takin' a walkClassic Replay/Rick Allen from Def Leppard and his wife Lauren Monroe
Join your host @thebuzzknight for this Classic Replay with Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen and his wife Lauren Monroe. Def Leppard is out this summer touring in a city near you with Journey.
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Taking a Walk.
The special thing about playing that particular show. It was my sixteenth birthday, and I remember Bond Scott coming up to me and wishing me a happy birthday, which doesn't happen to too many people's, and then Brian May with the Queen was there. And then another really special surprise was after soundcheck, when the auditorium was really quiet. I went down just to check out my drum kit and there was this guy on his hands and knees checking out the drums and I didn't want to. I didn't want to start with him, so I just walked up and I said, is everything okay? And he turned round and it was Mitch Mitchell. I was so I was just completely blown away. So what a special sixteenth birthday.
Welcome to the Taking a Walk Podcast hosted by Buzznight. This is the podcast that talks to musicians about their passionate love of music. Today the husband and wife team of Lauren Monroe and Rick Allen. You know Rick from his legendary def Leopard Work and Lauren is a singer songwriter who shares her energy and love of the medium as a healing force. For two decades, they've led their foundation called the Raven Drum Foundation, which does amazing work for veterans, first responders and so many others. Here's buzz with Lauren and Rick on Taking a Walk.
Well, it's delightful to have Rick and Lauren with us on the Taking a Walk podcast. Thank you so much. I wish we were in person rather than virtual, but I'm very happy to meet you.
That's great. Thank you very much. Nice to meet you, too.
Great to meet you.
Now. Do you guys take walks out in beautiful California whenever you can?
Of course? Yeah? Absolutely, Yeah.
The nature is so beautiful here, especially Central Coast. We really love it, the two of us.
And do you find it to be therapeutic when you're out taking a walk?
I think I think one of the most therapeutic things there are, you know, it is being in amongst something that is bigger than I am, you know, being out in nature or looking at the ocean or looking up at the sky. I think any of those things really get me out of my own way. So so being out in nature is really important to me, and I'm sure it's really important to Lauren as well.
Yeah, I think it's very therapeutic. And I and some of the things that we teach in our foundation, Raven Drum Foundation, is we focus on nature. I understand it through energy medicine and how energy is a transference and when you're in something greater than yourself, something happens called bioen trainment. So the dominant frequency affects you. And so when you're standing by a tree or by the ocean, they're the dominant frequency. And we start like a tuning fork. You start to vibrate and we can get further into our own calmness and and it really helps a nervous system, so it helps everyone being in nature.
Well, take us back to that magical moment when you two lovebirds exchange your vows and you had the redtail hawk circling above at that moment. Talk about that special time, Well that Rick talk first.
Oh man, I mean, it couldn't have been more perfect. You know, we had all our family and you know, all our friends, and you know, just a just at this this magical moment, which was made even more magical by the fact that I think there were a pair of redtail hulks flying way way above us, and it just felt like it just felt like the blessing got even more powerful. So I don't know what you experienced, Lauren, but I mean that was that was one of those moments I'll never I'll never forget.
Yeah, And I think it was beautiful. Everybody saw it and there were two redtails circling around right above us, and it was it was a blessing. Like I felt like it was a blessing too.
What do redtail hawk signify do you think?
Well, my understanding the hawk represents the presence of ster it. I don't know that much detail about the red tail, although we've been giving a lot of gifts of redtail feathers, and Rick got a gift of a redtail claw from a lot of our indigenous friends and colleagues. And I'm sure this deeper meaning. But we pay attention. We live in a very secluded area and we have a lot of wildlife, and we pay attention into their behavior and what they do and how close they come. And we're able to sit very close to a lot of them if we're still enough, and we've been here for a number of years, so they trust us. Now that's great.
So, Lauren, how did you ultimately find your musical voice? And who are some of the musicians that influenced you in that time.
Well, I found my musical voice when I was really young. I started writing songs and I got a guitar when I was five, and it just it's like I knew, I knew how to express myself in that way very easily at a young age. And I think the seventies music scene really influenced me a lot. I had a lot of that around me and the doors. I remember Jim Morrison, the way he articulated through poetry, and he got into some of the very mystical realms when he sang and he created his poetry. He influenced me quite a bit, you know. Of course, Tom Petty was my greatest influence I think in rock and roll. Once I discovered him in the late seventies and early eighties. I connected with his songwriting and his expression. But I draw from a lot of influences, I think, mostly spiritual ones, and then I just make songs that are me, that are just me really.
And Rick, mister thunder God, may I call you that?
You can?
You started pretty darn young as a musician, if I'm not mistaken. You joined def Leppard at fifteen years old. Is that right, I did.
Yet ran about nineteen seventy eight, and I'd been playing with local bands and you know, they always wanted to play cover songs. And yeah, we saw a newspaper article, Leopard loses Skins, and we got in touch with the newspaper, found the journalist and he put he put me in touch with Joe Elliott and Steve Clark and I met with them a few days later and we set up an audition. And when I went for the audition, I was I was really pleasantly surprised I got the job. Lots of big smiling faces around the room, and that was that was the beginning of something really really great.
