I was at HBO Films in Santa Monica, we were working on a film entitled Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Dee Brown. The film was about to be released before the summer and we were hammering out the final details with the Media Relations department who were handling the PR push for the film. At my desk, I received a random call from James Kleinert, a documentary filmmaker. He made a short film on the Lakota tribe and pitched it to me to be used as a companion piece to the full-length feature.
The short was powerful and included beautiful cinematography of the American West. After a few calls and screenings, we put it up on the HBO website as a companion to the feature. Bury My Heart tied the record for most Emmy nominations in a single year and won 6, including Best Made for TV Movie.
James was very grateful for my help and unbeknownst to him, returned the favor 100-fold.
A few weeks later he called my cell and let me know that his good friend Rick Allen wanted to meet with me to talk about a film idea. I said, “Rick Allen, Def Leppard Rick Allen?” James laughed and said, “Yeah man, that Rick.” Of course, I told him to set it up. I was beyond stoked to be meeting with Rick. Not only did I grow up a huge fan of Def Leppard, but he is regarded as one of the best drummers in the world.
The next week I met Rick, his wife Lauren, his business manager, and James at Sushi Roku in Santa Monica. Walking through the restaurant, the entire crowd stared at us. Rick is rather recognizable not only because of his curly blonde locks, but he only has one arm. For those of you unfamiliar, Rick lost his left arm in a horrific car accident. He was passing an Alfa Romeo at high speed on a road near Sheffield, England, lost control, and hit a stone wall, throwing him from his Corvette. His left arm was severed. This obviously caused some major complications about his future in the band. His story is inspirational and a true tale of triumph over adversity.
At dinner, I went into my Behind the Music producer mode and couldn’t help but ask him about the experience. He was more than happy to tell his story. I never felt awkward going there, we shared a natural rapport and were comfortable getting personal.
Rick was lying in his hospital bed after his arm was amputated, clearly understanding that his condition was not only going to affect his drum playing but also his livelihood. How was Def Leppard to continue with a one-armed drummer? He went on explaining that there was a styrofoam board at the foot of his hospital bed, it made a certain sound against the wood of the footboard. That gave him an interesting idea. He started to peddle the styrofoam board against the wood with his feet while pounding a pillow with his right hand. Rick was inventing a new way to drum using his feet instead of his left hand. This led to the invention of a specially-designed electronic drum kit where his left foot would play the pieces he’d usually play with his left arm.
Overcoming a career-threatening obstacle by inventing a new way to drum. If you want it bad enough and believe, you can accomplish anything. Rick’s perseverance and innovative mindset are nothing short of mind-blowing. It’s funny because I recall him telling me the story in a nonchalant, this-is-what-I-did type way. I guess for him, it was just what he needed to do to continue to do what he loves.
We continued to talk openly about his arm being removed. When Rick was recovering, his dad was in the hospital room with him and he asked him to touch where his left arm would be. He told me he felt his father’s hand as if his arm was still attached to his body. I got goosebumps hearing that story of his phantom limb.
Rick went into detail about the inhumane scrutiny he faced once he was back with the band. Many were trying to convince the guys to fire him. They were backstage ready to go on, and Rick overheard someone ask them, “Are you really going to let the freak show go on stage with you?” The misty look in his eyes while he recalled this tale took him right back to that very moment it happened. He was so hurt that he was being looked at as a freak because he was missing a limb. I really appreciated Rick’s sincerity and openness. Understandably, it was a hard transition back to the public spotlight being an amputee. His drumming never suffered though, and the band didn’t even consider the possibility. Rick went on stage and played the set with his brothers. It’s nice to know that the guys from Def Leppard are people of character. Why would they listen to some fool trying to tell them how to run their band anyway?
Rick and Lauren were incredibly cool. We really hit it off and had such a wonderful conversation. I told him that I saw Def Leppard on the Hysteria World Tour as a young boy, and was blown away by the laser light show. Truth is, Def Leppard became even more famous after Rick’s accident. They were literally the biggest band in the world in the late 80s. The album Hysteria was nothing short of a phenomenon, selling 20 million copies to date. Songs like Pour Some Suger on Me and Animal are all-time classics.
