"Thinking about what songs are coming next instead of just relaxing, breathing and playing from my heart. Sometimes it can get to be almost like the enemy"
About this Quote
Rick Allen is describing a surprisingly common trap in live music: the moment the setlist starts playing you instead of the other way around. On the surface, he is talking about mental prep gone wrong - scanning ahead, anticipating transitions, managing risk. Underneath, it is an admission that professionalism can quietly mutate into self-surveillance. The drummer becomes a project manager of the next four minutes, and the body (the very thing keeping time) gets evicted by the brain.
Calling that mindset "the enemy" is doing a lot of work. He is not romanticizing sloppiness or pretending planning is pointless; he is naming the specific adversary of flow: performance anxiety disguised as responsibility. It is the inner voice that insists control equals safety, even when control is what makes you tense, late, and emotionally absent. The phrase "relaxing, breathing" frames the solution as physical and immediate, not philosophical. Allen is pointing to the oldest musician trick in the book: get back into the body, and the music returns.
The context matters because Allen knows what it means to play under pressure. As Def Leppard's drummer who rebuilt his technique after losing an arm, he has lived the difference between mechanical execution and felt intention. When he says "playing from my heart", it is not soft-focus mysticism; it is a hard-won reminder that survival-level focus can keep you onstage, but only presence keeps you alive in the song.
Calling that mindset "the enemy" is doing a lot of work. He is not romanticizing sloppiness or pretending planning is pointless; he is naming the specific adversary of flow: performance anxiety disguised as responsibility. It is the inner voice that insists control equals safety, even when control is what makes you tense, late, and emotionally absent. The phrase "relaxing, breathing" frames the solution as physical and immediate, not philosophical. Allen is pointing to the oldest musician trick in the book: get back into the body, and the music returns.
The context matters because Allen knows what it means to play under pressure. As Def Leppard's drummer who rebuilt his technique after losing an arm, he has lived the difference between mechanical execution and felt intention. When he says "playing from my heart", it is not soft-focus mysticism; it is a hard-won reminder that survival-level focus can keep you onstage, but only presence keeps you alive in the song.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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