And take me back to being sixteen years old at the Hammersmith Odeon and having def Leppard open for ac DC there. What was that like?
It was?
It was incredible, really, I mean it was all I ever really knew because I was so young. But the special thing about playing that particular show it was my sixteenth birthday and I remember Bond Scott coming up to me and wishing me a happy birthday, which doesn't happen to too many people. And then Brian May with the Queen was there, and then another really special surprise was after soundcheck, when the auditorium was really quiet. I went down just to check on my drum kit and there was this guy on his hands and knees checking out the drums and I didn't want to I didn't want to startle him, so I just walked up and I said, is everything okay? And he turned round and it was Mitch Mitchell. I was so I was just completely blown away. So what a special sixteenth birthday.
That's fantastic. And talk about the influencer's music that you experienced growing up, Rick, Well, there.
Was always lots and lots of music playing at home. One of one of the one of the artists I remember was Glenn Miller. That was That was a big part of growing up. And then of course listening to the radio getting ready for school. You know, there was always the great There was always you know, the beat, always the rolling Stones, the who I mean, you name it. There were all these all this you know, all this fantastic music, and I couldn't help but be influenced by that. That was That was really, you know, part of the soundtrack of my life.
What is it Rick? About the diverse influences that British musicians seemed to all have they have influences, that's man, you know, all genres. Why do you think that is?
I've kind of experienced that with all musicians. I mean Lauren for instance, you know she she listens to so many different types of music. You know, you know she grew up listening to Frank Sinatra was always on, and I mean that carries through to now. I mean, we play Frank Sinatra all the time. Sometimes we'll throw Frank Sinatra Christmas music on just because you know, so it's kind of it's it's it's almost a tradition. But I think most musicians don't necessarily see genres. They just hear music, and you know, they're all the same chords. We just we just played them in a slightly different way or more or less distorted. So for me, it's all music and all goes into you know, what influenced me. So, you know, it's interesting. I sat in with a Latin jazz band the other night, which was which was really interesting. That was a first, but it was just an incredible experience and to me, it was rhythm and music and I was just sort of just sort of playing along with it. And I could quite easily have been playing, you know, with Lauren or with def Leppard or any other band.
Lauren, had you seen def Leppard before you and Rick met?
No, I've never seen them, and I I know I I really wasn't a fan. I didn't you know, I didn't dislike the music. I just wasn't engaged in that you know genre very much. So. But then I remember I went to a show and I realized, oh, I know that song, and I know that song, and I know just from the you know, consciousness of the eighties, I I remembered things from the radio or so it was. It was wonderful to you know, to meet him the first time I met him and see the culture.
And Lauren, what was your first concert experience?
Tom Petty and Heartbreakers? It was my first concert. I remember when I saw him, I said, I think I can do that. You know, I want to try that. I want to try writing some songs and you know, and uh and really you know, working on it. So it was fun to see him. I still he's still my all time favorite artist.
Is there somebody you haven't seen that you'd you'd like to see that is in your your musical wheel House as it were.
We were just talking about that because I have never seen Bruce Springsteen or the Rolling Stones, so those are the two I would love to see. Bucket list no to sell.
Yeah.
Lauren questioned for you first, and then same question for you Rick. How do you two find a work life balance.
It's interesting. We never really had to think about it. We just kind of automatically do it. We love work, we love working, and we often work away and then when we're home, we're working. But we definitely have you know, we we things shut off at a certain time. You know, we have to pick our daughter up from school and then we have her life and being parents, and I think there's an automatic shift down, and we try to keep our weekends free so we can have family time and you know, no cell phones at the dinner table, and you know, we have a lot of things that we automatically just don't do because they take away from the moments that we have together. Rick is on the road a lot, and now, you know, since the past few years, I've been traveling shows and things can get hectic, and let we have art that we do. I'm in the art room right now and we do a lot of art and music, and we're lucky we don't have to work on it that much because we automatically fall into the pattern of being together and we want the same things one more home.
Have you cracked the code rip on balance?
It just seems to go really organically. One of the things that we've started doing We've always played drums together, but one of the things we do on a more regular basis is play drums together. We have two drum kits set up in the rehearsal space, and then Lauren has her own percussion set up. Now, Lauren's played percussion for many, many years, and now she's pushing into playing a regular drum kit. And the sounds that we made together really really good. I naturally gravitate to a more masculine way of playing for obvious reasons, and Lauren, she naturally sort of dances around whatever it is that I play. So, you know, the two of us, we sound like we sound like three or four drummers when we play together. And I'm really excited to present, you know, the two of us playing drums together. You know, more often. I'd love to bring that into a live setting because I think I think Lauren is super talented.
I never thought i'd play drum kit. It was never it was never real though, but he had the two kids and he's like, you should sit down on this. I'm like, okay, we'll try that. But it was very organic. It's so fun, and I think as a couple, it's fun to have something that we both love to do together.
So you know, we have this other podcast which you're going to be on. I'm so grateful for that, that we produce, hosted by Lynn Hoffman called Music Save Me, And we want to talk about the special work on this podcast as well that you both are involved with with the Raven Drum Foundation, which you've been at that for twenty years plus. Please talk about the beginnings of it and how it was created, why it was created, and the amazing work that you and the organization does well.