I told him he’ll never realize how many people he’s touched. I remember distinctly how appreciative Rick was when I told him such a heartfelt truth. To be sitting at a table next to a rockstar that I admired for years and tell him how influential his band has been was a surreal experience. Rick was so chill, it was like hanging out with an old friend. His wife Lauren felt like family with her Italian warmth. They both were so connected.
After dinner, we walked to his van in the lot and Rick explained to me how Def Leppard started. He said that the first time the original 5 members began to play together, it was pure magic. The look in his eyes, seeing his head-shake and smile when he recalled the memory hit me hard. The ground shakes when something that profound happens. It has a remarkable, mystical quality to it that takes on a life of its own. It was uniquely special to hear Def Leppard’s story of origin from the 15-year-old who was in that room! They were just teenagers living in England in the late 70s. The initial synchronicity between those original 5 literally changed music history. And the rest is history.
The van was filled to capacity with bongo drums. Rick and Lauren run The Raven Drum Foundation, a healing drum circle they began in 2001 “to educate and empower individuals and communities in crisis through healing arts programs, drumming events and collaborative partnerships”. They invited me to the next circle and by the following Saturday, I was at a Santa Monica High School gym pounding a bongo with 25 other people. What a release that was!
Whoever has been in a drum circle in a parking lot at a concert or on Venice Beach knows what I mean. It's such a religious experience to be in rhythm with 24 other strangers drumming in unison. You can feel the potency and energy drumming to the same beat, it’s exhilarating, healing, and most of all, fun as hell. There is a depth of soul in beating the drum, as it emulates the heartbeat, our center of power, strength, endurance, love, and passion.
After the circle, we were outside and Rick introduced me to Darin, a friend of his, and another beautiful human or as he would say, a humanoid of magnitude. Rick told him I worked at HBO and Darin immediately started telling me about Bhutan, how he recently met with some of the ministers from the Kingdom as it is the Land of Medicinal Plants. The Kingdom of Bhutan is a landlocked country in the Eastern Himalayas. It is bordered by China to the north and India to the south.
Darin owned a company that was always scouring the globe for superfoods. He was a formulator of supplements and raw foods for some of the largest companies in the industry. He was always traveling around the world and had amazing knowledge regarding indigenous health, raw superfoods, herbs, and sustainable practices. Not to mention he was a funny dude with a great personality. To this day, he may have the best Arnold Schwarzenegger impression I’ve heard. He had a charisma about him that was easy to like, and as someone who can relate to his brand of personality, we clicked instantly. He told me that he asked the ministers if he can make a documentary about Bhutan, as it not only was the Land of Medicinal Plants but had a fascinating story to tell.
For one, it was becoming a constitutional democracy the next year. The king literally abdicated his throne and wanted to give power to the people. Not only that, Bhutan has a policy called Gross National Happiness or GNH. The people’s happiness is actually considered and measured by the Bhutanese government. Imagine if America looked at GNH like they look at the GDP? More still, the technological advancements in Bhutan were happening at lightning speed. This is a country that only got the internet in 1999, now cellphones were common, and the people were evolving as rapidly as the technology. It was truly a transformative time in Bhutan.
Darin asked me to come on as a producer. I was all in. We began a long and productive friendship after that day. We met at length over crepes in Santa Monica many a weekend. We started a new production company, got partners, and raised a large sum of money to go to Bhutan and shoot. Six months later, I was literally in the Himalayas filming a documentary in places that no human ever had before. I interviewed ministers, met with the highest abbot in the land, hiked up mountains to ancient monasteries, and learned all about their government and medicinal plants, which were intertwined. We were there for a few weeks and it was an intoxicating, uniquely creative experience that was quite life-altering.
The takeaway in all of this is, when I follow my bliss, through synchronicity and the law of attraction, miracles unfold seamlessly.
This chain of events brought me from Santa Monica to Bhutan because James was proactive and called me at the office. I loved his film and took the necessary steps to get it on HBO.com. That led me to dinner with Rick and Lauren, which brought me to the Raven Drum circle, which guided me to meeting Darin, which led me to filming a documentary in the Kingdom of Bhutan.
The other message here is to help others. If you can open up a door for someone, do it. Don’t ask what is in this for me. People need people. There is not one person on earth that cannot use some help in one way or another. I truly enjoy helping filmmakers and was purely acting as a facilitator, happy to help a creative mind get his work out into the world. I never thought this would yield anything for me personally.
Existence has its rewards when you go with the flow of life.