Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

“Steve Clark has just died, and here we



are making this euphoric, celebratory music.


It seemed a bit weird.”



Joe Elliott













































































































CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 99

Towards the end it just got impossible. But Leppard’s popular painkillers”. What haunted Elliott was the Even so, Collen struggled. “There was
you don’t think he’s actually going to die.” in-the-round live call he made to Clark on the day before he a period when I just didn’t want to do it,”
In September 1990, the band delivered stage set for the died. “I got his answering machine,” he he says. “It felt really wrong doing it
Adrenalize tour.
an ultimatum to Clark. “We gave him Inset: Elliott and said. “That killed me for weeks. If I’d without Steve. Joe had to talk me off the
a totally unconditional, very informal six Collen get cheeky. spoken to him, maybe it would have ledge: ‘Come on, we wrote these songs with
months’ leave of absence,” Elliott said. changed the next twenty-four hours…” Steve…’ In the end I knew he was right.”
“He absolutely hadn’t been fired, we Elliott might not have cried when Steve
weren’t gonna look for somebody else.” Clark died, but he did as he said that to me. ef Leppard stuck together, just
Clark returned to London, where he had Clark was laid to rest at Wisewood as they had after the trauma
a new home in Chelsea. Elliott told him: Cemetery in Sheffield. Phil Collen didn’t Dexperienced by Rick Allen. “We
“We’re going to carry on attend the funeral. “I loved had each other to lean on,” Elliott said.
working on the album, and “We wanted it to be Steve dearly,” he says, “but I “That’s the great thing about a band.” They
come February, come back knew that a lot of people also had Mutt Lange to guide them, albeit
and see how things are.” a little less polished than would show up at the in a more limited role than before.
In those last four months, funeral that weren’t around Lange had done so much to shape the
Elliott and the other Hysteria. We wanted it when he needed help. And band’s sound that they had called him their
members of the band would to he honest, I actually felt “sixth member”. As with Pyromania and
call Clark from time to time. to rock a bit more.” worse when he was alive.” Hysteria, Lange had co-written the songs for
They also had mutual Collen was never asked to Adrenalize. But as the band began recording,
friends checking on him. Joe Elliott explain his decision. Lange was still working on Bryan Adams’s
It was Cliff Burnstein, the band’s “It’s a very private matter,” Elliott says. album Waking Up The Neighbours. So they
co-manager, who broke the news to Elliott One image from the funeral has stuck in turned instead to Lange’s right-hand man,
on January 9, 1991. his mind ever since: “All I remember is Mike Shipley, who had mixed Hysteria and
“I wasn’t surprised,” he admitted to me. being at the graveside, and watching Steve’s engineered Pyromania. “We figured that us
“I was upset, the way you’re upset when mum Beryl grieving so desperately.” co-producing with Mike would be the next
your ninety-nine-year-old granny dies. Def Leppard went back to work the very best thing to Mutt,” Elliott said.
Steve’s dad said to me that he wouldn’t next day. As Elliott said in 1992: “We had to But Lange’s influence continued
make his thirtieth birthday. He made it by get on with our lives. We weren’t going to throughout the making of Adrenalize. “Mutt
six months. I cried my head off when Rick lose those songs, because they were too was on the phone every day, trying to rally
lost his arm. But when Steve died I didn’t.” good, and Steve just wouldn’t have wanted the troops,” Elliott recalls. During breaks in
The coroner’s report, dated February 27, us to quit anyway.” He adds now: “When Adams’s schedule, Lange wrote with
cited the cause of death as “respiratory Steve passed away we’d been working as Leppard and contributed backing vocals
failure” due to consumption of “an excess a four-piece for seven or eight months for Adrenalize – another feature that was
of alcohol mixed with anti-depressants and anyway, in spirit and physically.” integral to the band’s signature sound.



100 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Phil Collen decided early on that he
would play all the guitars on the album.
He explains: “Why bring someone in who
doesn’t get what we’re all about? I’d be
teaching someone. The weird thing was
that I had to learn Steve’s parts from the
demos we’d laid down together on four-
track. It was like listening to a ghost; he
was in the room. I just wanted to do him
justice, to make it sound as close as I could
to how it was with Steve.”
The first stages of recording were at
Wisseloord studios in Holland, where
much of Hysteria was made. But, as Collen
says, “that was costing a fortune”. So
operations were moved to Elliott’s home in
Dublin, where a studio had recently been
installed. Hysteria had taken the best part of
four years to record. But not Adrenalize. “By
our standards we blitzed through it,” Elliott
said. “And we wanted this one to be a little
less polished than Hysteria, with the edge
that Pyromania had. We wanted it to rock
a bit more.”
Certainly there were echoes of Hysteria
on Adrenalize. Make Love Like A Man was an
anthem like Pour Some Sugar On Me, its
tongue-in-cheek title described by Elliott
as “totally taking the piss – not chest- Steve Clark (left) put it to bed it was like we’d done group drenalize was released on March
beating macho bullshit”. Tonight and Have with Leppard therapy,” Elliott recalls. “After that we 31, 1992. In Rolling Stone, JD
You Ever Needed Someone So Bad were two during the making needed something completely ridiculous.” AConsidine wrote: “There’s no
of Hysteria.
finely crafted ballads in the style of Love Cue Let’s Get Rocked, its mood and title overriding concept to the album, no sense
Bites. Tear It Down, previously released as inspired by Let’s Go Crazy, the explosive of the group confronting its demons or
the B-side to Animal, was a no-brainer rock funk-rock blowout from Prince’s classic wrestling with the problems of the world;
song like Run Riot. Best of all was Stand Up album Purple Rain. “Phil and I were instead, what we get is an unending string
(Kick Love Into Motion), with beautiful vocal infatuated with Prince then,” Elliott says. of energetic, hook-heavy, gosh-we-luv-’em
harmonies, a song similar in feel to the title “We wanted Let’s Get Rocked to be songs about girls. A perfect Def Leppard
track from Hysteria. something he could have done. It was album, in other words.”
The last two songs written for Adrenalize, celebratory, written for a stadium.” And if It was also an album completely out of
after Clark’s death, were White Lightning Phil Collen (right) Elliott’s lyrics were dumb and cartoonish, step with what was happening in rock
and Let’s Get Rocked. Collen alone created and former then no wonder – he wrote them after music at the time. Just two months earlier,
the music for White Lightning, with direct Whitesnake, watching an episode of The Simpsons. Nirvana’s Nevermind had topped the US
guitarist Vivian
reference to Gods Of War, the epic track Campbell, Clark’s With this album there was one last chart. A new age of alternative rock had
from Hysteria that Clark wrote in homage replacement in drama, during the end stages of recording, arrived, led by the Seattle grunge bands
to Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir. In the words Def Leppard. when Mike Shipley contracted hepatitis, – Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice
that Elliott wrote for White Lightning was a potentially fatal liver disorder. “As In Chains – and Californian outliers Faith
Clark’s story and those of other rock usual another major trauma No More and Jane’s Addiction. It was the
stars who died young, including attacked us in the final hour,” most seismic change in popular music
Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. One Elliott said with gallows since punk in the late 70s, with Smells Like
line in the song, depicting the humour: It definitely screwed Teen Spirit, its revolutionary anthem,
private hell of an addict, was him up for a while.” Fortunately, ringing out like the last bell for the big-
painfully acute: ‘And no one will Shipley recovered. haired stars of 80s rock.
ever hear you scream and shout.’ With the work done, Elliott says now that he was largely
“I think it’s the most personal, the mood in the oblivious to it all: “When we were making
moving lyric I’ve ever band was defiantly Adrenalize it was still the arse end of the
written,” he said, “because upbeat, as eighties, from a mental point of view. The
it’s the only one that’s illustrated by the nineties hadn’t kicked in. We weren’t aware
specifically about album’s title. of what Kurt Cobain was doing until the
someone we know.” In “There’s no album was out.”
that song, he was such word as Not so Phil Collen: “With grunge, I saw it
saying all the things ‘adrenalize’ in coming a mile off. There were so many
that he couldn’t get the dictionary,” awful hair-metal bands around. Something
through to his Elliott says, “but had to happen. Nirvana and Pearl Jam were
friend. “We did say it sounded right. a breath of fresh air.”
those things,” he We wanted it In this turbulent time, some stars from
said. “He just didn’t to be like the 80s were big enough to ride out the
hear them.” plugging the storm. Guns N’ Roses were riding high
So much power back in, with Use Your Illusion I and II. Bon Jovi, with
emotion went into re-energising their 1992 album Keep The Faith, had what
White Lightning. the band Manic Street Preachers bassist Nicky Wire
“By the time we musically.” called “a brilliant reinvention”. And there



CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 101

was still a place for Def Leppard. “People Leppard at the with this person.” struggled. “Everything changed after
were glad we were still around,” Elliott Freddie Mercury On April 20, the new-look Def Leppard that,” Collen says. “In the late nineties it
Tribute Concert at
says. “Adrenalize was number one in Wembley Stadium, performed at the Freddie Mercury Tribute went tits-up for a while, but we soldiered
America for six weeks. It was number one April 20, 1992, Concert For Aids Awareness at Wembley on.” Their 1996 album Slang was an alt.
in around thirty counties. It was massive.” where they played Stadium, at which the surviving members rock-influenced volte-face, but their last
Just a few days after the album’s release, Animal, Let’s Get of Queen, joined by a stellar supporting album of that decade, Euphoria, was
Rocked and Queen’s
the new guitarist in Def Leppard was Now I’m Here. cast including David Bowie, Robert Plant, a return to Leppard’s classic sound.
announced: Vivian Campbell, formerly of Elton John, Guns N’ Roses and Metallica, For Elliott and Collen, looking back on
Dio and Whitesnake. Behind the scenes, paid tribute to their late singer. With an Adrenalize from a distance of 26 years
the band had already tried out other audience of 80,000 in the stadium and there are mixed feelings. Elliott thinks of it
guitarists, including John Sykes, also more than a billion people watching on as the end of an era, “the last in a trilogy”
ex-Whitesnake, and Adrian live TV, it was the perfect after Pyromania and Hysteria. What he
Smith, at that time between “I remember being on our set-up for Leppard’s hears now in Adrenalize is the early roots
tenures in Iron Maiden. As forthcoming world tour. of Leppard. “Other than White Lightning
Collen explains: “There was private plane, having just “The tour was huge,” the music is very mid-seventies glam,” he
no formal audition with Elliott says. “It was bigger says. Collen is more critical: “With Hysteria
John and Adrian, they just finished a bunch of sell-out than Hysteria.” It included we felt that we’d created a slightly new
came and played with us for a victorious homecoming rock genre. It was so creative and so left-
a while. It was more about shows, and going: ‘Yeah, show at the newly built field. With Adrenalize we were copying
us getting a sense of what Don Valley Stadium, that formula.”
they were like as people.” about this grunge thing…’” where the band played to What Adrenalize lacked was the shock
Sykes ended up singing 50,000 people. The final of the new that Hysteria had: the
backing vocals on Adrenalize. Joe Elliott leg was in North America blockbuster production that Collen
“John could sing his ass at the end of that year. describes as “Star Wars for the ears”; the
off,” Elliott says. “And he wrote Still Of The “I remember being on our private plane,” spirit of adventure in songs such as Pour
Night for Whitesnake. Adrian I adore, and the singer says, “flying over Manhattan at Some Sugar On Me, Rocket and Animal.
in the end it worked out well for him two in the morning, having just finished a With Hysteria Def Leppard were breaking
because he’s back in Maiden where he bunch of sell-out shows, and going: ‘Yeah, new ground; with Adrenalize they were
belongs. We also tried out a young about this grunge thing…’” holding ground. In the circumstances, it
unknown kid from Birmingham, Huey Adrenalize sold seven million copies was more than enough.
Lucas. Great player, but his voice wasn’t worldwide. In the US the singles were They had dug deep to make this
that strong. Vivian was always the not as successful as those from Hysteria, album. And the last two songs they wrote
number-one candidate. For us it wasn’t with only Let’s Get Rocked and Have You Ever for Adrenalize would remain powerfully
about how well you could play, it was Needed Someone So Bad making the Top symbolic: White Lightning the epitaph for
more about how well you can sing. And 20. But in the UK they had four big hits. the friend they lost, Let’s Get Rocked the
more importantly, we’ve got to get on It was after Adrenalize that Def Leppard anthem with which they moved on.



102 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

THE BOOK OF EDDIE!







From their early days to their world-conquering triumphs, via classic


album stories and exclusive interviews, trace the incredible story of how

Iron Maiden became the greatest metal band on the planet.

The Greatest









Show On Earth











In 1992, Def Leppard joined the surviving members of Queen and stars from the worlds of rock and

pop for the biggest event since Live Aid. This is the story of the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert…

Words: Johnny Black



ne of few shows to rival Live Aid the run-up was that a gay activist group, ACT-UP, Spike Edney (Queen’s keyboard player and
for scale and spectacle, the Freddie stated that Guns N’ Roses shouldn’t be on the show musical director): I’d become sceptical of events
Mercury Tribute Concert because Axl had allegedly made some homophobic like this. It seemed that anybody who didn’t get on
Ocommemorated the late Queen remarks. That was difficult to handle because Axl the Live Aid bill made bloody sure they appeared at
singer and raised awareness about Aids. Held didn’t talk to the media, so we had to rely on the any charity gig that came along afterwards, cynically
at Wembley Stadium on April 20, 1992, it brought members of Queen speaking up about that issue. seeking the exposure as a big boost to their careers.
together the worlds of rock, pop and showbiz
– the former represented in the first half by Guns Brian May: It was a massive strain on our shoulders Joe Elliott: Axl was in the next room to us. Elton
N’ Roses, Metallica, Def Leppard and Extreme, while because we weren’t just performing, we were also told us he knocked on his door and Axl’s big
the second half found Queen members Brian May, organising everybody else. It was difficult enough security guy said: “Axl’s sleeping.” And Elton said:
Roger Taylor and John Deacon backing A-list rock just choosing the acts who would appear. We “Well I’m doing a duet with him in four hours!” And
and pop stars including Robert Plant, Elton John argued a lot among the guy shrugged his
and George Michael, with Liza Minelli and Liz ourselves about the shoulders and shut
Taylor for good measure. An estimated one billion bill, but the basic the door in Elton’s
tuned in to this unlikely collision of worlds – not to criteria for the acts “Elton storms into our face. So Elton comes
mention David Bowie intoning The Lord’s Prayer. finally selected into our dressing
was their relevance dressing room: ‘What the room and says to us:
Brian May (guitarist, Queen): The night Freddie to Freddie. f**k’s wrong with Axl?’ “What the fuck’s
died, we said: “Well, we should give him an exit in wrong with that
the true style to which he’s accustomed.” Harvey Goldsmith: He had a rant, a cup of tea guy?” Elton had
Rehearsals were held at a little rant and a
Harvey Goldsmith (promoter): Queen’s various places: Nomis and then took off.” Joe Elliott cup of tea and then
manager, Jim Beach, took control of it all. He came Studios in London, he took off.
to me with a proposal to do a show at Wembley Bray out of town near Windsor and then finally, the
Stadium. They had a wish-list of artists, so we had to day before the show, in Wembley Stadium. Mark Cox (audience member): Extreme were the
ring round to see who was available. Jim had already first band on. They were quite big at the time. But it
sorted out some names. Liz Taylor was one. She was Terry Giddings (Freddie Mercury’s personal was weird that they played a load of Queen songs
involved in Aids campaigning through her minder and chauffeur): The rehearsal at Wembley in a medley. It was like seeing a pub tribute band
friendship with Elton, so when the tribute concert Stadium was great. Everybody turned up on time and without the Freddie lookalike.
came up she was already interested in the cause. nobody seemed to mind hanging around. Tony
Iommi was so patient, and George Michael was there Gary Cherone (vocalist, Extreme): It was the
Wendy Laister (publicist): The biggest problem in the whole time even when he wasn’t rehearsing. biggest show broadcast – it was bigger than Live
People would start out trying to do the songs Aid. That was probably the best collective day of our
like Freddie, but then they’d have to give up lives. Because we got to meet David Bowie… I could
and just do it like themselves. talk to you forever about it.


Joe Elliott (vocalist, Def Leppard): In one Harvey Goldsmith: The atmosphere backstage
sense the day of the show was light-hearted was surprisingly uplifting. Nobody caused a fuss or
and up. People popped in and out of each tried to pull rank. Everybody accepted the running
other’s trailers and dressing rooms all the order, because we explained to them that it had to
time. On the other hand, be that way just to allow the show to flow.
there was definitely a real
sadness, and it was obviously Joe Elliott: Our [Def Leppard’s] performance was
different in Queen’s trailer. really tricky, because Rick’s [Allen] electronic drum
kit isn’t your standard kit, it’s all about plugging
Brian May: I was very cables in. And they plugged Rick’s kit in upside
nervous at the Wembley down, so he was hitting his snare drum pedal and
tribute. I get like that if it’s an making a bass drum sound. If you watch the raw

More excitement than unfamiliar situation, and I was footage of the gig, you can hear him flapping
a night at the opera. worried about forgetting to around trying to get them to unplug it and plug it
introduce people. in the right way round. É REX x2

104 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Slash ’n’ Brian: two
generations collide.































































































































CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 105

Terry Giddings: Guns N’ Roses seemed to be
genuinely in awe of everyone else. They seemed to
me like humble, gentle people.


Mark Cox: There was a lot of controversy about
Guns N’ Roses, but they got a great reception. Axl
Rose wore a T-shirt that said ‘Kill Your Idols’. In the
circumstances that seemed a bit tasteless.


Terry Giddings: I was looking after Liz Taylor. Axl
came running off the stage with two huge minders,
and as he came into the holding room he ran into
Liz. I remember the shock of seeing them run
towards her, but then she smiled, and you could see
that despite the mutual embarrassment there was
respect.


Joe Elliott: Duff McKagan was FUBB. I stepped
over him when he was lying on some stairs
backstage. He was just a mess. That was after Guns
N’ Roses had finished their set. I watched it, and Duff
was flawless. He’s a brilliant bass player.


