Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen talks recovery after recent attack
By Marianne Garvey, CNN
(CNN) — Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen is talking about his recovery after he was assaulted following a show in Florida in March.
Allen had been in town with his bandmates for a performance and was attacked while smoking outside the Four Seasons hotel in Fort Lauderdale.
In an interview with “Good Morning America” on Monday, Allen said he didn’t see it coming.
“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,” he said. “I landed on my backside, hit my head on the pavement.”
He added that he told the man, “I am no threat to you.”
Allen had an arm amputated in 1985 after suffering a car crash the year before.
He explained, “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.”
When a woman came to help, the suspect allegedly attacked her too. Fort Lauderdale police later arrested Max Hartley, a 19-year-old from Ohio. He was charged with two counts of battery and four counts of criminal mischief and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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