Most famous music artists fight hard to fulfill their dream of being able to make a living as a musician. Some of them fight even harder. In connection with the UN’s International Day for Disabled Persons on 3 December, we tell the story of four musicians who have created great art despite congenital diseases, serious accidents and hearing loss. The one-armed rock drummer Photo: Getty Images NAME: Rick Allen INSTRUMENT: Drums Late in the afternoon on the very last day of 1984, Rick Allen was driving around the British countryside. The open sunroof of the 21-year-old’s Chevrolet Corvette caused the poodle hairstyle to flutter in the wind. He was the drummer in Def Leppard, the English pop metal band that had just broken through globally. As Rick was about to overtake, he lost control of the car. It ended up off the road and rolled several times. Rick was kicked out. The left arm remained inside the car. Both Rick and most of the people around him were sure that his musical career was over. Playing drums in a metal band is a job that requires at least two arms, right? As he sat in his hospital bed, banging a single drumstick on a piece of foam rubber, a thought struck him: What if what he had used his left arm for could just as easily be done with his left foot? Inspired by massive amounts of encouraging fan mail, Rick began to investigate. Where normal percussion instruments only have foot pedals for bass drums and hi-hats, Rick got help to have more pedals made. These extra foot pedals could give sound to snare drums and tom drums – something you normally use your arms for. Rick had the partially electronic percussion set up and began practicing technique. Now he had to learn to play the drums in a completely new way. A year and a half later, an extremely nervous Rick sat backstage with the rest of Def Leppard and calmed his nerves with a whiskey or five. 80,000 spectators were present at the Monsters of Rock festival in Donington in England. They were ready for the band’s first big concert after the accident. ONE ARMED: Rick Allen’s return as drummer in Def Leppard is referred to as one of the most impressive comebacks in rock history. Photo: Raph_PH, Creative Commons BY 2.0 When Rick was introduced, the sound from the audience was so warm and fierce that he started to cry. “Shit, will I be electrocuted if the tears run down the pedals?” he thought. The following year, Def Leppard released “Hysteria”, an album characterized by huge hit singles and Rick Allen’s distinct, new drumming sound. The record topped the sales charts all over the globe, including Norway. Today it has the status of one of the most popular in rock history with over 20 million copies sold. The band’s vocalist Joe Elliot believes that Allen’s accident made him a better musician because he was forced to make more thoughtful choices. – The whole band had to reconsider how we arrange the songs. Rick has had to think more and plan what he is going to do, which suits the music better. Chose the instrument over being able to walk Photo: Getty Images for SXSW NAME: Gaelynn Lea INSTRUMENT: Violin and singing When Gaelynn Lea was in the fourth grade at school and heard an orchestra give a concert, she was unmoved. She was going to learn to play and singled out the cello as her dream instrument. The conditions were of the difficult kind. The American was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, an inherited bone fragility disease that leads to complications in the development of bones and limbs. The disease can also affect the teeth, skin, hearing and eyes. The music teacher had experienced that Gaelynn got a full pot on a test of musical hearing and wanted to make arrangements for her. Nevertheless, it became clear early on that the cello was too big for the 90 centimeter tall Gaelynn. The solution then was that she chose the smaller instrument violin, but that she played it like a cello. Lea developed a technique where she holds the violin bow like a baseball bat. In addition, the bottom of the violin was attached to the foot, so that it would not slip away. Gaelynn became particularly interested in Celtic and American folk music. She found her expression by doing like the Norwegian Jarle Bernhoft: using a loop pedal to build several layers of music on top of each other. The breakthrough came when, in competition with 6,000 other submitted entries, she was selected to perform in the highly recognized online concert series Tiny Desk. The Internet overflowed with overwhelmed and emotional reactions. “This is what it sounds like to be a champion. This isn’t gaming, it’s channeling. So powerful”, it was written in the comments after Lea enchanted with her atmospheric folk music. Fragile Gaelynn has had countless broken bones during her life. The doctors therefore wanted to operate metal rods into the arms and legs to reduce the risk of this. She has declined. Her fear is that such an operation would exceed her abilities as a musician. Not having the operation meant that at the same time she said no to being able to walk on her own – a choice she is very happy with. – There was no guarantee of how my limbs would react to such an intervention. I had already started playing the violin, so I didn’t want my nerves to be destroyed. I wouldn’t have