Mark Cox: I enjoyed all of the bands, even Spinal
Tap, but I couldn’t wait for Queen to come on. You
know – fucking-well get on with it! That’s what we
were here for. And they started with Tie Your Mother Brian May with George
Down, with Joe Elliott and Slash. Michael: “When he sang
REX FEATURES Somebody To Love it was
like Freddie was up there.”
Joe Elliott: Brian said: “I want you to do Tie Your
Mother Down, but you’re only on in the second verse
because I want it to start off with just the three of get my head around the words. I tried to learn them Wendy Laister: Anybody who imagined Axl
us.” I said: “Hey, it’s your gig!” on holiday in Morocco, but I ended up with a huge was homophobic obviously didn’t see him with
lyric sheet taped to the stage. his arm round Elton John during Bohemian
Slash: I was about to go up with Queen, and I had Rhapsody. I know for a fact that a few days later
my shirt off and something was wrong with my Harvey Goldsmith: Bowie delivered the Axl wrote a letter to Brian saying how proud he
pants, so I had my pants down to my ankles. And performance of the day. Even The Lord’s Prayer, I felt, had been to be part of it all.
I heard this voice, and someone was introducing me was right.
to Liz Taylor. I pulled my pants back up and just Mark Cox: Seeing everybody singing We Are The
went: “Er, nice to meet you.” Mark Cox: Seeing David Bowie was a big deal. But Champions was a great way to end the show. It was
when he dropped to his knees and starting reciting a great send-off. The fans were still singing Queen
Tony Iommi: I was really proud to play with Roger The Lord’s Prayer I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. songs when we were all queueing for the Tube.
Daltrey and, of course, Queen that night [on I Want It was meant to be an emotional moment, but a lot
It All]. It was a very raw experience. It had been of people around me were laughing. Elton John: People said: “You didn’t go on for We
building that way for weeks in rehearsals. Are The Champions,” but I felt that I didn’t want to
David Bowie: I felt as if I were being transported get involved in the bunfight. It was a very moving
Mark Cox: Robert Plant did a good version of Crazy by the situation. I was so scared as I was doing it. day, but I just felt kind of numbed by it. My
Little Thing Called Love. Innuendo wasn’t so good. A couple of my pals were sitting near Spinal Tap feelings were that I’d rather it was Freddie up there
and they were speechless with disbelief. than me.
Robert Plant: Freddie said they’d written it as a
tribute to Led Zeppelin, but I couldn’t Joe Elliott: Doing All The Young Dudes was the Joe Elliott: When we’d finished the We Are The
best three minutes of my life in front of an Champions bit, I was following Brian off and
audience – my favourite song in the world, I grabbed his sleeve and said: “Brian – turn round
ever, with Queen as the backing band, fronted and look at this, because you might not ever see
by Bowie, Hunter and Ronson. Phil [Collen, this again.” He stood there and had a long look.
Def Leppard guitarist] didn’t want to do it. I And then he said: “Thanks, Joe.” And he gave me
grabbed him by the ear like a headmaster, a big hug and then buggered off.
pulled him out on stage, and said: “You’re
doing this!” It was Ronson’s last ever Harvey Goldsmith: The party downstairs at the
performance on stage. Hard Rock afterwards was a strange feeling.
Elation and deflation at the same time.
Mark Cox: The best singer was George
Michael. The jacket he wore was terrible – he Joe Elliott: It was amazing. You’d be standing
looked like Don Johnson in Miami Vice. But there knocking back the free booze and Liz
when he sang Somebody To Love it was like Taylor would breeze past. People like that are
Freddie was up there. Elton was good too, beyond celebrity. She was wearing a diamond the
especially with Axl [on Bohemian Rhapsody]. size of a football.
Elton with the But George Michael was just incredible.
ever-controversial Tony Iommi: Immediately after the show was
Axl Rose. George Michael: It was me living out over, in private, it hit Brian very hard. Hit them all.

a childhood fantasy: to sing one of Freddie’s It was so, so sad. John was just in bits. It was a case
songs in front of 80,000 people. of: “Right, that’s it, over, final.”
GETTY
106 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

“AND IN THE END, THE LOVE YOU TAKE



IS EQUAL TO THE LOVE YOU MAKE”






Celebrate 50 years of the legendary Abbey Road, one of The Beatles’ most
infl uential albums – and the last the Fab Four would record together. Discover the

stories behind the songs, the studios, and the creation of that iconic photograph.








































ON SALE


NOW



























































Ordering is easy. Go online at:




www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk
Or get it from selected supermarkets & newsagents

“We couldn’t make another Adrenalize.



We had to do something else. So we did.”




I was not cool with.” Joe Elliott







108 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

ROCKS


















OFF
























In the post-grunge 1990s, traditional hard rock was on the back
foot – and so were Def Leppard. The solution would be to strip it

all down then build it back up again with Slang and Euphoria…

Words: Paul Elliott


t was a gamble and they knew it. In 1995, fuck is going on here? As far as I could understand
during the recording of Def Leppard’s sixth it, the only clear directive was that we couldn’t
album, Slang, it had a bleakly humorous make a Def Leppard-sounding record.”
Iworking title: Commercial Suicide. “We knew that Vivian cites Soundgarden’s 1994 album
people would wonder what the hell we were doing,” Superunknown, and the song Black Hole Sun
singer Joe Elliott says. “But we couldn’t make especially, as an influence on Def Leppard in the
another album like Adrenalize. We had to do making of Slang. A deeper influence was in what
something else. So we did something that nobody the individual members of the group were
expected. Slang was our grown-up album.” experiencing in their personal lives.
A change in Def Leppard’s music had begun with “There was a lot of emotional turmoil going on,”
the 1993 album Retro Active, the follow-up to Joe says. “Death and birth, marriage and divorce.
Adrenalize. The sound of it was leaner, harder, less None of this stuff existed when we were writing the
slick: partly in reaction to Adrenalize, which was, in other records. Those records were all about rocking
guitarist Phil Collen’s words, “a little mechanical”; out and having a good time. It was very different
and partly in reaction to how music was developing with Slang.” As Phil says: “The mood of the album
in the early ’90s, as alternative rock had a seismic was kind of dark, and it wasn’t something we did
effect akin to the punk explosion of 1977, the year on purpose, it was just how it turned out.”
in which Def Leppard formed. For all that, Joe recalls the recording of the album
According to bassist Rick Savage, the band’s as a time of fun, as the band lived and worked
approach to Slang was not clearly defined from the together at a house in Spain that had been the
outset. “We weren’t totally sure exactly what the setting for the second series of British comedy
direction was,” he admits, “but we knew what the drama Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. “That was our home and
direction wasn’t. We didn’t want to try to recreate our studio,” Joe says. “And we had a ball out there,
Hysteria again, and we could never be Nirvana, but enjoying the sunshine and creating these songs.”
we could make an album that was representative of Co-produced by the band with Pete Woodroffe,
the five of us that would fit in with the times the album was recorded in “an old-fashioned style”,
without us looking like stupid old farts.” as Rick Savage calls it. “We were playing as a band,
Not everyone was quite on the same page. basically,” he says. “The backing tracks were almost
Former Dio guitarist Vivian Campbell had replaced live – how we sounded in a rehearsal room – and
the late Steve Clark in 1992. This would be the first then we enhanced it from there.” Central to this
full album he recorded with the band. more organic approach was drummer Rick Allen’s
“It was very confusing,” Vivian says. “I was reversion to a semi-acoustic kit. “It was another
making a record for the first time with the mighty challenge,” he says, “but I loved the feel of it.”
Def Leppard, and it was almost as if Def Leppard In this environment, new ideas came into play.
was afraid to be Def Leppard. I tried not to rock the “It was great for us to flex our muscles in a different
boat or ask too many questions – just go with the way,” Phil says. “We had an orchestra playing
flow of it. But deep down I was thinking, what the Indian instruments on Turn To Dust, which was É

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 109 GETTY

really exciting. And in Breathe A Sigh, we had an R&B
Two of a kind: Joe
twist to the vocals.” Vivian Campbell, for all his Elliott and Phil Collen.
misgivings, wrote in Work It Out a brilliant modern
rock song for the post-grunge era. As Rick Allen
says, “These were songs that for Def Leppard came
out of leftfield.”
Equally, there were traces of the band’s past in
Gift Of Flesh and the album’s title track. “Gift Of Flesh
is good proper rock stuff,” Joe says, “like UFO did
on Obsession. And the title track was just a regular
pop song, with a complete theft of the rundown at
the end of Fame by Bowie.”
The real depth in Slang was in the three songs that
ended the album – Blood Runs Cold, Where Does Love
Go When It Dies, and Pearl Of Euphoria. In an echo of
the song White Lightning, from Adrenalize, Joe and
Phil wrote Blood Runs Cold as another eulogy for
Steve Clark, only darker. “This was a more heartfelt
song,” Joe says. “White Lightning was a grandiose, big
movie version of Steve Clark. Blood Runs Cold was
the down-and-dirty, in-the-gutter version of Steve.
And that’s where we wanted this album to go.”
Where Does Love Go When It Dies has a melancholy
beauty and a hard-earned wisdom in the words Joe
sings. “It’s one of my favourite songs,” Rick Allen
says. “The lyrical content is pretty amazing.” And in
Pearl of Euphoria, a heavy sound was matched by the
lyrics. “It’s about abortion,” Phil says. “A really deep
song. Across the album there are religious
metaphors and social metaphors. It was all pretty
deep for a Def Leppard record.”
In the end, Slang was not, as the band had
predicted, only half-jokingly, an act of commercial
suicide. The album reached No.14 in the US, and
No.6 in the UK. It was not a multi-million seller, but
the band never really expected it to be. In rock
music, so much had changed since the heady days
of Hysteria and Adrenalize, and Slang was a reflection
of that change. What also fed into Euphoria was the sense among Hysteria. On Euphoria, as on Slang, the band
For Joe Elliott, it is an album defined by “raw the members of Def Leppard that the cyclical nature co-produced with Pete Woodroffe. But in this
emotion”. He speaks of Slang as one of the most of music had, in the end stages of the 1990s, turned album’s key track, Promises – chosen as the flagship
important albums that Def Leppard ever made. “To to their advantage. As Phil Collen says: “When we single for what Phil Collen describes as its “classic
move forward,” he says, “we had to break it all started on Euphoria, all of a sudden there was Britney Def Leppard feel” – it was Lange who turned a good
down and build again. And the satisfaction that we Spears and Ricky Martin out there. Music was song into a great one.
got from that album, I couldn’t put in into words.” happy again, it wasn’t miserable.” The riff in Promises, written by Phil, had a tone
There was, as Vivian Campbell recalls, a mood of and rhythm reminiscent of the band’s classic 1983
or all the darkness and emotional intensity in cautious optimism within the band. “With Euphoria, single Photograph. But as Vivian says, “We couldn’t
Slang, the album had a positive effect on the we were peeking our heads over the fence,” he find the chorus. And that was when that song was
band. “It really refreshed us,” Rick Savage laughs. “Is it safe to come out now? That’s how it sent off to Mutt. He was living in Switzerland and
Fsays, “and gave us an appetite to be natural felt. But we were starting to see signs that it was we were recording in Dublin. We sent him the
and enjoy it again.” And what this led to was an okay to be ourselves again. We were hearing slickly multi-track, he sliced it and diced it and sent it back
album with a title that spoke volumes: Euphoria. crafted, producer-driven pop songs on the radio. to us a week or two later – and when we heard it we
This title, already in place before the album was That was a strong indicator that we could make a went, ‘Oh fuck – there’s the chorus!’”
made, had echoes of Pyromania and Hysteria, the proper Def Leppard record. So there was a strong Lange subsequently flew in to Dublin to work
mega-hits that had transformed Def Leppard into and clear concept going into Euphoria, and it began with the band over a long weekend, in which time
the biggest British rock group since Led Zeppelin with the title of the album. It was a return to the they co-wrote two more songs: It’s Only Love and All
and Queen. And with this came a sense of a band classic Def Leppard sound.” Rick Allen puts is Night. Of the latter, Joe says: “That song is bonkers, a
re-embracing its own history and its true identity. simply. “If you leave it enough time, it will come little like Let’s Get Rocked was – a funky jam with
As Joe says: “Music moves in cycles. Slang was back into fashion and people will like it again.” mad sections that are atonal, melodically wrong,
ground zero, and with Euphoria it was a new start. Another significant development was the return but it has a unique flavour.” During that weekend,
We reinstalled the harmonies on that record. The of the band’s unofficial “sixth member” Mutt Lange, they also recorded backing vocals with Lange, and
songs were more melodic. It was about us feeling albeit in a more limited role than before. The last the combination of his voice and theirs – so integral
good about who we were.” Def Leppard album with Lange as producer was to the sound of the band’s classic hits of the ’80s –
was heard again in Promises.
There was one other song from Euphoria in which
“We had suggestions that we should Lange had an influence. The beautiful ballad
Goodbye was written by Rick Savage alone. “At that
work with outside writers on X, which I stage,” he says, “I wasn’t schooled in writing a
complete song, start to finish. But I wanted to do it
on a personal level. I had a demo of the song while
we were doing Slang, but it didn’t feel quite right. I
was not cool with.” Joe Elliott changed the verses. The chorus was always the


110 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

World of leather:
Leppard onstage in
the late 90s.
























































GETTY X2
“With Euphoria, we were peeking our used on five of the songs recorded for X. Now,
Despite his reservations, additional writers were


heads over the fence: ‘Is it safe to come Everyday and You’re So Beautiful were co-written by
the band with Marti Frederiksen, the American
songwriter who had worked with Aerosmith on
out now?’” Vivian Campbell the albums Nine Lives and Just Push Play. More
contentiously, there was one song, Long, Long Way
To Go, written by Wayne Hector, author of Westlife’s
hit Flying Without Wings; and another, Unbelievable,
same. And in the end it all came together when Omagh, Northern Ireland, which killed 29 people by Swedish trio Per Aldenheim, Andreas Carlsson
Mutt was with us in Dublin. He didn’t write on that and left more than 200 injured. “It was such a and Max Martin, the latter famous for writing
song, but he was influential in directing us.” tragedy,” Phil says. “We’re an apolitical band, but Britney Spears’ … Baby One More Time.
The finished album was broad in range. that really affected us.” As it turned out, Long, Long Way To Go, a beautiful
Demolition Man was placed as the opening track for Euphoria was released on June 8, 1999. The ballad, was one of the best songs on the album.
its energy. “The chorus is pretty manic,” Joe says, album peaked at No.11 on the US and UK charts, With hindsight, and damning with faint praise,
“with all of throwing lines at each other.” Fittingly, while Promises made No.1 on Billboard’s Hot Joe describes Unbelievable as “not that bad”. The
for a song that he describes as “really hard-driving”, Mainstream Rock Tracks. For Phil Collen, Euphoria songs written with Marti Frederiksen were more to
it features a guest appearance from ex-Formula is one of Def Leppard’s best. “I’m very proud of Joe’s taste.
One world champion Damon Hill. Another that album,” he says. “We felt good making it, and “They were kind of poppy,” he says. “Like if we’d
standout track, Back In Your Face, is a throwback to I think you can hear it in those songs.” sat down and said, ‘Let’s try and be Cheap Trick.’
the glory days of British glam rock. ‘The guitar riff is And they’re one of my favourite bands of all time.
very much based in that whole glam era of ’72, ’73,” lang was a bold reinvention, Euphoria a So I was OK with that.” But he adds: “The stuff that
Joe says. “It’s us doing The Glitter Band – to the triumphant return to the classic Def we wrote on our own has the real flavour of what
point where we contacted the engineer who’d Leppard sound. It was when the band Def Leppard is.” Nowhere was this more evident
worked with Mike Leander, the producer on those Sexperimented again – on X, the follow-up than on Four Letter Word, a throwback to the simple,
records, and asked, what’s the exact millisecond to Euphoria – that they dropped the ball. AC/DC-inspired kick-ass rock’n’roll of High ‘n’ Dry.
delay on the handclaps and the snare drum? It was a Joe admits there was some confusion within Joe is blunt in his assessment of X. “It’s a weird
guarded secret but we managed to get it off him.” the band going into this album. “I think we were at album,” he says. “And it’s obviously polarised
The album also has two epic pieces. Kings Of a crossroads,” he says. “Internally, we were all not people’s opinions. It’s certainly not Hysteria but
Oblivion was inspired by the heavy sounds of the going in the right direction. We had some there is some good stuff. So it’s not a standout
’70s. “It’s a great, classic rock song,” Joe says. “It discussions about how we should go, and we had album, but I don’t think it’s a complete duffer.”
harks right back to the days of Uriah Heep and suggestions thrown at us that we should work X was not a flop. It made No.14 on the UK chart,
Wishbone Ash and Lone Star.” And on Paper Sun, with some outside writers, which I was No.11 in the US. But where one experimental
similar in scale to Gods Of War from Hysteria, they completely not cool with because I knew that we album, Slang, had yielded some of the deepest music
went even deeper, the lyrics in this song written in were well capable of writing our own. So why of the band’s career, X came up short. For Def
the aftermath of the 1998 terrorist bombing in would we want to do that?” Leppard, it was a mistake not to be repeated.

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 111

INTERVIEW: NEIL JEFFRIES
PORTRAITS: ROSS HALFIN
(UNLESS OTHERWISE CREDITED)

112 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Tasked with replacing the irreplaceable,


guitarist Vivian Campbell has flourished in Def



Leppard. He discusses his days with Dio, his time


with Whitesnake and how it’s all Bolan’s fault…




ivian Campbell might shown the door after the 1987 world tour. Have guitar, I had a cousin who was several years older
will travel: after
have been a member of Def Brief flirtations with former Foreigner years as a than me and he played me Rory
Leppard for more than a vocalist Lou Gramm in Shadow King, as topclass Gallagher, and I fell in love with his
sideman,
quarter of a century, but he’s well as teaming up with Riverdogs, were Viv’s found his playing. I remember he used to do the
still regarded as the ‘new boy’ in no more than temporary diversions. In true home with Ulster Hall in Belfast at the end of every
Def Leppard.
the band. Prior to joining Leppard 1992 he was offered the difficult gig of year, and the first gig I ever went to was
in 1992, the genial Irish guitarist taking over from the late Steve Clark in one of those. And the first album I bought
was already enjoying a varied and Def Leppard, and he’s been with the band was Gallagher’s Live In Europe.
glittering career. ever since.
He was in his mid-teens when first There have also been other projects in Did you have guitar lessons?

noticed with NWOBHM cult heroes the meantime, including a solo album and No, I was self-taught. Now, that can be a
Sweet Savage. But Campbell’s real a brief stint with the reunited Thin Lizzy. mixed blessing. But I think if you are
breakthrough happened six years later, in But Leppard has been the main focus of selftaught then it allows you to develop
1983, when he was chosen as the guitarist his life in music since 1992. your own style. You pick up ideas through
with Dio, fronted by the iconic former trial and error, and that can make you a
Rainbow and Black Sabbath vocalist. He Going back to your roots, do you recall lot more flexible. If you get lessons all the

played on the band’s first three albums, when you first wanted to be a musician? time, you can be very rigid, and never get
which are still regarded are their finest, That was all Marc Bolan’s fault. I saw him the chance to become individual. You run
before an acrimonious split in 1986. His on a Thursday night on Top Of The Pops the risk of sounding like everyone else.
relationship with Ronnie James Dio when I was about nine. It was either 1971

remained strained right up until the or ’72, and I had an epiphany. I knew right What was your first band?
latter’s death in 2010. then that I wanted to be a musician. I have Well, Sweet Savage, whom I joined when I
A year after being fired from Dio, he a sister who’s a little over a year older than was 15. Before that I was almost in a
was given the chance of replacing John me, and I used to raid her clothes to dress different band every week. If there was a
Sykes in Whitesnake, then at the peak of up as a rock star. school dance going on, then I’d put

their commercial powers. But this proved together a band specifically to play it. I
to be a short-lived relationship, as he was Who were you erly guitar heroes? was in loads of bands who only ever did
one gig!

I BOUGHT LEPPARD’S SINGLE Talking of Sweet Savage, there’s always


WASTED IN THE PICTURE SLEEVE been a rumour that the first Dio album,
Holy Diver, was based around the music

WHEN IT FIRST CAME OUT. taken from that band. Is there any truth
in this story?


CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 113

VIVIAN CAMPBELL





Yes, there is. I came up with a lot of the
riffs in Sweet Savage, and I also did the
same thing with Dio. So, there was bound

to be a lot of crossover. And I’ll tell you
that Dio’s Rainbow In The Dark has exactly
the same chord structure as Sweet
Savage’s Lady Marion. The big difference is

that the Sweet Savage recording was very
rigid, but when Vinny [Appice, Dio
drummer] heard it, what he did was give
it some swing, and made it more flexible.
However, it’s effectively the same song.

And Invisible, from the Holy Diver album,
had a lot from Sweet Savage’s Queen’s
Vengeance in there.



So, did Dio rip off Sweet Savage, as has
been claimed by some?
Oh no, I wouldn’t go that far. Ronnie
would hear something and then change
things round, adapting it. So, Sweet

Savage were clearly an influence on what
we got with Holy Diver. But it was never
taken to the extreme of being a rip-off.
You can play songs from both bands

back-to-back and hear there is a
difference.


How did you feel when you joined Dio,
your first major band?