We started the foundation in two thousand and one and it was just a natural synergy of who Rick was and who I was and myself bringing the energy medicine piece to it and the mental health and somatic work. And I was a percussionist as well and a day answer, so I had a natural inclination to blend these two elements. But then when I met Rick and we isolated, you know, his trauma, and the things that made him feel better was the drumming, and he had a lot to share with sharing his own experience of moving through recovery of post traumatic stress. So we created a curriculum around that, and we created a specific kind of circle to help people. And we saw that it didn't matter where you were in your healing stage or who you were, whether you're eighty years old or five years old, whether you were you know, a specific religious affiliation or had a specific trauma addiction, whether it was abuse, whether it was you know, cancer, you're going through every crisis responded to this way of healing and it brought community together. So we started working with various different populations, sharing what we knew worked, and then sharing more modalities so we serve, we educate, and we empower through but also introducing people to other modalities besides allopathic medicine, like yoga and meditation and mindfulness so they can have more tools in their healing to compliment their whatever they're working on with their doctor or whichever they've been struggling to figure out on their own. And we've been doing this for many years. I think the thing that made us pivot is Rick's first visit to All to Read Medical Center to help some of the military right after they all there was a wave of them coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan. And I'll segue into Rick sharing that because it's very powerful how we brought our ideas into helping them.
Yeah. Yeah, Before I visited Well to Read, we hadn't really focused so much on bedrooms, and Well to Read was life changing for me. I really saw so much, so much suffering, but I also saw a lot of potential. And I remember I did great while I was there at the hospital, and then when I got back to my hotel, I called Lauren and I broke down. I was really I guess it really really affected me, you know, being being around all these incredible people, and it was right then I suggested to Lauren that we we focused more on veterans, and I think that's how we really segued into that. Is that is that kind of how you remember it, Lauren?
Yeah, And I also remembered my family. My cousin was killed in in Vietnam. I was very young, and I know how I changed my whole family. So I I really understood the effects of you know, having someone in the military who has had an injury, a life changing injury, or if you've lost someone, how there's a ripple effect and it's a family experience, not just an individual one. So I was really on board with experienced it. So we both went to Walter Reed within the following months, and then we brought a drum circle there and then we started working with Wounded Warrior Project and it started expanding from there and Rick found an immediate connection to a lot of the warriors who lost limbs and there's a wonderful camaraderie that they've opened up to him very easily. It's beautiful to see that. And you know, when when you're in a family that has trauma, you can talk to one another in a way that's different from you know, someone who hasn't experienced it. So it's great we continue reaching out to first responders now because they also have the same kind of you know, injuries that are invisible wounds that people can't see. A firefighters specifically have the least amount of treatment for this. They don't talk about. It's still very you know, close to them. They don't express there, but's what goes on Police Department e MTS journalists who have to cover horrific you know, events like Valde or like the war in Ukraine. They have to come back and be normal and what's that, you know, So we're really wrapping our arms around a lot of different people. And you know, trauma is very common these days, so we all can look at that.
And you have some events coming up that i'd like you to promote to the listeners of the podcast. Do you want to talk about what's happening in in a short amount of time?
Sure, Well, March thirteenth, we're in Boston and we have an event a concert there that we're supporting our first responders. There. March fourteenth, we have a very special benefit show at the Cutting Room to promote healing in programs with Friends of Firefighters based out of New York, and that's going to be an amazing show. We have a lot of celebrity drummers coming in Boston. We'll were at the Boston City Winery. So just go to Raven Drumfoundation dot org and you'll see everything. You can find out more information from our websites. We just at our Instagram. We're on there a lot rig Allen live on Instagram and Laura Monroe live and we can keep in touch with everybody that way.
How does it make you feel when audience members, you know, connect not only with your music, but with your good work that you're doing.
I'll speak and then Rick, I think it's just like growing a family. It just feels like, you know, we're growing a family of people who believe in the same things and want the world to be better. And you know it starts by healing ourselves. So we're all doing the work and then you know, you circle up give people an experience of what that feels like. It feels great, It feels really special to share that with people, and we're very blessed to be able to do that.
Yeah, what I've found over the years is when I to feel my own my own trauma or my own depression, the easy fix is always to be of service. And then when we put ourselves out there into the community and we do the right thing, it comes back to us in ways that you can't even imagine. It's just so so gratifying, a fantastic experience uh to be able to see transformation in in other people because of because of what what we what we facilitate, and it helps us. It's a two way street. It really helps us and it helps helps them, helps everybody involved. So we're just we're just really blessed to to be able to have found this and continue to do this, you know, to this day.
I have to tell you. Watching YouTube perform and one of the videos that I saw, I observed this this tremendous, uh calmness and serenity that you both have while you're on stage and you're performing, and you're you're with each other and you're with your audience, and it it truly is very contagious. And uh, I just wanted to to thank you for that, and to thank you for your good work and your great music, but also your great hearts. Thank you, thank you, thanks for being on.
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