been who I am without the fragility, so I have no regrets, she told the BBC. After the Tiny Desk concert in 2016, life has not been the same for the 39-year-old. She has released several solo albums, a song with REM’s former vocalist Michael Stipe and warmed up for major American bands such as Wilco, The Decemberists and Low. At the same time, she has toured all over the US and Europe, written music for a Broadway play and become a high-profile spokesperson for musicians with disabilities. As one record reviewer has put it: “Gaelynn is not a physically large person, but the power of her music blows you away.” Music gave her the ability to speak again Photo: Ap NAME: Melody Gardot INSTRUMENT: Singing, guitar and piano Melody Gardot was a keen hobby pianist and art student when a brutal traffic accident turned her life upside down. The then 19-year-old girl was on a bike ride in Philadelphia when she was mowed down by an SUV driver who ran a red light. Melody barely survived and suffered very serious and extensive injuries: several fractures in her pelvis and spine, as well as extensive head and nerve damage. Her body was broken, and she had to start her life over. Melody was in the hospital for 11 months. She suffered from memory loss, major movement problems and had a severe sensitivity to sounds and light. In addition, she was unable to speak. Even if her brain worked, she didn’t have good enough access to it. She could spend 20 minutes delivering a sentence. A doctor was convinced that Melody should play music – both to find joy in everyday life and to repair her cognitive abilities. Lying in the hospital bed with a guitar to help, Melody began writing songs that she hummed. Slowly but surely, the impassable paths in her brain were being retraced. Three years after the accident, she posted her music on MySpace (anyone remember this online community?) and word spread quickly. Thanks to an electronic pain relief device, sunglasses and a walking stick, she suddenly found herself on concert stages. The debut record was described as a triumph because Gardot achieved something that most people – including herself – could only dream of. “She’s the real thing, much more so than many of her overhyped peers,” wrote Allmusic. In 2009, she had a broad international breakthrough with her jazz-pop album “My One and Only Thrill”. The album did particularly well in Europe, with a long series of top 10 positions on the charts, including a second place in Norway. In an interview from the same year, she emphasized that she had music to thank for most of all. – If I hadn’t been involved in music, I wouldn’t have been able to talk to you the way I do now, she told the journalist. Created masterpieces he never got to hear himself Photo: Karl Jäger, Wikimedia Commons NAME: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) WHAT: Composer, pianist and conductor When Ludwig heard the first whistles ringing in his ear, he was only 26 years old. At this point he was not just any Ludwig. His surname was van Beethoven and he had the status of one of the most popular and valued composers and pianists in Vienna, the music center of Europe. Now he experienced the musicians’ greatest fear: becoming hearing-impaired. It would quickly get much worse. Beethoven avoided social contexts. He eventually withdrew completely from giving concerts. The German tried to hide his hearing impairment for fear that this could threaten his career. That this experience was crushing was made clear in a letter he wrote (but did not send) to his brothers. There he shared his suicidal thoughts, before promising to devote his energies to music and art. He did that to his advantage. His hearing became progressively worse, but Beethoven nevertheless conjured magnificent symphonies, piano concertos, sonatas, string quartets and an opera, music that has today given him status as one of the most dominant individuals in the history of music. Much of this he himself never got to hear performed. The kind of music he wrote must have been influenced by his failing hearing. There is a theory that Beethoven went for darker tones in his music, since he struggled to hear the treble. How did he manage to write music without hearing it? The explanation lies in the fact that during his first thirty years of life he had learned how instruments and voices sounded and how they worked together. Beethoven was thus able to imagine what the music sounded like. Beethoven’s last and ninth symphony was premiered in 1824, three years before he died. He had then been deaf for several years, but still insisted on conducting. To be safe, the orchestra had hired other conductors, whose instructions they followed instead. Beethoven stood with his back to the audience while conducting. As a result, he did not catch the thunderous cheers as the last note ebbed away. Luckily someone on stage made him turn around – so he could at least see it. Hey! Do you have any thoughts on this matter that you’d like to share – or ideas for other stories we should tell? Feel free to send me an email! The rest of news Kultur’s long readings can be found here. Recommended further reading:
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Four musicians who defied their disabilities and reached the top – Culture