Well, to me I was working with three
genuine rock stars. I was only 20 at the
time, so a lot younger than they were.
And I looked up to them, because they
had done so much already. I remember

listening to albums like Rainbow Rising,
and being a big fan of Ronnie Dio. And
I know this will piss off some Sabbath
fans, but when he joined them for the
Heaven And Hell album, that’s when I Here comes the You and Ronnie famously had an open, Ronnie told us that this And by the third

think they were at their best. I realise a lot strum: Campbell, ongoing public feud. What were the album, we’d all have an equitable share in
during rehearsals
of Sabbath fans feel without Ozzy it for Euphoria. circumstances behind that? the money.
wasn’t authentic. However, for me, Let me say straight away that I think However, Wendy Dio, who managed
Ronnie took them to another level. So, vocally Ronnie was amazing. I never us, never saw it that way. From the start,

when Jimmy Bain [Dio bassist] called up stopped admiring his talent. However, she presented it as Ronnie’s solo band,
and said they were interested in having what really got me going was that he went with the rest of us in the background. For
me join the band, I was just overwhelmed. into the media claiming that I had whatever reason. Ronnie would never
Suddenly here I was, this kid from Belfast, betrayed the band and left. That’s not true. stand up to her and put this right. So, it
in LA, working with three such giants of I was fired. So when I read what Ronnie just went on and on.

hard rock. was saying about me, I reacted very badly When we did the third album, Sacred
and wanted to put my side of the story. To Heart, I talked to Ronnie about his
What was your relationship like with tell it the way it was. promise on how we’d all have an equal
Ronnie Dio in those early days? share by this stage in Dio’s career. But he

Because of the age difference between us, So what did happen? kept putting me off. Then when I found
it was kinda like being in a band with my It was all down to the way the business out that some of the guys on our crew
stepfather. And this generational gap side was run. I remember when the four were getting paid more than the band, I
meant we had an uneasy relationship at of us in the band first got together at John was furious and lost my rag. Maybe I had RIGHT: GETTY
times. Henry’s rehearsal studio in London. less to lose than the others by causing a


114 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

VIVIAN CAMPBELL

































































































































Vivian and Phil
Collen in Cardiff
in 2015.

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 115

VIVIAN CAMPBELL



















































































GETTY


fuss. I had no responsibilities. But I did The Adrenaline is Does that make it hard for you to listen after you were fired from Dio?
flowing: Campbell
kick up a fuss, and as result was suddenly to the three Dio albums you’re on? Oh, yes. I got together with an Irish guy
in Barcelona, 2013.
out of the band. Craig Goldy was in. And It did for ages. Because I felt so bitter called Davy Watson. He was a very
this all happened so fast that I’ve always about the way I had been treated. But talented songwriter, singer and bassist
believedit had been planned for a while. when I put together the Last In Line band who had lived in LA longer than I had. We
a few years ago [2012], I did go back and got in Pat Waller, another Irishman, on

Wasn’t there also a musical issue play these albums. I was amazed at how drums and called ourselves Trinity. The
between you and Ronnie? strong they sound. At the time we problem we had was that our approach
Yes. When I was growing up I would only recorded them, I never thought my guitar was very much a scattergun one. We were
listen to hard rock, because that was the playing was that good. However, it comes totally unfocused, and that’s what every
sort of music which best showcased across a lot better now than I remembered label we went to told us. We never really
guitarists. But as I got into my early at the time. What I’ve accepted is that the sorted out our musical direction, so

twenties, I broadened my horizons. I legacy of Dio as a band isn’t just about Trinity wasn’t gonna go anywhere.
discovered soul and Motown, and loved Ronnie. Of course, he was a massive part
listening to the great singers on these of what we did. But the legacy is also Was it at this point that David
classic records. I was just growing up and about Jimmy, Vinny and myself, And Coverdale came calling?

opening up my mind to fresh sounds and whatever went wrong between Ronnie It wasn’t Cov who called me, but John
different approaches. But Ronnie took it and Ishould never alter the fact that I’m Kalodner, the A&R guy from Geffen, who
the wrong way. He thought that because I proud of the music we created together. was working on the new Whitesnake
was listening to all of this stuff, I was album. He phoned and said that they had
somehow betraying the band! Did you have any plans for a new band just made an amazing record, which was


116 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

VIVIAN CAMPBELL





going to be a huge seller. But that WE ALL KNOW THAT, WHEN IT
Coverdale had fired his whole band while
the album was being done, and was now COMES TO THE CRUNCH, JOE RUNS

putting together a new line-up. He
wanted to know if I’d be interested in THE BAND. HE IS THE MAIN MAN.
being a part of this. He sent me a cassette
of the album and as soon as I heard it, I

could hear why everyone thought it was mattered to us was more the image than
gonna be so massive. So, I was happy to the music. I think I’m right in saying we
join the band. only did two days of rehearsals before
going on tour, and one of the things
How did you get on with Coverdale? David was really keen on having were

Really well, actually. He was a very nice vocal harmonies, and that was never
guy and easy to get along with. Sure, he properly worked through. Mind you,
could be a pompous ass, but in a way that apart from David, I was the best singer in
was part of his charm, and you could the band at the time – and I wasn’t

forgive him when he had those moments. particularly good. But it was still a great
time, and I got along with the other guys
What would you say was the difference in the band.
between David Coverdale and Ronnie
James Dio? You were only in Whitesnake for about

You know what sums it up for me? a year. What went wrong?
Their different attitudes towards me as Well, it was women. To be specific, my
a singer. When I was in Dio, Ronnie wife at the time didn’t get along at all
never encouraged me to sing at all. In with David’s wife, Tawny Kitaen. They

fact, I remember on one occasion, just never hit it off, and that caused
he stood there pointing his finger at real friction. It wasn’t a problem
me, which he was prone to do when between Cov and myself, but it led to
trying to get his views across. He problems, as you can imagine.
said: “Guitarists don’t sing. Ritchie However, there was also another

Blackmore never sung. Tony Iommi situation that I only found out
never sung. And you shouldn’t.” In about later on. Adrian Vandenberg
fact, he got very angry when he told was lobbying to get me out of the
me that. As far as he was concerned, band. Now, let me be clear about this.
guitarists just played guitar. So, Jimmy I got along very well with Adrian, and

Bain did all the backing vocals in Dio. he never had a problem with me
Now, early on with Whitesnake, Cov personally at all. It was just that he didn’t
and I discovered our mutual love for soul like working with another guitarist in the
music. And we would sit for hours band. When he’d joined Whitesnake,
playing the great Motown records and Adrian wanted to be the only guitarist,

singing along, doing the vocal harmonies. but David insisted it had to be a two-
That helped to cement our relationship, guitar band. However, Adrian persisted in
because when you share such a passion trying to persuade David to get rid of me
for music it does bond people together. and leave him as the only guitarist. But it

But he went further with me, because he wasn’t something he aimed at me
did really encourage me to take lessons, specifically. Whoever would have been
and even recommended a vocal coach. the guitarist alongside him would have
been subjected to the same attitude. It
What was it like being a member of was just the way he felt about his playing.

such a huge band?
It was a little chaotic at the beginning. How did it all lead to you being fired?
The first time the guys in the new I could tell things weren’t going in the
line-up met was on the set for the right direction when we came off the

Still Of The Night video and all we road and started to think about the
worried about that day was how next album. David insisted that he and
we looked, and whether our Adrian were gonna write all the
hair was perfectly groomed. songs, and nobody else should even
So, from the start what consider putting forward ideas,


CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 117

VIVIAN CAMPBELL





because he just would not listen to
I SAW MARC BOLAN ON TV
anything the rest of us came up with. It
was as simple as that. So, I realised I was

being marginalised, and when you add in WHEN I WAS ABOUT NINE AND I
the female factor and also Adrian’s
insistence Whitesnake should only have HAD AN EPIPHANY. I KNEW RIGHT
the one guitarist… well, I knew my time

was running out. What I objected to was THEN THAT I WANTED TO BE
the way it all went down.
A MUSICIAN.
Why, what happened?
He got his tour manager, Jimmy Eyers, to

sit down and tell me that I was out of the
band. That was annoying. I felt that if
David wanted to fire me then he should
have had the balls to do it himself. He

should have been man enough to face up
to me and explain himself what he wanted
to do. Getting someone else to do was
cowardly, and I was bitter about if for a
long time. Not that I was being fired, as

the way in which he chose to do it.
But I did run into him a long time
afterwards, and had the chance to tell him
how I felt about the way in which he got

rid of me. To be fair to him, he listened to
what I had to say, and getting it all off my
chest made me feel a lot better. As I said
earlier, I really do like David. The only
objection I had was that he couldn’t do

something like that himself. He hid
behind another person. I’ve always
thought that if you make a decision like
that, it’s up to you to tell the person
yourself. Don’t delegate it to someone

who works for you.


You had a period of uncertainty after
Whitesnake, didn’t you?
I was involved with Riverdogs and

Shadow King, but neither for very long.


Riverdogs were first, right? So what

happened there?
Originally I was asked to produce a demo
for the band. Which I was happy to do.
But they then asked me to put some guitar Say cheese! There were a lot of expectations for heavy blues album. But that’s not what
Def Leppard and
parts on it. However, as they already had Shadow King, because it not only happened. We recorded the album at
a roomful of their
their own guitarist, I said no. Then they fans smile for the involved you but also Lou Gramm. What Goodnight LA Studios in Los Angeles,
camera during
decided to get rid of the guy, because the went wrong? which was owned by Keith Olsen, who
the Seven Day
rest of them felt he wasn’t good enough. Weekend tour. In a word, cocaine, I had worked with Lou produced it for us. Lou based himself at
And when they asked me if I’d join the on his second solo album [Long Hard the Holiday Inn, which was next door to
band I was happy to do so, as I thought Look, released in 1989] and we found a the studio. However, he would spend four

they were a very promising band. We had mutual love for Free at that time. He or five days at a time just locked in his
a deal with Epic, and released one album would talk about Paul Rodgers, while I room with a huge bag of cocaine,
[self-titled] in 1990. But things didn’t work was enthralled by Paul Kossoff. So, when indulging. He refused to come out, and
out, as the album never sold as well as had the idea came up for doing Shadow King, wouldn’t show up at the studio at all. Lou
been hoped. both of us agreed it really should be a was so into the drug that it dominated his


118 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

VIVIAN CAMPBELL





So, as Lou and Keith had decided to stay
away from the studio, I decided to follow
their example. I only turned up when I

was needed to do a guitar part.
The whole situation was farcical, and
when the album [self-titled] eventually
came out in 1991, it was nowhere near as

good as it should have been. Thankfully,
Lou got through his cocaine problem, but
it was definitely his problem with it at the
time that ruined any chance Shadow King
might have had of becoming a good,

long-term band. It was no shock to
anyone when the whole thing fell apart.


And then along came Def Leppard. Was

joining the band an easy decision for
you to make?
Actually, this was quite a lengthy process.
Which worked for both of us. You have to
see it from my point of view as well as

theirs. I had spent the previous decade or
so going in and out of bands, and I just
wasn’t sure if I wanted to commit to being
in another one. I had a solo deal from

Epic, as a result of the Riverdogs album,
so I was very seriously considering going
down that path when Joe Elliott called me
up to ask if I’d be interested in joining
Def Leppard.
And from their viewpoint, Leppard

wanted to make sure I fitted in with the
rest of them. It wasn’t just a situation of
me being musically compatible, but it was
also a case of the personal side being OK.

People forget that being in a band isn’t
just about the music. It also has to work
on the personality level as well.



So how did you all work that out?
Over a period of several weeks, we hung
out together, rehearsing, and also going to
the movies. The first film we saw together
was Rolling Stones: Live At The Max, which

GETTY was showing at the IMAX. We would also
go out to dinner, before getting down to
life at the time. This went on for ages, and absent. With all that going on, it was Campbell takes more rehearsals. It was a long process,
the spotlight
meant we were trying to make the album Bruce Turgon [bass] who effectively took but at the end of it we all knew that it
in Birmingham,
with the singer virtually missing all the control of the sessions, and he had his 1996. could work out. We didn’t just jump into
time. It was an impossible situation, and own ideas for what we should be doing. a relationship, but deliberately took it
eventually Keith himself got so fed up Bruce kept telling me how he wanted quite slowly.
with what was not happening that he the guitar parts to sound. He was trying to
began to lose interest, and then we ended push me in a certain direction, which was You weren’t the only guitarist being

up with him not bothering to turn up at a long way removed from the original considered, were you?
the studio! concept Lou and I had talked about. Now, I know John Sykes was also in the frame.
You can now imagine the chaos we it wasn’t a heavy blues album at all, but Adrian Smith was considered as well.
were in. The main guy in the band was reflected what Bruce wanted to do. We And there was a third guy; I can’t
missing, and now the producer was also were making a Bruce Turgon solo album! remember who it was, but he was from


CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 119

VIVIAN CAMPBELL





history before I joined. So, I always feel as
if I’m a little bit on the outside looking in.
It’s not that I’m excluded at all, but the

others achieved so much before I was in
Leppard. I joined one of the biggest bands
in the world, so it’s inevitable I would
believe I was coming into the picture after

their greatest success, and therefore was
something of an intruder.


Were you a fan of Def Leppard before
you joined the band?

Oh, yes. Absolutely. I bought their first
single Wasted in the picture bag when it
came out. And I remember when High ’n’
Dry was released, I got it on cassette.

Sweet Savage were doing a gig at
McGonagle’s in Dublin, and we played the
tape over and over in the car on the way
there and back. We all loved it. Then
Pyromania came out and it was

gamechanger. The production was state
of the art and set the tone for everything
that followed in the 80s. It had such a
pioneering impact. And what can you say

about Hysteria? Full of great songs.
We in Sweet Savage looked up to Def
Leppard as one of the leaders of the
NWOBHM. We spent most of our time
playing in Ireland and rarely got out of
there to do anything else. We did get to

come to London, and opened for Budgie
at the Marquee club, and then got the
chance to support Thin Lizzy on the
Renegade tour. But that was it as far as

getting to perform on a wider scale. To us,
Leppard, Iron Maiden and Saxon were the
main bands of the NWOBHM movement
– the ones we wanted to emulate.



Joe Elliott will not be happy you’ve
mentioned Leppard in the same
NEIL ZLOZOWER sentence as the NWOBHM!
He won’t be pleased I’ve mentioned

Leppard with Saxon, either! Not that he’s
Birmingham, and had a much lower King of rock and know them quite well. And they knew me got anything against Saxon, but you’re
profile than John, Adrian and myself. roll: during his as a person. right; Joe doesn’t see Leppard as having
days as Dio’s
How far Leppard got with any of the six-stringer. any connection to the NWOBHM. He
others, I don’t know, but in the end we Even now you’re regarded as the band’s says the band were never metal, and he is

mutually decided it would work if I ‘new guy’. Does that irritate you? right about that. But I think we all know
joined the band. I am glad this took the Not at all. On the contrary, I want to that the NWOBHM explosion really
time it did, because by the end of it we remain the band’s new guy for a long helped to make Leppard’s reputation. And
knew each other a lot better. Sure, I had time. I hope we don’t have any more Leppard also helped to make the

bumped into the guys every so often on lineup changes, because what we have movement a global phenomenon.
the road, and I did know Joe a little bit, but works. And let’s face it, 90 per cent of
I really wasn’t familiar with them as what we play live – and what we have Talking of Joe Elliott, what’s he been like
people. By the time they offered me the played live ever since I joined the band – to be with over the years?
chance to be in the band, I had gotten to comes from the period in the band’s Look, Joe wears Def Leppard on his


120 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

VIVIAN CAMPBELL





I HOPE WE DON’T HAVE


ANY MORE LINE-UP



CHANGES, BECAUSE WHAT



WE HAVE WORKS.




sleeve. Remember, he came up with the
band name when he was still at school,
and has lived and breathed the band all

these years. But Joe is very different to
Ronnie Dio or David Coverdale. Both of
them told you how things were gonna
be. There was no room for discussion.

They dictated everything to you. To be
fair, the system worked for Dio and
Whitesnake. But things are a little
different with Leppard. It’s more of a
democracy. Decisions are talked about

before they’re made. However, that only
works up to a point. We all know that,
when it comes to the crunch, Joe runs
the band. He is the main man. But he’ll

never ignore strongly held views from
anyone else in Leppard. So, we all feel a
lot more part of how things go, although
we give Joe the respect he’s due as the
guy who ultimately decides what

happens.


You’ve done six studio albums with
Leppard now. But do you feel these

have been undervalued when
compared to what the band released
in the 80s?
They are certainly underrated. But that’s
really inevitable. The band’s big period
was in the 80s, with Pyromania and

Hysteria. And how can you compete with
what they achieved back then? But I do
look back at an album like Slang, which
was my first one with Leppard, and feel it

deserves more respect. When it came out
in 1996, it was right for the time. I listen
to it now and think that maybe we went a
little too left-field with what we did. We
went too far from what the band were

known for, by stripping away all the
vocal harmonies and polish that was
usually associated with the Leppard
sound. I still believe it was the correct

approach, and showed how we could
adapt to changing times. But we learnt a
lesson from that, namely not to lose sight
of those attributes which made the
band’s reputation in the first place.


CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 121

“This is our last album for



Mercury, unless they make us



an offer we can’t refuse.”

