming along to just meet me and spending all that money on aftershow passes if they weren't curious about some of the things they've seen on the Raven Drum website.
Rick Allen
I prefer the rather old and battered, things with character, to the brand new.
Rick Allen
I really don't feel any strong allegiance to any country.
Rick Allen
I think all of those things, but certainly the booze really brought out the really unreasonable side of me, and I just didn't want to revisit that place again.
Rick Allen
I think at that time I obviously wasn't aware of what I really needed. But conversely, my wanting to prove something to everyone was beneficial 'cause if I hadn't done it then, maybe I'd never have done it.
Rick Allen
I think it was a wake up call for everybody. Yeah, they could see that I had a weakness and a tendency to overindulge.
Rick Allen
I think my perception of my own life is different and the fact that Lauren and myself are together. I've never felt this free or happy and so that permeates onto my onstage persona and to my working environment.
Rick Allen
I wanted to be as far away from everybody as I could be. I found it difficult to be close to anybody, not just the guys in the band.
Rick Allen
I was happy in Dublin because it is very cosmopolitan.
Rick Allen
I'm sure it's the same with yourself that when your relationship is good, it changes the way you view the rest of the world.
Rick Allen
If we had loads of money as a family, things would be different and they'd come to visit more and I'd get to spend more time here. But I'm laying down roots in America so when I'm there, just being at home, it's harder to break away from that.
Rick Allen
It was great to do something different, so mixing it all about keeps things fresh.
Rick Allen
Just the same way I'd say a prayer before going onstage, taking that even further and using the drum to inspire people. And using that as a vehicle for the intention.
Rick Allen
My situation should have been a lot worse. By rights I shouldn't have survived the crash.
Rick Allen
So you kind of know that anytime we want, we could do a tour without even an album to promote, which is kind of reassuring, cos that's what most people are coming to see - just us doing the old classics.
Rick Allen
Some people say that practice makes perfect but I just feel that the repetition works against me and I start thinking too far ahead during a show.
Rick Allen
Sometimes it's a negative because I still have a memory of some of the things I could do... when I still had two arms.
Rick Allen
The only slightly disappointing thing about the whole tour - and I've said this to many people - is that if we'd've had a hit single we'd be dangerous.
Rick Allen
They're just coming because it's Def Leppard, not because it's Def Leppard and they've got a new album to promote or whatever.
Rick Allen
Thinking about what songs are coming next instead of just relaxing, breathing and playing from my heart. Sometimes it can get to be almost like the enemy.
Rick Allen
We're probably doing better business than we thought we would do especially considering the disappointing way the record company has handled the album.
Rick Allen
With some of my previous relationships, they never really felt right even from the beginning but I persevered with them.
Rick Allen
Yes, of course that's true but you know, the irony of all that is that before the accident, I'd pretty much lost interest in playing drums.
Rick Allen
You know, even though you have a limb severed, the signals keep running down the nerves so I still get an itch on my elbow or whatever.
Rick Allen