Def Leppard & Hare Krishna

[Guest guest]

Where East meets West

Edmonton Sun - Canada

It turns out that Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen is "one with everything."

He's been dabbling in the philosophies of Hare Krishna for quite some time -

but don ...

http://www.edmontonsun.com/Entertainment/Spotlight/2005/08/21/1182154-sun.html

 

Where East meets WestRocker chills to Krishna Das

By MIKE ROSS, EDMONTON SUN

 

It turns out that Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen is "one with everything."

He's been dabbling in the philosophies of Hare Krishna for quite some time -

but don't expect him to turn up at the airport dancing in saffron robes and

banging a tambourine.

 

"No, but I'll talk to those guys," he says. "They're just doing their thing,

you know? It's very noble. If there were more people like Hare Krisha in this

world, we certainly wouldn't be at war."

 

It's hard to argue. But it's also surreal to hear this kind of thing from the

wild and crazy rocker whose former excesses are well-documented. There are the

drugs, the booze, the spousal battery charge and the terrible car accident on

New Year's Eve 1984 that resulted in the loss of his left arm. Now, at the

ripe old age of 41, he comes across like a mellow English gentleman - one who

still curses like a rock musician, mind you - as he talks about his spiritual

awakening. Def Leppard plays Tuesday at Rexall Place. Expect to hear such hits

as Pour Some Sugar on Me and Love Bites - a bit of a contrast to the music

Allen listens to in his off time. It would have to include the devotional

yogic chanting of Krishna Das, who invited Allen to play percussion on his

latest record.

 

"That was incredible," Allen says in a recent phone interview. "I really

couldn't say no."

 

The drummer says he's been interested in eastern spiritualism ever since he

can remember. He says there was always a copy of the Bhagavad-Gita next to his

bed in the place where the Gideon bible might've been.

 

 

The mind interest became extreme when he had his accident. "When you're

traumatized to that degree, your normal senses really shut down and you go to

a place within yourself that is seldom visited," he says. "But when you get

there, you realize it's an extremely powerful place. I think some people call

it a near-death experience."

 

Producer Mutt Lange arranged for a Krishna couple to come stay near the

hospital near Sheffield and cook vegetarian meals for the musician every day.

The whole ward smelled of an Indian restaurant, Allen recalls, and a projected

six- month hospital stay was over in less than a month.

 

He goes on: "So I started to ask (the couple) about their beliefs and they

told me about the intention that they put into their food. It really struck a

chord in me. After that, I remained interested, involved. I was in Boulder in

2000 and me and my wife walked into this store called Tibet and there was this

music playing. We both had tears rolling down our cheeks and went, 'Wow, what

is this music?' We found out it was Krishna Das."

 

Now, of course, he has to play Pour Some Sugar on Me - and he's happy to do

it. With the recent release of Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection - at

least the second collection of hits from the band - Def Leppard was able to

take a bit of time off. It wasn't meant to "recharge their batteries," Allen

stresses.

 

"That was already in place. After we lost Steve (guitarist Steve Clark, of a

drug overdose) and ultimately what happened to me, you look each other in the

eyes and say, wow, it's f--- all to do with the music. It's about friendship.

That never goes away. And that's something that's grown so strong over the

years. We're basically a family. So there's never any doubt about moving

forward with Def Leppard. That's just a given."

 

That said, he says the band sounds and looks better than ever. There's also

the matter of the '80s revival that has supposedly yielded a spike in interest

in Def Leppard, though the band was formed in 1977.

 

Allen says, "We're thought of as an '80s band because that's when the success

happened. Interestingly enough, we have a covers album coming out (the release

date has been pushed back to the new year) and the criteria was music that

inspired us prior to getting signed. We're already playing a couple of them.

We're doing No Matter What by Badfinger and then Rock On, the David Essex

classic. They're '70s songs. Technically, we're a '70s band."

 

Yes, Def Leppard is in a strange place, existing in the shadowy netherworld

between the '70s and the '80s - too young to be considered classic rock, too

old and too established in their slick, hard-rocking craft to get in on the

explosion of alternative music.

 

One thing you can say for this Leppard: It has never changed its spots.