– Joe Elliott








122 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

CHANGING














THEIR SPOTS















In 2008, Def Leppard had overcome their mid-career wobble and were embarking on the next

phase of their glittering career. Joe Elliott invited Classic Rock to step inside the Sparkle Lounge…

WORDS: PAUL ELLIOTT PORTRAITS: NEIL ZLOZOWER



ou really couldn’t make it up: the lead
singer of Def Leppard lives near a place
called Leopardstown. Joe Elliott made his
home here, on the outskirts of Dublin, in
Y 1989. His luxurious pile, set in two acres
amid rolling green fields, boasts all the features
expected of a millionaire rock star’s residence: tennis
court, gym, indoor swimming pool, fully stocked
bar, sun deck with hot tub… It even has the world’s
smallest golf course – just one hole. However, Joe, a
keen golfer, prefers the local public 18-hole course; a
bargain, he explains, at only 15 euros per round.
The most important feature o f his home, however,
is the recording studio. Christened Joe’s Garage after
Frank Zappa’s 1979 album, the studio was installed
in the mid-90s. Def Leppard have recorded their
albums here ever since.
“It’s like that movie Field Of Dreams,” Joe says. In
the movie, Kevin Costner plays a farmer who turns
a corn field into a baseball pitch in the hope of
contacting the spirit of his deceased father, a former
baseball star. “He heard a voice,” Joe explains, “that
told him: ‘If you build it, he will come.’ So that’s what GETTY
I did. I built it, and they came!”
It’s a cold spring day. Joe has invited Classic Rock to sign is Leo. There is also a grand piano, on which Joe Whitesnake and newcomers Black Stone Cherry.
his home to hear an exclusive playback of the new plays an instrumental version of Kiss’s Beth before After that there’s a sold-out US tour with Styx and
Def Leppard album Songs From The Sparkle Lounge. pouring drinks and cueing up the first selection from REO Speedwagon. Clearly, as a live draw Leppard are
En route from a Leopardstown hotel to his house, Leppard’s new album. Blasting from four-foot still at the top of their game.
Joe steers his black SUV to his local boozer, an old speakers, it comes at deafening volume. But that, of course, is only half the story. Def
stone-floored place with a name that will appeal to The first three tracks he plays are stunning: Nine Leppard, one of the biggest-selling recording artists
any Thin Lizzy fan: Johnnie Fox’s. Ordering Guinness Lives, an AC/DC-style rocker with guest vocals from of all time, are about to enter a new phase of their
and, with a knowing wink, a carton of hot nuts, he country star Tim McGraw; C’mon C’mon, a throwback career. Songs From The Sparkle Lounge marks the end
chats to a couple of the regulars before recalling the to 70s glitter-rock; and Love, an epic, Queen-inspired of their contract with the Mercury label, and as such
night when he walked in here with his old friend Jon power ballad. By the time we get to the album’s the record’s success will determine where the band
Bon Jovi. “This bird saw Jon, screamed, dropped her closing track, Gotta Let It Go, Joe has sunk two large go from here. As Joe explains: “This is our last album
glass on the floor!” he laughs. vodka and tonics and is up off the enormous, L- for Mercury, unless they make us an offer we can’t
Arriving at his house, Joe conducts a whistle-stop shaped sofa, legs akimbo, playing air guitar with the refuse. Hand on heart, the people at Mercury are
tour that leads to the studio, where producer Ronan windmill action of Pete Townshend. working their butts off on this one. But if it doesn’t
McHugh is busy mixing Hallucinate, the last …Sparkle With the last chord ringing out, Joe suddenly happen on this record, well…” He smiles and begins
Lounge track to be completed. Above him, pinned to becomes calm and offers a surprisingly sober crooning the tune that Leppard tour manager Malvin
the wall, is a silk T. Rex scarf that Joe bought outside assessment of the album: “I’m not gonna do the Mortimer sang on the B-side of the band’s 1988
Sheffield City Hall in the early 70s. The studio walls are corporate thing and say this is the best thing we’ve single Armageddon It: “Please release me, let me go…”
covered in rock memorabilia: platinum discs, framed ever done,” he states. “But it’s the best we can make For their part, Def Leppard believe they’ve kept
gig posters, old Leppard tour passes (including the in 2008, the best we’ve made in many moons.” their end of the bargain with this album. “We’ve
infamous Dik Likker Boiler Pass, featuring a crude Moreover, it’s the album that will shape Def delivered the goods,” Joe says. “I mean, we’ve had hits
depiction of oral sex, issued to groupies on the 1988 Leppard’s future. with worse songs than Nine Lives. Ultimately, if we
Hysteria tour), and a Classic Rock calendar. enjoy the finished article, we’re happy. But, of course,
With McHugh hard at work we repair to the his year is a pivotal one for Def Leppard. knowing that four million other people also enjoy it
lounge. Fifty feet of floor-to-ceiling windows offer In June they play their biggest UK shows would be the icing on the cake.”
spectacular views to mountains and the city. A for more than a decade, on a Classic Rock- Certainly, on a business level Def Leppard are
stuffed lion stands at one end of the room: Joe’s star T sponsored arena tour with co-headliners operating very shrewdly. Recording at Joe’s

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 123

even thought about recording the whole album live. Rammstein and thinks we’re a bunch of wusses.
Sleeve notes And we actually recorded a lot of stuff on tour. For And he’s right!” Viv laughs. “He wanted me to play

Joe Elliott on the cover artwork for Nine Lives I recorded Tim’s [country artist Tim something satanic, so I wrote this riff. And because
Leppard’s Songs From The Sparkle Lounge. McGraw] vocal in Nashville. Rick Allen’s brother it sounded so dark it got me thinking about the
Robert is Tim’s tour manager, and he found out that really scary stuff in the world, specifically terrorism.
Tim is a big Leppard fan. Tim came up with the title The lyrics are written from the viewpoint of a
for the song and we went from there. We demoed it suicide bomber: a personal story, fictitious.”
with him at the Hollywood Bowl when we were on Viv admits that this is heavy subject matter for a
the Journey tour, and then he nailed his vocal in band like Def Leppard, but both he and Phil Collen
Nashville in one afternoon.” have written lyrics for this album that have a deep
Phil actually recorded the riffs to Nine Lives and the emotional content. Viv’s song Only The Good Die
album’s first track, Go, on his laptop: proof that Def Young refers to the man whom he replaced in Def
Leppard are still as savvy with technology as they Leppard, Steve Clark, who died on January 8, 1991
were in the 80s when, with producer Mutt Lange, from an overdose of painkillers, anti-depressants
they redefined hard rock music with their now classic and alcohol. “Steve was the inspiration for it,” Viv
albums Pyromania and Hysteria. says. “I’m accepting of why I’m in this band and I’m
In Joe Elliott’s upstairs loo (which he calls The Bog respectful of who I’m replacing.”
Of Rock) there are two reminders of the phenomenal Collen, meanwhile, wrote Tomorrow in memory
success of those two ground-breaking albums. The of his father, who succumbed to cancer. “It’s about
first is an award from the Recording Industry how I came to terms with that,” Phil explains. “In the
Association of America honouring “the first back to end, his death wasn’t a morose experience. We had
back septuple platinum records in the history of the time with him. He asked me to take him out of the
“As soon as we had the title for the album, we had the image music industry”. The second is a framed page from US hospital near the end and I’m glad I did that for him.”
of a stage with big red curtains at the side, like Monty industry magazine Billboard, dated July 23, 1988, listing Of …Sparkle Lounge Joe Elliott summaries: “This
Python’s Live At Drury Lane album. We wanted the view that the Hot 100 Albums. In the Top 10, alongside George is an album that works on a lot of different levels,
the band would have from the stage, so then we started Michael’s Faith and the Dirty Dancing movie soundtrack, musically and lyrically. We didn’t want to remake
thinking of all these people we could put in the audience. are Poison’s Open Up And Say…Ahh!, Guns N’ Roses’ Pyromania or Hysteria. Some things sound like they
Obviously the sleeve of Sgt. Pepper came to mind. In a could have been on Slang [’96]. It’s our entire history
nutshell, this is Sgt. Python. Appetite For Destruction, Van Halen’s OU812 and, at
“I wanted the cover to look like a kind of weird dream, No.1, after 49 weeks on the chart, Hysteria. in there. We’ve embraced who we are as a band.”
where you had a panda in Kiss make-up, and John Lennon The last Def Leppard album to top the US chart
dealing cards to the Pope. But we couldn’t get permission to was Adrenalize, in 1992. “It’s very difficult for us to s dusk falls over Dublin, Joe’s American
use Lennon’s image or some of the others we wanted. We achieve that level of success again,” Joe concedes. But wife Kristine appears and reminds him that
started to panic – fuck, we’ll end up with no one on the cover! Nine Lives has had a great response from American they have an awards ceremony to attend
So we told the art director, Richard Proctor: ‘If there’s anyone radio stations, and Mercury have identified C’mon A this evening. She opens a bottle of
we have to lose, just use old photos of us instead.’ C’mon as ‘the big single’. As Rick Savage explains: “It’s champagne and, smirking, orders her husband to
“I met Richard Hammond [Top Gear presenter] at the the kind of party song that we stopped writing for a change his shirt. But before we leave him, there’s one
Zeppelin gig at the O2, and he said if we put his face on the while – like Let’s Get Rocked or Make Love Like A Man. more thing to discuss: the not inconsiderable matter
cover he’d buy 2,000 copies of the album! If Jeremy Clarkson You know, a bit mindless.” of the Def Leppard/Whitesnake tour. As the
had gone to that gig we’d have put him on there too. Ian There is, Savage says, “a real buzz about this advertisements proclaim: Let’s Get Rocked… In The
Hunter was cool about it. He’s a mate anyway. There’s Bob album, a positive vibe that we haven’t had for a few Still Of The Night!
Booker, who used to play for Sheffield United. There’s Mutt years.” What it also proves, with the breadth and “It wasn’t me who came up with that line,” he
[Lange, producer] and all of our parents. And my cat’s in depth of the new material, is that Def Leppard are still laughs. “It was the promoter, Rod MacSween.”
there too. She’s called Mui Mui. That was my wife’s idea, a creative force, still willing to expand their range. As a good friend of Whitesnake leader David
naming the cat after a brand of shoes! They really push the envelope on Love, written by Coverdale, Joe insists that the tour will not be “a
“And if you look closely you’ll see a nice picture of Phil Savage in the style of his favourite band, Queen. “It fight, or an ego-fest”. He also stresses that there’s no
[Collen] when he was in the Dirty Blondes, and Vivian only took me 15 years to complete it,” he chuckles. ill feeling between Coverdale and Viv Campbell,
[Campbell] doing his best Brian May impression when he
was with the garden gnome, or Dio as he’s otherwise known. “I started writing that song in 1992, but we put it on who starred briefly for Whitesnake in 1988.
“There’s also a sign being held up: THIS IS NOT HERE. the back burner because Freddie Mercury had “I’ve known David since 1981,” Joe says. “The first
I have that sign over my front door at home. Lennon had it recently died, and I didn’t want it to look like we were night we met, he got me obliterated on brandy. We
over the door at Tittenhurst, his mansion in Surrey, and that’s trying to steal the last bit of Queen’s thunder. I didn’t were right in the middle of recording High ‘N’ Dry and
where we recorded our first album [On Through The Night]. try to write it as an obvious Queen-like song. In fact he got me absolutely bollocksed. But the next day I
“It sounds funny, because we spent a lot of money on the some people have said it sounds more like The nailed the vocal for Bringin’ On The Heartbreak, so it was
sleeve but we wanted it to look cheap. We wanted it to look Beatles. But I’m very proud of that song and the okay. We’ve been good friends ever since. We make
home-made, because we made the album at my home. We’re whole album. It’s still a polished Def Leppard record, fun of him and he makes fun of us. He calls us Damp
self-sufficient!” but there’s an edge to it, a rawness that I really like.” Leotard and we call him Lord Coverdale or Lord Of
Viv Campbell: “Usually when you bring songs to All Adders White; it’s all very Rowan Atkinson.”
Garage keeps overheads to a minimum. The other Def Leppard they get torn apart. But this time we Surely, though, you must want to blow Lord
four band members – bassist Rick Savage, drummer didn’t touch what people had written.” He admits Coverdale off stage?
Rick Allen and guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian that “I don’t write naturally in the Leppard style”, but “Of course! It’s competitive. But most of all I see it
Campbell – have rooms in Joe’s guest wing for the he has contributed three songs to the new album – as a great night out – it’s an event. You know, when
duration of recording. In addition, they’re not paying more than ever before – including the heavy, left-field we had Journey opening for us they did their best to
through the nose for studio time. As Phil Collen Cruise Control. It was inspired by his guitar tech, he blow us off stage every night, and it’ll be the same
explains on the phone from his home in California: says, the impressively named Dave Wolff. with Whitesnake. It’s our job to step up to the plate.
“Back in the 80s, studios cost two grand a day. Now “Dave is a big, tattooed monster who listens to And I can’t fucking wait!”
we don’t have that worry.”
By Joe’s estimate, the band spent a total of four
months, on and off, recording the new album, “We didn’t want to
beginning on January 25, 2007 (“Easy to remember,”
he says. “It’s my mum’s birthday”) and ending exactly remake Pyromania or
one year later. The bulk of the songs were written on
the road during Leppard’s 2006 US tour with Journey.
“You have a lot of downtime on tour,” Joe says, “so we Hysteria… It’s our entire
had a room set up every day for us to jam in. The
crew would fill the room with red shaded lamps,
incense, sparkly tube lighting… so that’s where the history in there.”
title for the album came from.”
“It was a pretty laid-back approach,” Phil says. “We – Joe Elliott on Welcome To The Sparkle Lounge

124 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 125

126 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Like the last two decades never happened, in 2015 Def
Leppard were riding high, with a fine new album and a US

arena tour. So where did it all go right for Sheffield’s finest?


Words: Ken McIntyre Photos: Ross Halfin


ure, man, Def Leppard: British tube from a roll of paper towels, which
royalty; bloodied but unbowed soon segues into how great The Struts are,
rock’n’roll survivors; the heroes and his favourite shows on Netflix.
of the hour – any hour. But That’s the odd thing about hanging out
S hanging out backstage in with Def Leppard. Let us not forget that in
a cavernous arena in St Paul, Minnesota their early-80s prime they were one of the
with the band’s affable Irish guitarist of biggest bands in the whole world, the literal
23 years, former Dio axe-slinger Vivian poster-boys for pop-metal, perennial chart-
Campbell, I finally dig up some dirt on toppers, MTV’s proudest sons. The songs
the squeaky-clean firestarters: turns out and subsequent music videos they created
Def Lep broke up Thin Lizzy. True story. in that era – Rock Of Ages, Foolin’, Bringin’
“I remember being in a club in 1983 On The Heartbreak, Photograph, Pour Some
when Pyromania had just come out,” says Sugar On Me… – are so indelibly stamped
Campbell, “and Phil Lynott was in the into our DNA that it’s almost impossible
club. He was really down. I asked him to imagine a world without them. And yet
what was wrong and he said: ‘Have you here they are, pushing 60, the same line-up
heard that new Def Leppard record, since the early 1990s, talking about their
Pyromania?’ I said: ‘Yeah, it’s great.’ And favourite T.Rex songs like mere mortals.
he says: ‘I’m thinking of breaking up Thin “It’s just cool being in a room together
Lizzy.’ And I was a huge Thin Lizzy fan. with these guys, man,” says bassist Rick
And I said: ‘No! Why would you do that?’ Savage, his trademark curls grey but still
He said: ‘That album is a game-changer. intact. “The humour, the storytelling, the
It makes us sound old-fashioned.’” way that we view things, it’s the same as
And then he broke up Thin Lizzy. it was in the eighties. It’s not changed.”
“Yeah,” Campbell says, laughing. “And Indeed, despite the wealth and fame,
then he fuckin’ broke up Thin Lizzy.” everyone in the band seems remarkably
grounded. Rick – or Sav, as his bandmates
hat’s really as dark as the night gets. call him – reckon it’s because they never
If you’re looking for trouble, you’ve forgot where they came from.
Tcome to the wrong place. Thirty- “It’s not hard for us to be loyal to each
eight years into their other. It’s just fucking
sometimes rocky career, and natural. First and foremost,
Def Leppard happen when we first started out we
to be sailing through were a bunch of mates, and
something of a surprise we had the same goals and
resurgence. They’re the same vision. And that’s
currently barrelling through really the same now.”
the middle of the USA on “We were these working-
a package tour with class kids, and we saw
electricity fetishists Tesla a chance of making things
and jukebox heroes a little better than what the
Foreigner, and raking expectations of our
in record numbers. parents were,” explains
And this is all before “I was obsessed Elliott. “Working in the
they release their new mine, in factories,
record, the gleefully with music whatever. Thank God
eclectic, self-titled for Joe Strummer and
Def Leppard. Aside from from the minute Johnny Rotten. We’d
Joe Elliott’s nagging I could crawl.” hear them and go:
cough, things appear ‘Fuck, I could do
to be thrumming along Joe Elliott that!’ Even though
nicely. The singer is we never went down
currently suffering some viral bronchitis that musical path, we were huge fans of it
which he got in the coolest way possible. because of the fucking balls that they had
“They think it may have been brought on to take on Rick Wakeman, to stand there
by dust and gasoline at Sturgis, the biker- and chew gum and go: ‘No future!’ I mean,
fest,” he tells me at the Xcel Energy Centre fuck yeah. It was also far enough away
in Saint Paul. “See, the thing about Sturgis from World War II that even my dad
is, they all sit on their bikes down in front, had long hair. So they were very
revving their engines. And it hasn’t rained encouraging. My mother even taught me
there in 15 years, so all that dust and fumes how to play the guitar. They knew I was
just blow right up onto the stage.” obsessed with music from the minute
And then he launches into a lengthy I could crawl. I crawled right to the radio.
explanation of how your throat is like the I’m still doing it, really.”

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 127

All the world’s a stage:
(clockwise from here) Joe Elliott,
Rick Allen, Vivian Campbell, Phil
Collen, Rick Savage.


ndeed he is. And while it may feel like nothing’s backstage tonight. There is a meet-and-greet
changed, things certainly have. Def Leppard’s event with fans, but it’s pretty orderly, all
Iascent in the eighties was followed by a slow things considered, and when it’s over they file
grind into irrelevance in the next decade, back to their seats. Classic Rock’s photographer
culminating in their ill-advised 1996 ‘grunge’ actually has to hunt around a bit to find a bottle
album, Slang. Having weathered those storms, they of beer to sip. We weren’t expecting Sodom
were next hit with Vivian Campbell’s battle with and Gomorrah, but we came a long way to
cancer. Luckily, grunge is dead. And Campbell is get here, and it would be nice to witness the
on the mend. And so are Leppard. While they are goddamn perils of rock’n’roll decadence.
unsure exactly why the winds of fortune are I mean, you remember those videos, right?
blowing their way again, they’re happy they are. With all the girls, booze and parties? I issue
“I actually think it’s integrity on our part,” says my gripes to an amused Vivian Campbell.
muscle-bound guitarist Phil Collen. “We’ve stuck “There’s two bottles of whisky right there,
around and we really sing. We’re real. You look out Ken,” he grins.
at music these days and there’s not many bands left I point out that they’re not even open.
that can say that. It’s a like a banner: ‘Come out and “They will be,” he assures me. “We have a
see this, man. It’s the real shit.’” compulsory capful before the show. It started
“This has been one of the best tours we’ve a few years ago. Our then tour manager,
ever done. And that’s saying something,” Sav says, halfway through the show he takes
laughing. “There’s more people coming than we a Jameson’s and gives out a capful to the crew.
ever thought. The interaction between the other Now we do it too, except for Phil. But yeah, it’s not
bands has been great, the vibe backstage has been like we’re gonna be chugging it down tonight.” even around when all those so-called glam bands
great; everybody’s nice and ultra-cool. The fans Jesus fucking Christ, man. A capful? came up. We were in fuckin’ Holland making
have just been coming out in droves.” “People mix us up with the Mötley Crües and Hysteria. While they were out banging chicks
“With all due respect, we never wanted to be the Faster Pussycats, but we had nothing to do or whatever, we were looking at windmills and
Nazareth,” says Elliott. “We never wanted to be with them. The West Coast American glam-metal playing pool on a table without any pockets. We
one of those bands that had their three hits twenty- bands wanted to live up to an image. Like a guy were as far away from LA as any band could be.”
five years ago and then they’re done forever. So like Nikki Sixx, he had to be photographed with “One thing I can say about being in Def Leppard
there’s definitely a resurgence. There’s something a bottle of Jack Daniel’s, had to talk about how is that this band has always had a strong work
in the air. We can all feel it.” much blow he’d done the night before and how ethic,” says Campbell. “We’ve always had fun – and
You can. But what you can’t feel is the terror many chicks he’d banged. Whereas we just have during the Adrenalize tour things got a bit crazy –
and titillation of 80s-style backstage heavy metal a more British sensibility about that kind of stuff,” but there’s always been that sensibility about us.
mayhem. The truth is, there is very little going Campbell explains. “We’re a lot more modest People in that scene thought they needed excess to
on here to suggest anything other than a big about it. And the music really did come first.” get success, whereas I’ve never been that way. I’ve
ol’ rock’n’roll show. If there are groupies in this “I don’t know how anybody could confuse us never done cocaine in my life. I’m fond of a drink,
increasingly tender day and age, they are not with that lot,” Elliott says, laughing. “We weren’t but I’ve always wanted to be a musician more than

128 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

paid homage to that part of our youth.” book, just art. Absolute artistic freedom to do
“I loved making this new record,” what we want. We’ve touched on our past with
Collen says. “Most liberating thing we’ve this new record, but we’ve also gone places we’ve
ever done. Because we didn’t have to never gone before. In the past we’d do stuff and go:
worry about dealing with a record label, ‘That sounds a bit too much like Led Zeppelin III.’
it just flowed. That’s why it’s so diverse. This time we were like: ‘So fucking what?’ We were
And at this point we’re better producers, name-checking every band and album we could
arrangers and songwriters than ever.” think of when we were making this one.”
Leppard’s last studio record was 2008’s Of course, the band are realistic about the
Songs From The Sparkle Lounge. And if the album’s chances.
music industry was on its last legs then, “If we’re what you’d call a non-chart botherer,
it’s rotting in a casket now. Many veteran then we’re in great company,” Elliott shrugs.
rock bands have since made the eye- “Think about it. Bowie, McCartney, the Stones, The
rolling claim that the album format is Who… when was the last time they bothered the
dead. Leppard themselves even felt that charts? Thirty years ago? I don’t know if anybody’s
way at the beginning of this project. gonna care about this record or not. But we’re
“Originally we were just going to do doing it for us. As selfish as that might sound,
a single, maybe three songs,” Elliott that’s the most important thing.”
explains. “But it was the emperor’s new “It was for the artistic expression, the love of
clothes. Everybody was saying the album making music,” Collen adds. “If you don’t do it for
was dead, and there were lots of people that reason, then you shouldn’t even be in a band.”
just putting out one song. And we were
kinda dying inside, man. You’re telling inutes later, the band hit the stage. They
I wanted to be a rock star. I still feel that way.” me there’s no place to put a bunch of new songs? do not play Let’s Go or anything else from
It’s true. Time and again, the band bring the I’ve got a whole headful of ’em. I’ll go crazy if Mthe new album, although they do
conversation back to the music, to their enduring I can’t get them out. So we all got together just promise to next time out. Instead they dig into
love for rock’n’roll, and how honoured they feel to to see what everybody their formidable arsenal
be a part of it. had, and two days later of super-hits,
we had twelve songs – “I’ve always wanted culminating in a near-
hich leads us, neatly, to their new skeletal versions – and delirious encore of
record. Def Leppard is their most diverse, by the end of the month to be a musician Photograph/Rock of Ages.
Weclectic collection of songs ever. Lead- we had an album. So we Not a moment of their
off single Let’s Go is prime, arena-baiting Leppard, a said: ‘Fuck them, fuck all more than I wanted stage time is wasted. It’s
towering heap of hooks and endless choruses sure these naysayers, we’re to be a rock star.” pure spectacle, from
to please the diehards. But the deeper you dig, the gonna make a record.’” start to finish. And aside
more interesting this album gets. And that’s by And not just any Vivian Campbell from the tender throats
design. record, either. Def Leppard and stiff knees, the band
“To me, this record is about not being afraid to is the record they’ve always wanted to make. are no worse for wear after thoroughly and utterly
tip my hat to the music that inspired me – to The “This is the first record we ever made without decimating the 12,000-strong audience. No one
Beatles and to Queen or the Rolling Stones,” says a record contract,” Elliott points out. “We paid went unrocked in that arena, and Leppard barely
drummer Rick Allen. “I tried to do my best John for it ourselves, and when we finished it we said: worked up a sweat. If you didn’t know any better, if
Bonham impersonations on this record, which I’ve ‘Okay, who wants it?’ It’s a luxury to be able to you weren’t close up enough to see the make-up
never really done before. So there was a real sense do that. But from an artistic point of view it was caking in the lines around their eyes, you’d think
of freedom that we could come up with songs that fantastic, because there was no clock, no cheque- this band was still in the prime of their career,

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 129

FLASH METAL SUICIDE,

DEF LEPPARD EDITION


Pearl Leppard? Def Garden? When the
Sheffield rockers went ghastly grunge.


Give a band enough time, and they’ll create their
own Music From The Elder or Hot Space; that one
dreadful, wrong-headed disaster of an album.
Case in point: Def Leppard’s 1996 descent into the
muck of Seattle grunge, Slang. Lep? Grunge?
Jesus, fellas.
“We didn’t know what we were gonna do with
Slang but we knew we couldn’t make a typical Def
Leppard album in the mid 1990s,” explains Vivian
Campbell. “Grunge was very much happening and
our stuff was anathema at the time. We were
damned if we did and damned if we didn’t.
“Even for me, I feel like we went a little too far
left-field,” he says. “I knew we had to, but it’s
a question of how far do you take it? Personally
I think we could’ve bolstered the songs with a little
more of that Def Lep fairy dust we usually sprinkle
on to records but instead we went: ‘No, let’s keep it
raw; no backing vocals; let’s not do that part
because it’s too melodic, let’s be more monotone.’
“We were listening to Nirvana and Pearl Jam just
like everybody else, and especially to Soundgarden
– the Superunknown record. That was the record
that we referenced in terms of the sonics and the
mood of it when making Slang. At least it gave us
the chance to grow up a little. We live in a state of
arrested development in this band, singing songs
like Let’s Get Rocked. So we did get to write some
grown-up lyrics. And we were going through a lot
of shit at that time – Sav’s dad died on the eve of
the first recording day, both Joe and Phil were going Led Zeppelin when we were younger. It’s very
through divorces… So it gave us an opportunity to flattering, and it’s very invigorating. It gives us the
write lyrics that reflected the reality of our lives.” will to keep going, and makes us feel like we’re not “We enjoy what we’re doing, and we manage
Incidentally, Slang isn’t a bad grunge record, it’s just playing to diminishing returns; that we’re still things properly so we’re not away from friends and
just a really bad Def Leppard record.
growing our audience, even after all these years.” family for too long,” says Elliott. “From an artistic
Of course, even with all this optimism there is point of view, I know we’ve got more songs in us.
with many miles left to roam and many hearts still some scary arithmetic to consider. Thirty-eight Will we ever do another album that will do as well
to conquer. And for some, it still feels that way. years since they formed is a mind-boggler. But if as Hysteria? Probably not. But that doesn’t mean
“I still get keyed-up before we go on,” says they want to shoot for 50 years’ existence, that’s that some of the songs on this new album aren’t
Savage. “That’s the reason we started this band: gonna be a gruesome spectacle. as good, or even better. And that doesn’t mean we
for the buzz. We wanted to show off for ninety “This definitely doesn’t feel like the end,” says don’t have many more shows in us.”
minutes. It’s a little bit more natural when you’re Elliott. “It feels more like we’re in the middle. And with that it’s over. The whole show is
twenty-one, but to be in your fifties… I know it’s not. We’d be pretty fucking ugly at packed up and shipped off to the next town. Collen
I mean, it still kinda feels like you’re twenty-one. the end if we were in the middle. But unless leaves with his family, the rest mingle with the
And not in a sad way, either. It just feels cool.” something catastrophic happens, I don’t see crew before slinking off for a few quiet hours on
“Joe said something very astute just last the end any time soon.” the bus. And rock’n’roll can sleep easy tonight,
week,” Campbell says. “He said that even though That sentiment is echoed by the rest of the band. knowing that Def Leppard are still out there,
physically it’s hard, it’s much cooler to be in your There is no finale in sight. There’s only the next gig, roaming the earth with their flashy pop-metal
mid-fifties doing this than it was in your forties. the next record, the next knee-buckling encore. guitars, keeping the heart of Saturday night beating
That was a transitional period, when you’re just “We just don’t talk about it,” says Allen. “It’s the loud and strong. Maybe not forever, but certainly
old and over the hill. But if you’re doing it in your elephant in the room, but we ignore it. I think it’ll for as long as we need them to.
fifties, you’re a survivor. When young kids come be so obvious at that point that we won’t even need “If we’re the last men standing, that’s great,”
to our shows now, they see us the way we saw to say anything.” Rick Allen says with a wink. “Happy to do it.”

130 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

THE BAND THAT BUILT PROG







Celebrate 50 years of Jethro Tull with the stories behind


the albums, songs and people, taken from the archives

of Classic Rock and Prog magazines

BUYER’S GUIDE GETTY










Def Leppard Essential Classics



A band forged in Sheffield steel who went on to conquer America,

this is your guide to the best – and worst – Leps albums.

f there’s one rock band that can about. “We wanted to be a pop-rock
truly be described as heroes, it’s Def band,” Elliott says. “We wanted to do
ILeppard. AC/DC overcame the death what Bowie and Bolan did. We had more
of singer Bon Scott to make the biggest- in common with Duran Duran than with
selling rock album of all time: Back In Iron Maiden!”
Black. Metallica recovered from the death Leppard knew instinctively where their
of bassist Cliff Burton to become the biggest audience was; they even wrote
most successful and influential metal a song called Hello America. And when Pyromania Hysteria
band of the modern era. But Def Leppard they teamed up with AC/DC producer VERTIGO, 1983 BLUDGEON RIFFOLA, 1987
have suffered two tragedies: the car Mutt Lange in the early 80s they hit the When Def Leppard recorded this, It was conceived as hard rock’s
crash in 1984 in which drummer Rick jackpot. With Lange’s creative input the album that made them multi- answer to Michael Jackson’s
Allen lost his left arm, and the alcohol- earning him unofficial status as the platinum-selling superstars in the Thriller, an album on which every
related death of guitarist Steve Clark in band’s sixth member, Leppard conquered United States, they were still each track is a potential hit single.
1991. The fact that Def Leppard are still America with 1983’s Pyromania and 1987’s on wages of £40 a week. The And so it proved. Six of
together in 2008, still making great music Hysteria, the first back-to-back albums serious money went into Hysteria’s 12 tracks were Top 20
and playing to audiences of 20,000 on ever to each sell seven million copies. Pyromania’s production. US hits, with power ballad Love
their latest US tour, is testimony to the Hysteria even made Def Leppard The result was state-of-the-art Bites reaching No.1 and rap-rock
extraordinary courage and resolve of this a household name back in Britain – a arena rock with the riff-power of hybrid Pour Some Sugar On Me
great British rock band. proud achievement for a band that AC/DC and the melodic hitting No.2.
Having formed in Sheffield in 1977, famously sported Union Jack T-shirts sophistication of 80s pop. With 18 million copies sold
Def Leppard were thinking big from during their US tours. Photograph was the key hit worldwide, Hysteria remains the
the very start. Their name was inspired Undoubtedly it’s the phenomenal single, Die Hard The Hunter the biggest album of Def Leppard’s
by Led Zeppelin, and the blueprint for success of Pyromania and Hysteria that epic set-piece (its riff nicked from career, and also their most
their music was, as singer Joe Elliott has has extended Def Leppard’s career over Cliff Richard’s Devil Woman!), experimental. “We wanted to
stated: “AC/DC meets Queen”. In 1979 20 years, through some lean times when Rock Of Ages the stomping, We push the envelope of what rock
Leppard rose to prominence alongside their feel-good rock has fallen out of Will Rock You-style anthem, music was,” Elliott says.
Iron Maiden in the New Wave Of British fashion. But this is one band that never complete with joke faux-German Rocket, with its extended,
Heavy Metal, although Leppard’s glam- thought about quitting, not even in the intro from Mutt Lange. Burundi-inspired drum
inspired hard rock was radically different darkest times. For Def Leppard a rock is “With Pyromania everything breakdown, typified their
from what most NWOBHM bands were never out of the question. Paul Elliott changed for us,” Elliott says. anything-goes approach.

132 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Superior Reputation cementing




















On Through High ’N’ Dry Adrenalize Euphoria Songs From The
The Night VERTIGO, 1981 MERCURY, 1992 BLUDGEON RIFFOLA, 1999 Sparkle Lounge

MERCURY, 1980 Leppard’s second album is the Grunge didn’t kill hair-metal with The title spoke volumes: a nod to BLUDGEON RIFFOLA, 2008
“We’ve never been heavy metal,” connoisseur’s choice, a hard rock a single blow. In March 1992, two Pyromania and Hysteria, a signal 2008 was a banner year for
claims Joe Elliott. But for all his tour de force that swept them out months after Nirvana’s Nevermind that the old Def Leppard was classic rock, with AC/DC,
protestations, Leppard’s debut is of the NWOBHM ghetto. topped the US chart, Def Leppard back after Slang. Even Mutt Lange Metallica and even Guns N’
a heavy metal album, plain and Working with Mutt Lange for hit the top spot in America with was back lending a hand on Fuckin’ Roses all back in business.
simple. In their youthful naivety, the first time, Leppard made a Adrenalize. Euphoria, not as producer but as And you can add to that
the five-piece attacked their huge leap forward from their The album party vibe of lead co-writer of two songs, including illustrious list the best Def
debut album with all the gusto of debut, On Through The Night. single Let’s Get Rocked might have lead single Promises, a super-slick, Leppard album since Hysteria.
their NWOBHM peers. Wisely, Mutt didn’t smooth off all suggested it was business as harmony-laden track reminiscent Rejuvenated by a succession
No shame in that. The brutal of their rough edges. usual for Leppard, but in reality of 1987’s killer single Animal. of triumphant US enormo-dome
Wasted has the same streetwise Opening with the knockout the band were still in mourning Leppard ticked all the right tours, Leppard delivered an
appeal as early Iron Maiden, one-two punch of Let It Go and for Steve Clark, to whom boxes with Euphoria. Back In Your arena-rock master-class with
Rock Brigade and Rocks Off are Another Hit And Run, it’s the Adrenalize was dedicated. Face is the guiltiest of pleasures, a Songs From The Sparkle Lounge.
the very definition of gonzoid, and rowdiest and most balls-out, Adrenalize featured six tracks throwback to Gary Glitter’s Nine Lives is classic Leppard,
the prog-tinged seven-minute ass-kicking album the band have co-written with Clark, but it was a pomp. Goodbye is a deluxe power C’mon C’mon recalls the glory of
Overture references 70s-vintage ever recorded. The pissed-up title new song, White Lightning, that ballad. And there’s something of 70s glam rock. Most
Rush and Kansas. But the true track is Leppard’s Highway To Hell; served as the most fitting Steve Clark’s swagger in Paper adventurously, the richly
measure of Leppard’s ambitions the duelling guitars of Switch 625 epitaph: a meditation on Clark’s Sun, a song that Brian May says textured, left-field power ballad
was Hello America, with its had echoes of classic Thin Lizzy. death, it has a Zeppelin-inspired blew him away. “We like Brian,” Love is bassist Rick Savage’s
polished vocal harmonies. Things were rapidly heating up. grandeur he would have loved. says Joe Elliott. “He rocks.” homage to Queen.


Good Worth exploring Avoid




















Retro Active Slang Mirror Ball – Def Leppard X

BLUDGEON RIFFOLA, 1993 BLUDGEON RIFFOLA, 1996 Live & More BLUDGEON RIFFOLA, 2015 BLUDGEON RIFFOLA, 2002
For an odds ‘n’ sods album, Retro After grunge, hair-metal’s BLUDGEON RIFFOLA/FRONTIERS, 2011 The title of the band’s last album In 2006 Leppard’s covers album
Active was both astonishingly superstars had to rethink. Jon Bon All of the greatest live rock to date was simply explained by Yeah! suffered a terrible mauling
good and an impressively strong Jovi had a bob and pulled off a albums – Deep Purple’s Made In Joe Elliott. “It’s just called Def from the press, most notably the
seller, achieving platinum status smart reinvention. But when Japan, Thin Lizzy’s Live And Leppard because that’s what it one-word review: “No.”
in the US. Leppard’s first album Mötley Crüe went ‘alternative’ Dangerous et al – have captured sounds like,” the singer said, Yeah! deserved better, if only
with guitarist Vivian Campbell, it and Bret Michaels grew a beard, a moment in time for a band at before elaborating: “It doesn’t for Leppard’s inspired remakes of
also includes the last work of his they weren’t fooling anyone. its early peak. sound like any one specific era of David Essex’s Rock On and ELO’s
predecessor Steve Clark. In these trying times Leppard In that sense, Leppard, like Van Def Leppard. It’s got everything.” 10538 Overture. Certainly there
Clark’s signature riffing drives knew they couldn’t make another Halen before them, missed a He wasn’t underselling it. The are worse albums. Such as X.
the album’s weighty epics Desert Adrenalize. As Joe Elliott recalls: trick. But on the plus side, Mirror breadth of the album was Def Leppard have always
Song and Fractured Love, the “We went heavier and darker. Ball proved that this was still one illustrated in its fist and last tracks embraced pop music. When
former styled on Zeppelin’s And it nearly killed us!” of the best live acts in the – Let’s Go, a classic Leppard making Hysteria, one of their key
Kashmir. Elsewhere Leppard Slang sold a disappointing business, delivering an arena rock opener, albeit it one reminiscent inspirations was Frankie Goes To
acknowledged other key half-a-million copies in the US. master class with all the hits and, of Pour Some Sugar On Me, and Hollywood. But with X they went
influences with covers of The But it’s a bold album, with great in memory of Steve Clark, the Blind Faith, with dark, soul- too far. By working with cheesy
Sweet’s Action and Mick Ronson’s songs in Work It Out and the steamin’ Switch 625. searching lyrics and a touch of pop songwriters a great rock
Only After Dark. The ballads Miss monolithic Pearl Of Euphoria. Equally, the addition of three Sgt. Pepper-style psychedelics. band lost its balls, albeit
You In A Heartbeat and Two Steps Joe Elliott calls Slang “our most new studio tracks, including the Best of all was Man Enough, a temporarily. Apart from one
Behind proved that the band honest record”. But a return to muscular anthem Undefeated, tongue-in-cheek funk-rock sizzler track, the beefy Four Letter Word,
could flourish without Mutt the classic Leppard sound wasn’t proved that Sheffield’s finest still inspired by Queen’s Another One X is all pop and no rock. This
Lange’s studio trickery. far away. had the creative juice. Bites The Dust. really was a sell-out.

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 133

Eleven studio albums, 26 UK hit singles, more than 100 million
records sold; one near-fatal car crash, one tragic death… This, and

so much more, is the story of the first 40 years of Def Leppard.

Words: Mick Wall Photos: Ross Halfin


e’s late. Which is unusual. In the four So here he is this morning, in an old T-shirt, bleary,
decades I’ve known him, Joe Elliott just out of bed. But he still looks a decade younger than
has always been the total professional his age, 58. Still has that dirty-blond dye in his longish
– even when he’s been hurting inside. straight hair, which suits him more than his natural
H But today, well, hey, he overslept. It’s smoke-dark hair. Still has hair, more to the point.
still early morning in London and he’s just starting We have coffee, and he spoons a mountain of sugar
what will be a 12-hour day of interviews and promo into big cup of cappuccino. He chats about a piece he
and whatnot. After years of holding out against the and Rick Savage just shot for The One Show – for which
digital tide, Def Leppard finally allowed their entire they went back to the tiny room in the Sheffield spoon
back catalogue to be available for streaming. The result factory where they used to rehearse as teens –
has seen classic five-star Leppard landmarks like performing an acoustic version of Pour Some Sugar On
Pyromania and, in particular, Hysteria, fly straight to the Me. It’s a listed building, so the outside remains the
top of charts all over the globe. same. But inside it’s been renovated over the years. “It’s
“We held out so long because the deal we had with a very arty place now, people making clothes, painters,
our original label, Mercury, was at a time when CDs stuff like that. But when I looked out the window it’s
hadn’t even been invented, let alone the idea of making like I’d been transported back to 1978.”
all your music available to your phone,” he explains.
“We didn’t even have mobile phones back then. So Which is a good place to start. How old were you
when our record deal ended [in 2009] we were able to when you left Sheffield?
decide what we wanted to do ourselves without Twenty-one. I packed up a suitcase and a box of stuff,
pressure from anyone. But we were constantly on the and I moved to London after the On Through The Night
road touring, people were still buying CDs and we just tour. But I’d kinda left home [already], because when
didn’t really address the whole thing until the last we went on tour I was gone. I needed my own place by
couple of years.” then. I’d made an album, for God’s sake.

134 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 135

a hit here. America was easier, because it
was bigger. The UK was so much more
difficult. There was only one radio station.
In America there was two per town –
twenty-four hours a day. What did we
have? Tommy Vance doing two hours on
a Friday night? We tried and we tried, and
in the end Bon Jovi did it for us. In between
Pyromania and Hysteria, Bon Jovi came out
with Slippery When Wet and put rock back
on the radio. Which made it a lot easier for
Leppard to finally get accepted in the UK.


Before that, though, you were being
trashed even by the rock fans in the
UK; the flash bastards that had sold out
and taken the Yankee dollar.
We got trashed for being the band that sold
out to America, because we wrote a song
called Hello America. That was me in
You moved into a flat in London that “We’re gonna be moment onwards I went to just about every a basement with no natural light, dying to
belonged to one-time Leppard big!” Even in the gig at the [Sheffield] City Hall – Sparks, get out the basement. And that’s all that
drummer Frank Noon that you later very early days Roxy, Skynyrd, Lizzy, Budgie. Rush’s first was. We wanted America just the same
they were full
described as “a frat house”. of confidence. ever gig in the UK was at Sheffield. One way Maiden wanted it. But Maiden didn’t
It was fantastic. There was me, Bernie week I saw Styx followed by The Clash. get trashed for it like we did. We wanted it
Tormé, Frank, Colin Bond who played bass the same way that Zeppelin got it. We
[for Stampede]. It was a bedsit, basically. And yet by 1979-80 you’re a ‘new wanted it but we wanted it everywhere.
A hundred and thirty pounds a month. wave metal’ band, whether you like We wanted global domination. We didn’t
it or not. see ourselves as this little local band. We
How old were you when you started to I was glad we were in Sounds, but you’d had that mind space of wanting to be the
see real money coming in? look at articles about us and go: biggest band in the world.
We were on thirty pounds a week “Look, man, where do you see
even up to Pyromania, when we were “We were on a correlation in the musical styles You were helped in that ambition
selling out arenas. When I was living between us and, say, Vardis?” because early on you ditched your
in Isleworth with my girlfriend we thirty pounds Lumping us in with NWOBHM home-town management team and
were both signing on. Once we were a week even up was like lumping us in with Duran signed with former Mercury A&R
on tour we got a hundred dollars Duran and Spandau Ballet. executive Cliff Bernstein and his
a week. You wonder how anyone to Pyromania, partner Peter Mensch, formerly of
ever got pissed. Things changed for you once you Lieber-Krebs, then one of the biggest
I remember we were in Las Vegas when we got to America, though. rock management companies in
in September 1983, and I actually were selling When we got to the States we were America, looking after Aerosmith,
finally went out and bought a video just Def Leppard. They weren’t AC/DC, Scorpions et cetera.
camera because I wanted to record out arenas.” comparing us to anyone. They just We had already signed our record deal
some of this stuff. It cost five embraced it and put it into the vast before Peter and Cliff became involved. We
hundred pounds. I had to get [Leppard bucket of various things they would play didn’t meet Peter Mensch properly until we
manager] Peter Mensch to advance me it – on American FM radio. did the AC/DC Highway To Hell tour [in
and we’d sold six million albums by then. October 1979]. Rick Allen said to Mensch:
Was it always the aim to be big in “I want you to stand outside this door and
Even though Leppard became America? listen to the conversation” with our
associated with the NWOBHM era – It wasn’t the pot of gold at the end of the original managers, Frank Stuart-Brown
specifically through your coverage in Original guitarist rainbow, it was part of the big picture. It and Peter Martin. Because they just didn’t
Sounds magazine – your musical Pete Willis, whose wasn’t the end game. You know how hard get what we were trying to do. One day
problems would
influences actually had very little to do eventually lead to we tried to break the UK. You know how [Leppard guitarist] Pete Willis said to Frank
with metal. You were a major Bowie him being fired. much it meant to us when we finally had Stuart-Brown: “Why don’t we stop the
fan, you loved Queen, Rod Stewart, show in the middle and do a juggling thing
Elton John… with some playing cards?” And the guy
Yes. My favourite Bowie period was from went: “Great idea!” Pete was like: “I’m
Space Oddity to Diamond Dogs, because it taking the piss, you fucking idiot!”
was glam rock. Mott The Hoople was That’s when we had a meeting and said:
another band I loved. When Queen came “Peter, we want you to manage us.” He said
in and Bowie went to what he called his fine, but there will be consequences. And
‘plastic soul’ period with Young Americans, we basically had to write off [royalties]
I loved that record but I was playing more from the first two albums to Martin and
Queen now. Maybe I just gravitate to Stuart-Brown because that’s where the
bands. The gang factor, you know. I mean, contracts were. Though it worked out well,
the first two gigs I ever saw were T.Rex and because the first two albums didn’t sell as
the Faces. Chalk and cheese but awesome! well as everyone thought they would. Steve
I was eleven or twelve. The next gig I saw [Clark] was reluctant to get rid of Pete
was Hunter-Ronson, March seventy-five. Martin cos he was his drinking buddy, but
I was sixteen. It was amazing. From that the rest of us were up for it.



136 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

RICK SAVAGE




Leppard’s founding bassist has been there every step of the way. We
collared Sav to hear about the in-jokes, the albums that slipped between
the cracks and why he’d rather play for the masses than for the hipsters.
Interview: Henry Yates

When you formed Leppard, did it feel like song, and when it was finished you’d think:
the start of a world-beating rock band? “Bloody hell, that’s actually quite good.”
In a strange kind of way it did. Whether
every bunch of teenagers that starts a band You’ve had plenty of good and bad luck,
feels that way, and whether it was just naïve haven’t you?
enthusiasm, I don’t know, but me and Joe I know people have been quoted as saying:
definitely felt there was something special “They’re the unluckiest band in the world.”
there. Looking back, there was no real That’s nonsense. We’ve had some bad
Perm-anent member: grounds for it, because we were pretty things happen in the camp over the years,
bassist Rick Savage.
rubbish. At that time, we knew we weren’t no doubt about that. But hasn’t everybody?
super musicians, but we clicked when it
The other big hitter who had a big came to coming up with ideas. Do you think you could have handled the
influence on your early success was situations with Steve and Pete differently?
legendary producer Robert John Back then, did Joe seem like he’d be one of With Pete, I think we were more patient
‘Mutt’ Lange. the great rock frontmen of the eighties? than most people would be. We did give
The first album, On Through The Night, was It was hard to say, because him a lot of chances to get
recorded relatively quickly, in just a few we’d never really heard him “ADRENALIZE IS THE himself straightened out.
weeks, with producer Tom Allom, who sing. It was his enthusiasm It wasn’t as straightforward
was Judas Priest’s producer at the time. We that got him the job, if you FIRST TIME I DON’T as “You’re fired”, it just
had no idea how important [Mutt coming like. He’d be the first to THINK WE PUT OUR comes to the point where
in] would be at the beginning. We just admit that when we started HEART AND SOUL it couldn’t continue.
hoped that it would be as important as it he had to develop his voice. CORRECTLY INTO IT.” With Steve, it’s really
had been for AC/DC and Foreigner and the Not really improving it, but difficult when somebody
is on this cycle of…
Boomtown Rats. Mutt was a pretty hard- developing an identity with I wouldn’t say self-destruction, but just
it. But in every other aspect he was born
core disciplinarian in those early days, but to do it. difficult to handle. It needs to come from
he needed to be. We thought you made that person to turn things around. They can
records like we had with Tom Allom, How has Leppard tested your friendship get all the support and help, but that can
where we basically played our live set. since then? only go so far.
[Mutt] put me and Rick Allen through However your friendship was in those early
the fucking wringer on High ‘N’ Dry. years, regardless of what happens in the Do you think Leppard lost their way after
Reviewing it in Sounds, Geoff Barton said next forty you never lose it. Nothing’s Steve’s death?
the biggest improvement in this and the changed. It’s like being in a bubble. It was a very difficult period in the life of the
first album was my vocals. Which it was. We have the same jokes, we say band. And it took us a long while to come
Mutt made me realise that somewhere the same quotes from Fawlty out the other side. I personally feel like the
deep down inside myself was a singer, not Towers and Blackadder. The whole Adrenalize album was an album made
just a guy pretending to be one. And he world outside of the bubble by people in a trance. I wasn’t completely
knew Rick was a great drummer but he gets older, and we just stay one hundred per cent there. And it’s the first
didn’t want him to rely just on what he doing what we’re doing. time I don’t think we put our heart and soul
knew. He forced him to push on to the There’s no need for fist-fights, correctly into it. We did as much as we
next level. With the guitars it was the same or walking out and leaving could, but it just felt like we were
thing. He really worked them hard. But tours, or bad-mouthing sleepwalking through the process. And
Pete was easy to work because Pete was each other. The thought because of that, the album has a certain
a fantastic player – when he wasn’t of that is just so alien vibe and sound that, to me, doesn’t have the
to me.
unbelievable ground-breaking touches that
distracted by substances and stuff. Steve the previous two albums did.
was in a tiny little shell, scared to death Was Mutt Lange as
to come out of it. Sav was playing the tough on you as he was Do you think of yourself as the guardian of
bass, which was Mutt’s instrument on everybody else? the band, in a sense?
when he was in a band. He’d push us Yeah. Every single Not really. Factually, it’s me and Joe that
and push until we’re going: “Fuck off. element that went into have been in the band the longest. But
I’m not doing it again.” And he’d go: a song was equally you all develop little roles. Joe will always
“Fine. We’ll come back to it important. The sound be the flag bearer and mouthpiece. I really
tomorrow.” We’d be like: “Do you of the hi-hat was as don’t like doing interviews. But Joe seems to
talk to everybody in bands like this?” important as the voice. thrive on it. He’s such a fan of music and he
He’d be: “Yeah.” There was no favouritism loves representing the band. So why not?
and no bullying either. He Go ahead!
utt Lange would go on to would bring the best out
produce the heady brace of of you without you ever What do you feel are Leppard’s most
Malbums that not only became feeling: “God, I hate this underrated moments?
the biggest-selling albums of Leppard’s guy. Why can’t we just go Slang kind of slipped between the cracks.
career, Pyromania (1983) and Hysteria to the pub?” You’d just At the time, the masses of the Leppard fans
(1987), but also would actually redefine edge your way through the were expecting another Pour Some Sugar



CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 137

On Me or Do You Want To Get Rocked [sic],
which is what we were trying to distance
ourselves from. We needed to do it for
ourselves, or we’d have gone nuts trying to
recreate the same sound.

None of the ‘hipster’ rock press wrote
about Leppard, though. Did you care?
No. It may have been cause for a bit of
a joke. When it comes to critical acclaim,
we’ve always felt we were underrated. But
you accept it. We were never the cool,
credible band, ever. To us it was all about the
songs. Not about a movement, not about
a political standpoint or standing up for less
fortunate people. That doesn’t mean to say
we disregarded those people, but we also
believed the best way we could contribute
was by letting people escape their boring
lives for a couple of hours. Which I think is
valid. It’s pure entertainment.
what a rock record could do in the 1980s. Flying the flag: Steve wouldn’t get drunk until the end of
Those are the landmarks on which just in case the gig. He never turned up at the studio
You still play the hits, but you write new people didn’t
material too. Is it important to do both? Leppard built their career. know which incapable of playing. Not until the very,
I don’t have a problem playing the hits. Yet those years also came at an country they very end. But with Pete it had been going
Y’know, if you didn’t want to play this song enormous personal cost for the band, were from. on for two years. I remember Mutt coming
for forty years, then don’t write it, or don’t beginning with the firing of Pete Willis on to us and laughing and saying: “You’ve got
even be in the business. If someone said to the eve of recording Pyromania, then to come and hear this solo.” We go in and
you [as a kid]: “Forty years in the future, segueing horrifically into the car Pete was trying to play the back of
you’ll still be playing this song because crash on December 31, 1982 in his guitar, he was that drunk. Two
people love it so much,” you’d snap their which drummer Rick Allen lost his bottles of brandy, and when he got
hand off. But I do think it’s important to keep arm, again at the start of making an “Lumping us in up the next day he couldn’t even
doing fresh things. Not necessarily for the album, and ending just a year after with NWOBHM stand. I got so angry, because he’d
fans, but for the internal workings of the the Hysteria world tour ended with promised us it wouldn’t happen
band. It keeps us fresh, and that allows us the death of Steve Clark. was like lumping any more.
to put fresh energy into even the old songs. us in with Duran So World Cup Final day, 1982,
With Pete Willis, is it to correct we had Pete driven down from
Are you glad that Leppard got big before to say his firing wasn’t just Duran and Sheffield to London – awkward for
the internet killed album sales? down to drunkeness and drug the guy driving. Everybody knew
I guess so, yeah. I must say I’m happy that stuff, you just didn’t like him Spandau Ballet.” what was gonna happen. We said
we got together when we did. I would hate
to be trying to do it all over again in 2018. very much any more anyway? we can’t deal with this any more.
Even being eighteen again. It’s just different I don’t think Pete was a big coke-head. “I’m sorry, Pete. I’m really, really sorry, but
now. It’s a different vibe. There’s so many I think he smoked a lot of weed and we’re done.” He said: “What if I go and see
other distractions that teenagers have. drank a lot of alcohol. But he was a shrink?” I was the one that said no to
belligerent after the sun went down that. “No. If you really thought that that

Do younger rock bands tell you that and he’d been drinking. It wasn’t that he would solve the problem, you’d have done
Leppard were an influence on them? wasn’t coming up with the goods, it already.”
That probably only started happening in because he did co-write that [Pyromania].
the late nineties, when bands started But all the sexy stuff was Mutt’s What was it about Phil that you
coming up to us and saying: “You guys were arrangement and Sav’s and Steve’s writing. thought he would bring to the group?
great.” Whereas bands like Nirvana and Pete would throw in the odd thing. But Number one, he’s a brilliant guitar player
Soundgarden would try and do anything to Pete would just avoid the situation if he and writer and singer. But I didn’t know
not sound like Def Leppard. Quite rightly. didn’t like what we were doing. I don’t half the things that I know now when he
think he was that keen in the direction the first joined. Musically, we bought the same
Is another forty years of Leppard band was going in. Whereas we wanted to records in the same week, growing up.
completely out of the question? go a bit more commercial pop, he didn’t I didn’t know that, but when we did get
I’ll be ninety-seven by then. I’d be happy really want to go there. together all those things were in the
just to still be breathing at that point. But background ready to be discussed. We still
there’s no time limit on stuff like this. I mean, Pete told me he’d offered to go and see argue over which of us bought the first
the Stones are going out this summer. And a shrink, like Steve had, as a last resort, Montrose album first.
as long as they’re performing to a level that but that you all said no. Is that true?
doesn’t disappoint people, why not? We He’d stayed at my mum and dad’s house
were out with The Who in South America That’s absolutely true. Everybody – when Girl [with Collen their guitarist]
in October. Admittedly it’s only Roger and Mensch, Bernstein, friends, family, road opened for UFO in Sheffield. We hung out,
crew, other bands – was saying to us how me, Steve, Phil and [Girl singer] Phil Lewis.
Pete left, but the songs were played as great
as they ever were. So the band live on. Same many more last chances are you gonna We got up on Sledgehammer’s gear in the
with Queen. We’re still relatively young, y’know? give this guy? We gave him hundreds. Genevieve, which was actually a disco. We
It kinda works in our favour, because we’ve I rang Phil [Collen] on the High ‘N’ Dry tour asked if we could have a go on their gear.
got ten or fifteen years on those guys. So and said: “Can you learn twelve or fourteen I went on the drums, Steve went on the
while they’re still doing it, it gives us songs in two days? Because if you can bass, Phil on guitar and Phil Lewis sang,
something up to look up and try to achieve. we’re gonna fire him now.” I got talked and we did You Really Got Me, and Do You
down off the ledge with that one. Love Me by Kiss. It was hilarious. Steve lay



138 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

down on the drum riser and passed out.
But he didn’t pass out and try and beat
everybody up. Pete was a nasty little piece RICK ALLEN
of work when he’d a drink. Everybody else
in this band just threw up and went to
sleep [laughs]. Until Steve passed out and Having joined the band in ’78, Leppard’s drummer has come through
never woke up again. adulation, addiction and amputation without missing a beat.
We’ve had some major problems in this Interview: Henry Yates
band with alcohol. Pete wasn’t great at it
and eventually Steve wasn’t great at it. But It’s 1978. How does a fourteen-year-old bring that conflict within earshot of us
at the time, when it was still neck and neck, kid come to be in Def Leppard? wasn’t very professional. That was it. I guess
Peter and Clifford had their eye on us for
I’d been playing with local bands, just beer
no way we were ever gonna fire Steve, money and covers. At the ripe old age of a while. After they saw us opening up for
because he kept coming up with stuff, and fourteen I was ready to quit the business AC/DC, I think they got it.
he’d be okay the next day after a shower – I say that with tongue-in-cheek. But that
and some breakfast. He never, ever drank very same day, I saw an article in the Joe told us that Mutt was pretty brutal
until the encore. Sheffield Star: ‘Leopard Loses Skins’; at that with you during the making of High ‘N’ Dry.

time it was still Deaf Leopard. They were That was the first time I really experienced
When Pyromania took off so looking for a drummer. And when we met up hard work, and actually got to the point
spectacularly, were you relieved, at The Limit club in Sheffield, we realised where I doubted my ability as a player.
surprised, scared… What happened? we’d probably all rubbed shoulders at the Because Mutt had this wonderful
The honest truth about Pyromania is we same gigs – The Sweet, Thin Lizzy, you name psychology. He never said you were doing it
were at that stage of our lives where we it. When they told me about this EP they’d wrong. He just had a set of criteria – y’know,
thought it was about time. We thought it just recorded, I got this sense of being lifted good vibe, good timing, in tune, whatever
was due. We looked at other bands and we up. They were writing their own music, and – that made you challenge yourself. I learnt
thought the album that we’d made was up that to me was huge. more about playing drums
there and beyond other bands that were “WE KEEP LEARNING doing that record than at
more successful than we’d been. And What do you remember any other time.
when it was our time we all kind of looked about the audition? FROM OUR SUCCESSES
at each other and went, yeah, we did the A few days later we went AND OUR MISTAKES. Did becoming
right thing. This is exactly what we wanted. down to the rehearsal THAT’S WHAT KEEPS a millionaire in the mid-
eighties make you happy?
The first gig we did with Phil in the band space at the spoon factory. IT VIBRANT.” I wouldn’t necessarily say
Two other drummers
was at the Marquee club in London in showed up. One was so. I think it’s an inside job
February 1983. Seven months later we did [original drummer] Tony Kenning, who – you’re either a happy kind of person or not.
Mac Murphy Stadium in San Diego, the wanted his job back, but they’d already told I must admit I’ve been through some really
last show of the American tour, in front of me he’s more interested in his girlfriend than depressing times, but whether I felt happy
fifty-five thousand people. in coming to rehearsal. I went last – which or depressed it never had anything to do
kinda gave me the opportunity to learn the with money. I always felt like it was
The US tour had begun that year with parts in the few minutes I had – and when something within me, things I needed to
Leppard opening for Billy Squier, but I played with them there were smiles all overcome, whether that was demons, self-
your tour shirt was outselling Squier’s round. Lo and behold I got the job. I joined medication, you name it. Eventually I made
by a ratio of ten to one. Then you around about my fifteenth birthday. Crazy. the right choices, and now I guess I’m pretty
began your own headline tour with consistent – I don’t go to the lows that I used
Uriah Heep supporting, then Gary Who was leading the band in those to. But I don’t think money has anything to
Moore. Meanwhile, the album’s taking formative days? do with it. To be honest, after my accident,
off like a rocket. Joe was always a great driving force. because the record [Hysteria] was taking so
The headline tour started out a bit spotty. Whatever he says about what he lacked long, I found myself pretty much penniless.
The first gig we did was somewhere in in talent, he definitely didn’t lack in his
Texas and there were maybe four or five knowledge of music. And Do you think Leppard might have sounded
thousand people in this arena that held confidence, just getting up different had you not lost your arm?
probably ten. Then three weeks later it there and doing it. I really I think so. Mutt being Mutt, I think he saw
really started to kick off cos Photograph looked up to him as an opportunity, he didn’t necessarily see
a setback. And actually that was a big part
someone who fired
really took off [as a single] and Rock Of everybody up. of my healing – to stop comparing myself to
Ages kind of cemented it. By June, which how I used to be, and other drummers, and
was a mere six weeks later, we were Joe told us about your embrace how unique this was and how it
selling out faster than the last Led involvement in cutting could set us apart from everybody else.
Zeppelin tour – arenas selling out in ties with the band’s That was a big factor in me getting better as
three minutes! original management. a person and a player, to shed that weight of
I thought it was the right “God, I wish I could play the way I used to”,
You should have been all set for decision. I was so naïve at or “God, I wish I could play like that guy.”
your next album. But Mutt was that time, I didn’t know what Instead it was like: “This is where I am.
busy making Foreigner 4, so you I was doing. But I remember I can’t go back. I may as well go forward.”
brought in Meat Loaf svengali Jim grabbing Peter Mensch and A lot of that inspiration came from Mutt.
Steinman to produce. And it went saying: “Come here, have He embraced it.
horribly wrong. a listen.” So we stood
That’s an understatement. Eventually outside the door, and our Joe said that after the accident, you locked
Steve and Phil just called a meeting and old management team yourself away in Wisseloord Studios for
said he’s got to go. I didn’t even work with were in the room arguing five months and re-learned to play. What
him. I didn’t record one note of the vocals. about something. It was so are your memories of that period?
It didn’t get that far. I do remember all juvenile, the way they It became an obsession. I didn’t want to let
[Steinman’s] farting around, though. communicated. For them to them down. I didn’t want to let myself



CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 139

down. I just figured the more time I could
get behind a drum kit – and especially a new serious spin mode. Your skin goes cold and
kind of electronic drum kit – the more clammy. You’ve got these weird mental
knowledge I would gather. The guys were in and physical emotions going off.
there too [recording Hysteria], and I was in I remember bursting into tears and
what was almost like a sound booth. So thinking: poor kid. He was twenty-one.
I could see everything that was going on And he’s just come off a six-million-selling
around me, and that inspired me even more. record, and it’s probably all over. Because
I got a lot of encouragement from the guys. I did think that for a couple of days. Why
They obviously wanted me to succeed. At would I not?
other times I just needed to be left alone. I went to visit him when they’d actually
reattached the arm. His brother said: “His
Did you push drum technology forward? hand is warm – touch it.” I didn’t want to.
Phil was over at our rehearsal studios a few But I did, and his hand was warm. His arm
months back, and Neil Peart was in the was back on. Wow, great. We leave and –
studio next door, and he was getting boom! – they take it off again. They were
prepped for the Rush tour. And Neil said to
scared that gangrene would set in. So that’s
Phil: “If it wasn’t for your drummer Rick, a double whammy. Thank God for him he
electronic drums would not be where they was in an induced coma, so he never went
are today.” I thought that was a massive through that emotion of knowing he’d had
compliment, especially coming from
somebody like him. it back and it’d come off again – till long
after the fact.
Out of all that was why the album was
Do you think Leppard have had the critical
respect they deserve? called Hysteria. We had paparazzi trying to
There was a bit of a stigma attached to rock take pictures of him in hospital. So we had
bands. I don’t know what it was. It amazes security and he was up on the eleventh
me that sometimes people don’t see that “I want to change the carpet in the control Rick Allen with floor. Crazy. Then later, when we were
we’re a working band, and we continue to room, I don’t like the colour.” He’d already the drum kit that trying to come with a title for the album,
get better. I was really surprised that certain had the carpet changed in his hotel. At saved his career. Rick just said: “Why don’t we just call it
journalists didn’t see or feel it the way I did, meals, you’d pass him the menu and, blasé, Hysteria?” Harking back to all that
because I felt like we were a force to be he’d just toss it to his personal [assistant] ridiculousness. Because hysteria can go
reckoned with. And I think now, more and and go: “Just order one of everything.” two ways: it can be running to the front at
more people are getting that. Yeah, but we’re paying for that! Fuck off! a Cheap Trick concert, or it can be running
from a hydrogen bomb.
Do you mind Joe being the mouthpiece of With Steinman gone you eventually Within two months of the accident, he
the band? worked your way back to was back in the studio. Pete
He’s the master of ceremonies. He has having Mutt come in and do Hartley was a local drum
a vast knowledge of music. He was the the job. Only by then Rick technician and electronic genius
driving force behind Leppard, and I love the had lost his arm. That became “We wanted global in Sheffield who’d started to
fact he can do that. When I’m on stage such a defining moment in domination. build Rick this kit where,
I have a drum kit to hide behind. He has
a microphone. It’s the fact that he can put the Def Leppard story. We didn’t see basically, instead of hitting the
himself out there with so much confidence, Rick losing his arm put the snare drum with his hand, he
be comfortable in his own skin. That’s Steinman thing in the shade. ourselves as this hit a pedal on the floor with his
something that I couldn’t do. In the same We had a Christmas break. I’m foot. Rick locked himself away
way that he’ll admit he can’t do what I do. living in Cobham, in Surrey, little local band.” in a little room in Wisselord
very nice, and my mum and dad studios, in Amsterdam,
Do you think Def Leppard are a lucky or an were down with me and my girlfriend, for wouldn’t let anybody hear him play for five
unlucky band? the holidays. The afternoon of New Year’s months. Not a peep.
A bit of both. There were plenty of ups and Eve, the phone rang, and I was expecting Then one day he came into the control
downs. And it’s the downs that make you “Happy New Year” from Pete Way or Brian room and said: “I want you all to come and
grow, whether that’s what happened to me, May, whoever. No, it was Mensch. He said: listen to something.” We went in and he
or Steve, or Pete not being with us any more. “Are you sat down?” Which immediately played When The Levee Breaks by Led
I think all of those things build character. told me someone had died. Then he told Zeppelin. And it was like our bones
me that Rick had crashed his car. I said: Savage and melted, because we all just sank to the
Have the friendships within the band “Is he dead?” He said: “No. But he’s lost his Elliott with Jim floor. It was amazing. We couldn’t believe
changed over forty years? arm.” He’s a drummer, he can’t lose his Steinman at it. I mean, he still had a long way to go
Wisseloord
Everybody’s got their idiosyncracies, arm! That’s when your brain goes into studios in 1984. before he’d be ready to get back on stage,
including myself, and I’m sure I’ve pissed and it wasn’t all plain sailing; he got
people off along the way. But I think addicted to some really bad drugs for
ultimately there is a bond, a brotherhood, a while. But I look back at it now and I go:
that just gets stronger. I think the one thing
that keeps us strong is realising the “I’m not surprised.”
chemistry of the band, and not allowing
those negative times to pull us apart. That drum kit was state of the art in
1985, and it’s been replaced over the

Forty years. That’s a hell of a milestone. years as technology has improved.
Yeah. We didn’t think we were going to Does Rick still have it?
make it past next week. We’re a work in When we did the Viva Hysteria shows, we
progress and we keep learning from our had a little Def Leppard museum in the
successes and our mistakes. That’s what lobby and I saw the original kit. Oh my
keeps it vibrant. God! It looks like Jurassic Park compared to
what he’s playing now.



140 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Hysteria was released in 1987 and
became the biggest-selling album of
your career. And it’s still one of the PHIL COLLEN
greatest, most innovative, forward-
looking rock albums of all time.
When we got accused in the early eighties The guitar wizard’s arrival in the band in 1982 heralded the best and worst
of selling out, it was by people who were of times. He looks back on breaking America, crap band names and how
into more heavy metal music. But when “we had more in common with Earth, Wind & Fire than with Iron Maiden”.
Hysteria sold a million copies in the UK Interview: Henry Yates
alone it showed we were right to not
worry about what those sorts of fans You joined Leppard in 1982. Did you have jamming at this little club in Sheffield. The
funny thing is, when I joined the band, the
thought. We ended up with a much bigger high hopes? accent was so thick. I remember Rick Allen
We knew we had a special album. Pyromania
fan base who just loved the band for what was different to anything I’d heard. I had all saying something and I had to read his lips.
it really was. When people saw us on Top the fun stuff, none of the heavy lifting – that And back then I had a very distinct East
Of The Pops doing Animal, they heard a came on Hysteria. Pete and Steve had done London accent. But over the years, living in
really great song that style-wise had more these amazing rhythm guitar beds and it the States, we’ve all kind of mellowed out.
in common with INXS or U2, The Police was a joy to whizz around and play solos
with Roxanne, something like that. And over the top. It was just hooks – Photograph, How do you think your arrival changed
that was the band we wanted to be. We Rock Of Ages, Foolin’, Stagefright. Mutt was Leppard’s sound?
wanted to be like Queen-meets-AC/DC. going: “Just have fun, be a lead guitarist, go I had a kinda aggressive, shouty singing
We wanted the power of a band like nuts.” In America it was a radio hit almost voice, and all of a sudden that was a feature.
AC/DC on Highway To Hell, but we wanted immediately. That was the most exciting And my guitar playing was very different,
the musical space to grow into like Queen period, going from playing for half-empty somewhere between Ritchie Blackmore,
had. We wanted to do slow, medium, fast, theatres in England to headlining arenas. Eddie Van Halen and Michael Schenker.
acoustic, electric, whatever we wanted.
It’s amazing how that album still Did it hurt that the UK “OUR AMBITION WASN’T Joe said critics would
resonates to this day. When it was reissued was slower than always lump Leppard
with our other albums it went to number America to REALLY TO BE FAMOUS. in with NWOBHM.
one in America in the ‘catalogue chart’. We embrace Leppard? WE WANTED TO MAKE I thought we had more
had the top three places: Hysteria was at It didn’t bother me at GREAT MUSIC AND FOR in common with Earth,
number one, Pyromania number two and all. It’s an American PEOPLE TO REALLY DIG IT.” Wind & Fire or The
Vault at number three. art form. I learnt from Police than we did with
listening to the Stones Iron Maiden.
and The Who, and they learnt from listening
And it had your first – and so far only to American artists – everything from Stevie How about the old chestnut that Leppard
– US number one single in Love Bites, Wonder to Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, albums are overproduced?
a lush ballad that had such a futuristic Aretha Franklin, blues-based, soul-based, all We wanted them to be like that. They
sound it was like a modern I’m Not In that stuff. Someone once asked me: “Why weren’t gratuitously overproduced. There
Love; this great song couched in state- do you sing with an American accent?” And was a reason for it. When you hear
of-the-art studio futurism. it’s because I learnt from all these American someone overdoing it in the studio for no
I can’t believe the amount of people that artists. Mick Jagger sings with an American other reason than the songs are crap, that’s
have come up to us and gone: “I can’t accent too. something else. These songs were great.
believe that lyric. It’s like you were in our I was listening to Queen today. Amazing.
kitchen writing that lyric, watching us What did you think of the band’s name You listen to those records now and they’re
argue.” That’s because it’s about human at first? pure bliss and magic. And they got accused
interaction, human nature. We were never It was alright. It was a bit of a spoof on of overproducing. There’s a lot of lazy bands
going to be a band that spent ten songs on ‘Led Zeppelin’. It was a bit quirky to who won’t work a song properly. They’ll just
an album singing about dungeons and begin with, but then it kinda stuck. And write a song and record it. That works
fucking dragons. It was always going to be it’s a living, breathing entity before you occasionally, but for most mere mortals, it
about what most people relate as closest to know it. Names are a weird requires a bit of hard work.
them, which is probably another human thing. ‘The Beatles’ is
being. Yes, we’d tackled drugs in songs like a really crap name when How would you describe the Leppard
work ethic?
you weigh it up, but you
From The Inside, and we dabbled in revenge wouldn’t change that A lot of musicians are really lazy. We’ve
and the non-interaction of humans, for the world. worked our asses off. And what I find is that
which is what Die Hard The Hunter is all most people are not prepared to work that
about. Then things like Gods Of War, What were your first hard. I just did a TV show in upstate New
which is about standing in Finland, at impressions of the York. They told me: “Well, it’s an early start,
the time, watching the missiles going guys in the band? eight in the morning.” And I told them: “I get
over, cancelling each other out, from Well, I knew ’em up at six every day.” People are not prepared
American and Russia, thinking: before that. Joe and to do that. With Mutt, we would work until
“How futile is this?” Steve would come we fell asleep. I can actually remember
We suddenly had the most creative down to London and waking up once and seeing Steve, Joe and
period of our career. And that’s when stay on my mum’s Mutt asleep on the floor or on the couch.
we came up with Pour Some Sugar On couch, and she’d We’d been in the middle of a song, but it had
Me. Nothing was out of the question make them beans on got really late – like, six in the morning – and
on that album. We’d go out to a gay toast. And when everybody had just drifted off.
disco in Holland – because those were I was on tour with
the only clubs near Wisselord – And Girl, me and Phil When Hysteria took off did anyone in the
hear the new electronic beats and Lewis slept in Joe’s band start acting like a rock star?
stuff that were going on, then go into spare room because Not really. We’ve all been guilty of time-of-
the studio the next day and tell Mutt we’d been out the-month things. But no. We’d worked



CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 141

so hard, and gone through so much. Rick
had the accident, and we’d spent all this I quit. Because it was hard in-the-round. It
money on the record. Plus our parents were was really hard. For a singer. You can’t
all English and they’d lived through the Blitz. stand still, you’ve got to keep moving. The
There was a shared value system that we all guys had identical microphones on either
had. I think that really helped us not be blasé side of the stage, so they could stand still
or take anything for granted. Our ambition for a little bit. I had to keep moving all the
wasn’t really to be famous. We wanted to time. It was insane. And I just couldn’t have
make great music and for people to really done it drinking. No way.
dig it. The rock star thing is all fine and
dandy, but you’ve got to be able to back it Meanwhile, Steve seemed to be falling
up; you’ve got to be able to write songs. apart on that tour whenever I visited.
And not be a dickhead. I remember reading articles where you
were out on the road with us on various
When you think of Steve, does it make you parts of that tour, and just you and Steve
feel happy or sad? would be in his room, and he would open
Both. I think of him every single day. He was
up to you and bitch. And you’d probably
my best friend. When I think of shitty, sad think, fuck, what kind of organisation is he
things about Steve, it’s usually followed by in. But he was only like that with you. You
something that makes me smile.
were like his mentor or his confidant.
There was nobody else that he ever did that
What have been the most difficult times
commercially in the band? for. And those negatives that you got out of
After Steve died and we were doing the him were only literally those nights that
Slang album, and the musical landscape you were there. He wasn’t doing this to
changed. Y’know, Nirvana came out, which people every other night you weren’t
I thought was a breath of fresh air, because around. He didn’t pick another Mick Wall
it had got really stale with these really naff from another town and bitch and moan.
bands – hair-metal stuff. No lyrical content, You were the only person he trusted to talk
no vibe, just a bunch of people with good like that for. I guess he was harbouring
hair products. So Nirvana came out – and certain negatives in his thing. But he just
Pearl Jam and STP and all these bands about it. That’s how we got tracks like Steve Clark: put them to one side for the rest of the tour.
– and it was a bit like the punk thing in Excitable. Tracks like Animal also changed a wonderful It wasn’t like he was this miserable
England. It changed the landscape. from how they’d been before. We kept the guitarist, but wanker. He was a funny guy, man. He was
Unfortunately we got caught up in that. vocals and drums, then had Steve, Phil and he could not a really good guy. When Pete got angry,
escape his
I thought Slang was great, but it came out at Sav sit in the control room with their downward spiral. Steve got sad. Steve’s past came back to
a weird time, and we were not very popular guitars and see what they came up with. haunt him. He had some childhood issues
at that moment. that I don’t really want to go into. You can
Back on tour in America as the album only imagine what they were. And they
What’s the secret to never splitting up? rises up the charts, once again you’re were the reason he drank, I think,
It’s ego. It’s how you were raised. It’s your all going through your own personal personally. But I don’t want to get sued by
value system. People get so big-headed
and stroppy. struggles. Phil Collen stopped people so I’m not gonna go any
drinking completely after further on that one. Use your
a night on the town with Steve imagination. But he wanted it
How do you think the classic Leppard
material has aged? Clark during the making of “We were never [success]. He loved it. Would he
Well, the other day, on the G3 tour, I was Hysteria. Then you stopped going to be a band have gone out there as a solo
trying out John Petrucci’s rig. I plugged my drinking too, for the duration artist and achieved the success he
guitar in and ended up playing all these of the Hysteria tour. Was that singing about achieved? Absolutely not. He
Hysteria songs to see how they sounded. also related to what happened needed other people to pull him
And they sounded amazing. And then, when to Pete, and to Steve’s growing dungeons and into that situation. When they
I listened to the record, it doesn’t sound drinking problem? f**king dragons.” did, he delivered. He was like
dated at all, because of what went into it. Nothing to do with what you a circus. “Ladies and gentleman,
think at all. We were five shows we’re pulling out the guy that
For you, does commercial success trump into that in-the-round tour. I was in bed in we’re gonna shoot out the cannon.” He’d
critical acclaim? a hotel after the show, and I remember willingly get in the cannon. He wasn’t the
I like the fact that millions of people went out staring at the ceiling, not being able to entire circus, but he wanted to be in the
and bought our record. That, to me, is a bit sleep, going: “I can’t do this if I drink.” It circus. That’s the best way I can put it.
more [important]. Especially as I get older. took me five gigs to figure it out.
I had a very interesting tip once from Ian In-the-round is an incredibly, insanely fter Hysteria, Def Leppard took
Hunter. He said: “When you reach fifty-five aerobic kind of thing to do – and try and a long break, before coming back
you’ll stop worrying what anyone thinks sing as well. And those songs… We were Atogether to work on material for
about you. You won’t care if a twenty-year-
trying to replicate an album that is still to their next album. Again, Mutt wasn’t
old judges you.” And he was absolutely right.
this day state-of-the-art. We were still available to fill the producer’s chair. He was
learning how to do it. First night, in Glenn working with Bryan Adams on what
Which do you consider to be the ‘classic’
Falls, I got to four songs in and started would become the squillion-selling Waking
Def Leppard line-up?
We play better right now. We sing better hyperventilating. I went down my hole on Up The Neighbours album, complete with
right now. The last tour was the best we’ve the side of the stage, during a Phil solo. End the number-one-forever hit (Everything I Do)
ever sounded, I’ve got no doubt. Pioneer- up breathing into a paper bag. I Do It For You. Mutt did, however, involve
wise, I think Hysteria was it. But as far as So I stared at the ceiling, not being able himself in the writing process with
the band being the best it’s ever been, it’s to sleep, thinking: “How am I gonna get Leppard, and, as Elliott puts it now, “was
absolutely right now. through two hundred and twenty more only ever a phone call away”. Yet in
shows if this is how it’s gonna be? ” So a tragically weird echo of Pyromania and



142 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

VIV CAMPBELL




After 1992’s Adrenalize, the Irish journeyman helped Leppard
turn the corner in a tough commercial decade. A quarter-century later,
he reflects on hard times, absent friends and matching pyjamas.
Interview: Henry Yates

Rewind to 1992. What made you want to the guys that I could elevate the band’s
join Def Leppard? vocals. I don’t think Steve Clark was much
Hysteria, Leppard fell foul of fortune when I was always a fan. I had their first single. into singing.
Steve Clark went to sleep one night in I always thought they were head and
January 1991 and never woke up again.
shoulders above everything else that was Did you ever feel bad about taking over
happening with that whole NWOBHM from Steve?
We touched on Steve’s death earlier, movement. There was Leppard, there was It was obviously a difficult situation. By that
and you’ve talked about it at length Iron Maiden, and then there was a bunch of stage I was used to walking into bands with
in Classic Rock in recent times. Can others who were nowhere near as good. Dio and Whitesnake. But for them [Leppard]
I just ask you this: were you relieved, The first time I met them, I was in it must have been very difficult. To this day,
in the sense of seeing someone clearly Whitesnake. We had a day off and we all I’m sure when they look over stage-right and
so pained and broken finally out of went to the Leppard show in Detroit. After it’s not Steve, that’s gotta be strange. I’ve
their misery, and also in terms of that, Joe kept in touch, because we had always tried to be very respectful of the fact
allowing the band to carry on without mutual friends in Dublin. We’d go to dinner, that I’m walking in Steve’s shoes, because
that burden? play pool, talk shite. A year after Steve had maybe even ninety per cent of what we play
In no specific order, I felt incredibly sad passed away, Joe is music that
when I heard that he’d died. But there was called me to say “I CAN SAY OBJECTIVELY – Steve created.
a part of me that was actually quite that now they’d
relieved. Cos I knew it was gonna happen finished Adrenalize BECAUSE I WASN’T IN THE BAND Your arrival
sooner or later. At least now we can both they’d decided to THEN – THAT HYSTERIA IS ONE coincided with
be at peace with it and move on. We’d continue as a five- OF THE GREATEST F**KING tougher
given him six months off, told him to go piece and were RECORDS OF ALL TIME.” commercial times.
and spend some time in the beautiful looking for another Did you feel
the downturn?
house he’d bought in Chelsea, eat some guitar player, and Oh yeah, absolutely. It was quite soul-
would I be interested. Had it been any other
food he’d cooked himself, and take his band on the planet, I’d have said no. I’d been destroying, actually. It was just bad timing,
clothes out of the suitcase and put them in in and out of so many bands and I was really I guess. I wasn’t involved in the Adrenalize
the wardrobe. But instead he spent most of burnt by it all. But this was Def Leppard, one record. I stepped into the band for that tour,
his time in the pub round the corner, and of the biggest bands in the world. Certainly which was something like fifteen months.
do things like get so drunk he’d fall down the most ambitious band in the hard rock And I mean, we started the tour as a huge,
the stairs and crack his rib. So he’d be on genre by a country mile. long-haired, dressed-up arena-rock band,
serious [pain] medication for cracked ribs. and we finished it looking like Pearl Jam,
Then he’d carry on drinking. That’s how he Your backing vocals changed the wearing ratty jeans, growing goatees and
died. It wasn’t cocaine. He had morphine, sound of the band immediately. cutting our hair. During the course of that
probably, cos he was on prescription Something that not a lot of people fifteen-month tour the entire musical
painkillers. He washed it down with vodka knew about me was that I was landscape changed.
and never woke up. Just fell asleep so deep actually a pretty good singer. Back Right off the back of that, we went in to do
he just died. in the Dio days, Ronnie never Slang. It was such a strange time in the music
wanted me to sing. And I’m sure business. It was such a strange time to be in
If he hadn’t died but instead come back I wasn’t very good. I remember Def Leppard. And this was my first album
after six months still messed up on asking: “Ronnie, can I sing with them. It was a bit of a double whammy.
booze, would you have made the backups?” And he said: So I have very mixed feelings about Slang. In
decision to let him go? “No! Ritchie some ways it’s incredible, in other ways it’s
Yes. That’s the honest answer to that. But Blackmore never disappointing to me. But it is what it is. And
I think it was pretty much all we could do.
sang. Tony Iommi
that’s why we gave him six months off. Pete never sang. Guitar The only thing we knew for sure at that time
Willis, we wanted him to go. With Steve players play guitar. period was that we couldn’t be Def Leppard;
we wanted him to come back. He was Singers sing. Get we couldn’t go in and make a record that was
creative, he was our friend, he was in pain. over there!” So that off the heels of Adrenalize.
The stuff that happened around Steve’s was me shut down.
drinking and was unreported – and will In Whitesnake, When I’ve interviewed you in the past, I’ve
stay unreported – just puts you in that Coverdale was sometimes got the impression you wish
head-space where you go: “I just don’t want actually very Leppard would stop being so obsessive in
to do this any more.” encouraging about the studio and just get on with it.
On tour, if I was in the hotel room next my nascent vocal I think it’s fair to say that I’m the one guy in
to his, there were times I’d think I’d be very aspirations and turned the band [who has that attitude]. Because
surprised if he doesn’t wake up in the me on to a vocal coach. I didn’t grow up in that mentality. But I fully
morning. I’d see him the next day and go: So I’d worked on it understand why the band operates that
“What the fuck was going on last night?” pretty hard. By the way. My first album was [Dio’s] Holy Diver,
Noises and just shit going off in his room. time I got into where we wrote the songs and we played
I don’t miss that. That used to stress me out a rehearsal room with them in real time with Ronnie. That’s what
unbelievably. And I don’t have that any Leppard I think it was I’m used to. I think there’s pros and cons to
more. That’s what I mean when I say a pleasant surprise to both approaches. Sometimes things



CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 143

benefit from stepping back and having a bit
of perspective, and getting in there and
thinking about things, and sometimes you
get lost in the forest.

Do you feel like Leppard gets the critical
respect they deserve?
Well, put it this way. Back in the eighties
I remember thinking: “Def Leppard never got
a Grammy.” I can say objectively – because
I wasn’t in the band then – that Hysteria is
one of the greatest fucking rock records of
all time. In fact it’s one of the greatest
records of all time, aside from the rock genre.
And not only did it not win a Grammy, it
didn’t even get nominated. I think that really
summed it up for me.
I think it’s a little different now. Because
the band has been together forty years,
we’re beginning to step into the same
company of these other great British bands.
I think you get a lot more respect if you stay
Hello America: I was a bit relieved. Because I knew punk came along, but we ain’t gonna roll
the course.
(l-r) Viv Campbell, I wouldn’t have to suffer his pain and over that easily. It was like we had these
Rick Allen, Joe
If you weren’t all in a band together, would Elliott, Phil neither would he. little pockets of happiness that were
you still be friends? Collen, Rick enough to keep us going, doing what we
To some degree, yeah. We have a lot in Savage. You then made Adrenalize as a four- do. We had the biggest hit we’d ever had in
common, but there’s also a lot we don’t have piece. Good album, but not in the same the UK by releasing a tune that went all the
in common. We tour pretty much every year league as Hysteria. Fair comment? way back to the eighties, but in 1995.
with other bands of our generation, and We coped without Mutt quite well, because
I think we’re the only one that still shares we’d grown up a little bit. We used the Slang was different, though. Like you
a dressing room. I think that says a lot. It’s tools that we’d developed, only now we took the fight to the alt.rock crowd.
not like we wear matching pyjamas and go were a bit more qualified and mature to When we went in to make Slang, we just
on holiday together, but we sit together in make decisions. We had a stronger and knew for our own sake we couldn’t make
the same room and prepare for the show, more confident opinion on how we should another Adrenalize, or even another
and we undress afterwards and have a post- be doing things. Mutt was in his studio in Hysteria. We’d done the trilogy of huge
mortem. I can honestly say that almost every Guildford with Bryan Adams and we’d be production albums, we needed to cleanse
other band of our generation does not share in Dublin, talking every day, even to Bryan. ourselves and do something different. So
a dressing room… so they obviously don’t get But it wasn’t as adventurous as Hysteria. It we lost all the big, mad harmony stuff, just
along too well [laughs].
was more of a rock album, less made it sound like it does when we bang it
experimental. It’s like with Pink Floyd, to out live in the rehearsal room. We jokingly
Some bands just roll out the hits. How
important is it for Leppard that they write me Adrenalize was our Wish You Were Here, called the album Commercial Suicide
new music? and Hysteria was our Dark Side Of The Moon. when we were writing it. We were
I think it’s vital to the lifeblood of any band, cleansing our souls musically, but at the
to remain creative. It doesn’t matter that not That all changed for the next album, same time we’d been put into this great
so many people want to buy a new record Slang, but that was more because of the position of having something else to write
now. I’ve been seeing more and more kids arrival on the scene of cold, rainy about. For the first time in our lives,
coming to our shows, particularly in grunge. Correct? collectively, we were going through birth,
America, but all around the world, and I do The landscape had completely changed. death, marriage, divorce. All these kinds of
honestly believe that’s the upside of music The fans that bought Adrenalize hadn’t things that all grown-ups have to deal with
piracy. A lot of these kids haven’t bought gone away, but there was a new generation at different times.
records for the last fifteen years, but they of kids that came of record-buying age as I know it’s a polarising record. I’ve got
became exposed to the music, they became MTV were showing videos by Nirvana, friends that say it’s the best thing we’ve ever
fans of the band and now they’re coming to Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam and done, and I know there’s people out there
the shows. And I don’t mean being dragged Soundgarden. We kept doing what we were that think it’s the worst thing we’ve ever
by their parents, they’re coming on their doing but we knew things had changed. done. And then there’s other people that
own. That’s very encouraging. We’re are just indifferent to it – “Er, doesn’t really
growing our audience. We’re continuing to Not so much, though, that you didn’t sound like Def Leppard.” Well, that was the
write new music to remain a vital and stay in touch with the charts around point. If we’d made Adrenalize again we’d
creative force.
the world. The single Two Steps Behind have been torn to shreds, so we might as
in 1993 was top-five in the US. When well make a record that we really, really,
Do Leppard still have creative gas in Love And Hate Collide, from the ’95 Vault
the tank? really wanna make. We knew we’d been
Very much so. More than ever, actually. compilation, was a huge hit in the UK. shunted to one side but we knew we would
I think everyone in this band is at the peak of I recall hearing you being interviewed bounce back. We just had to bide our time,
their game. on Radio One about it and you because we knew we weren’t going away.
sounded so pleased – and surprised.
Twenty-three years later, are you proud to I remember talking to Jon Bon Jovi, and we The pendulum swung back again with
say you’re in Def Leppard? were like: “Where the fuck are we gonna go Euphoria in 1999 – an intriguing return
Definitely. It’s a unique band. I don’t think now? What’s going on?” Everybody was to ‘classic’ Leppard. Why?
there’s ever been another band like Def saying it’s all over for you guys, and it just The music landscape was once again
Leppard. I’m sure there never will be. makes you go, okay, maybe the major rock changing. I can see from an outsider’s point
bands rolled over in the seventies when of view: “Oh, they gave it a go with Slang



144 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

and now they’ve gone back to tried and
trusted.” But we were just listening to what
was going on, on the radio, we’re reading
stuff, we’re picking the vibes up that
everything seems to be going back to
melody again, melody is not unfashionable
any more. But it didn’t have any balls, any
power. We figured like, we’ve got both.
And we know how to do it.
So when we came to Euphoria we just let
ourselves go in any way we wanted, we Tripping the light fantastic:
didn’t restrict ourselves. With Slang we did, Def Leppard delivering the
we said we’re not gonna do the typical Def goods in late 2015.
Leppard things. But with Euphoria we didn’t
rule them out. If one came, we embraced it. more surprising. You seem It’s the perfect Def Leppard
Because it had been eight years since to have found a great “Adrenalize wasn’t song. A friend of mine who
Adrenalize. That’s a long time to have balance, especially on used to do backing vocals for
abandoned your main style of music. X, which was voted Classic as adventurous as David told me: “I sent David
So we embraced it. Rock’s album of the year in your version of the song and
2002, and Songs From The Hysteria. It was more he loves it!” I’m like: “Fuck
Euphoria also saw the return of Mutt, Sparkle Lounge in 2008, and of a rock album, off!” He said it was one of the
albeit only briefly. of course Def Leppard in best versions of one of his
We were really happy with what was going 2015, which was a seamless, less experimental.” songs he’d ever heard. I
on, and Mutt came back into the cycle. immersive experience – played [Leppard’s version of
I don’t know how or why. Just, Mutt wants pop, rock, you name it. Free’s] A Little Bit Of Love to Paul Rodgers
to come over. Okay, great. He wasn’t going Deliberately so. Because that’s just where when Queen played Dublin, and he was
to produce the record. He was just out of we were at. We’ve reached a point raving about it. I had a really great
the studio when we were in the studio. where we don’t actually have to make conversation with [Spiders From Mars
So he came over, and Phil had got this idea new albums any more. We do it bassist] Trevor Boulder. I said: “You
for a song that was along the lines of because we want to. Our remember when you were doing The Jean
a Photograph-type thing, which was Promises. management is like, look, if you Genie?” He said: “No. We did it in an hour
The way that song developed from the want to go and record and pay for it and a half. The only thing I remember
way that we were developing it to Mutt yourselves, then fine, knock about The Jean Genie was we were
coming in, it was like the old team back yourselves out. So we do, and we standing at the bottom of the stairs
together again. treat it as we always have, at Wessex studios and the Faces
going in just trying to make walked past us going up the stairs.
What was it like working with Mutt something the best we can. That’s it” [laughs].
again in the studio? Except there’s no pressure
Weird. It was a bit weird because he wasn’t from record company You’ve got a huge summer
working the same way. He wasn’t hands- people to finish it. No A&R tour with Journey later this
on. He was more observant. He’d say: people asking if we’ve year, followed by your
“Stop”, and make a suggestion. It was weird written any hits. We don’t biggest UK tour for years.
for Vivian [Campbell, Clark’s replacement], do what we’re told. We Looking forward to it?
because it was the first time Vivian had do what we feel. We’ll I love it. Our audience is
ever worked with him, so for him it was live and die by our own amazing, especially now. We
a learning curve. We also wrote another decisions. That is the get people coming saying
song where we did kind of start from ultimate satisfaction of they first saw us on the
scratch. We said let’s do something really being an artist. Pyromania tour, then got
off the wall. That ended up being the song pregnant or moved away or
All Night – all groovy noises and orgasmic Is that how Yeah! came something and had to stop, but
sounds. It’s fucking nuts. about? It was probably have now started coming back,
your least successful bringing their kids and their
And you’ve continued along that path, album commercially, but teenage kids with them. “I’ve now
with your most recent albums all what fun hearing you do seen you fifty-six times, and forty of
arriving as singular entities. Some things such as Bowie’s them have been this century.” Like,
instantly recognisable material, some Drive-in Saturday. wow, you know? Wild.



CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 145

Heavy Load







Heavy questions for heavy rockers






Joe Elliott on school, the north and Topshop togs.


Interview: Polly Glass

heer determination, willpower, enthusiasm and the women’s anybody could have done. And I think that’s the beauty of Def Leppard:
section at Topshop circa 1977 – these are the ingredients that everybody in this band is very capable, but I wouldn’t say we’re the best
made Joe Elliott the man he is today. Born in Sheffield in 1959, musicians on the planet. But as a team, it’s a pretty unbeatable machine.
he’s spent his entire adult life fronting Def Leppard. Most recently
he’s invested in his long-held affection for Mott The Hoople with What advice will you give your son as he grows up?
his covers band Down ’N’ Outz. He’s also saved every item of Def Do whatever you want to do. My parents came from a suit-and-tie background,
Leppard history, sworn off the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame as but when Bowie and T.Rex came along, they encouraged me to get involved.
S “faceless cretins” and become a dad. My mum bought a guitar and taught herself to play Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.
I’d sit and watch her fingers and just be enthralled, and got her to teach me to
What were you like at school? play. Dad said: “Learn to play guitar and you
Not a swot! I was off with the fairies all the Joe Elliott: owner of can have your own one.” You had to work for
time. It’ll probably sound arrogant, but even the world’s most this stuff. I did four paper rounds so I could
as a twelve/thirteen/fourteen-year-old kid, rock’n’roll shed. afford to buy an album every week, and
I knew I could read, write and add up, and I spent all my dinner money on records.
I figured that’s mostly all you need in life to
get by. The only class I dug at school was Leppard have toured with Kiss in the
art. When everyone else was drawing bowls past. Have you ever felt the urge to layer
of fruit, I was drawing band posters, and on the slap as much as they do?
I started making names up – that’s where the Oh yeah. Well, not as much as Kiss. When
name Def Leppard originally came from. you started out as a kid in 1977/’78 in
Sheffield, there was Burton and Topshop.
Is it really grim up north? And Topshop didn’t really sell much boys’
At times of the year it’s grim everywhere. I’ve stuff. You see our first appearance on Top
been in California and it’s grim up north. You Of The Pops, and I think I’m wearing blue
go to Seattle and it rains nine months a year – spandex and a red-and-white shirt from
it looks like Scunthorpe. the women’s section at Topshop. We grew
up with people like Bowie, Marc Bolan,
You’ve said before that you’re the Def [clown-faced Sensational Alex Harvey Band
Leppard ‘archiver’. What’s the best guitarist] Zal Cleminson… Those were the
souvenir you’ve acquired over the years? guys that fascinated us because they took it
I’ve got laminates and backstage passes from to the next extreme. We were a bit shy to do
every tour. I’ve got itineraries. I’ve got the that – and a bit too northern, maybe.
diary I used to keep back in ’78. I’ve had all
my old press bound, and it’s come up with What’s the best drug you’ve ever taken?
me from the first contract we signed, to the I did an E once with Ricky Warwick [Black
bill for the first album, and the breakdown Star Riders]. I’d never done it. We were
of how much we spent – including replacing stood on a dancefloor in Dublin, waiting for
the kettle which we broke because we used PRESS it to kick in, and what seemed like twenty
it as a cowbell on It Don’t Matter. minutes later I said: “I don’t feel anything…
she’s good-looking, beautiful women here…
Where do you keep it all? still don’t feel anything though. What time
In my shed. A man has to have a shed. My “I am highly opinionated, is it?” “Five-thirty in the morning.” We took
shed’s not full of spades and plant pots, it at, like, 9.30pm! Eight hours in the same
it’s full of Marshall amps, old drum kits, and a lot of people take place, just looking at these girls, going:
synthesizers, posters and all that kind of stuff. “Ooh she’s good-looking, isn’t she?” So
it the wrong way.”
It’s the most rock’n’roll shed in the world. that was fun.

What’s the biggest misconception people Do you believe in God?
have about you? I believe in a higher power. I don’t believe in the white-bearded man on a cloud,
Well, I am highly opinionated, and a lot of people take it the wrong way because wearing sandals. I think there’s a higher power, and everybody’s entitled to
sometimes in print the humour doesn’t come across. So people think I’m reach that in any way, shape or form they want; a human form if you like, or
slagging someone off when I’m messing with them, really. It’s just a deflective it can be a gassy entity that’s invisible, or not… Just a presence. But the whole
humour trait of mine, I suppose. And because I care so much about what I do, Bible thing I just find a bit weird.
people think I’m very defensive. And I’m not. I just stand up for us.
What will your last words be?
What can Joe Elliott do that nobody else can? “Did we finish the album?!” But no, I’d want to make sure my family are safe and
Fuck up on a regular basis and get away with it? Nothing. Whatever I’ve done, well looked after, and that whatever’s there doesn’t get taken by the tax man.

146 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM



THE
COMPLETE

STORY
148 PAGES

FROM THE




ARCHIVES






























9001

































































FRONT COVER IMAGES: ROSS HALFIN; BACK COVER: GETTY IMAGES THE EARLY NWOBHM YEARS. THE 80s. BEHIND THE ALBUMS JOE, SAV, RICK, PHIL AND VIV SPEAK!






THE STORIES
THE FULL HISTORY
INTERVIEWS


PLUS! STEVE CLARK REMEMBERED,
THE UNRELEASED LP. THE 90s.
9000 ON THE ROAD IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM THE MAKING OF ON THROUGH THE NIGHT, THE ULTIMATE BUYER’S GUIDE & MORE
PYROMANIA, HYSTERIA, ADRENALIZE…