Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

RICHARD SAVAGE





a footballer. Then United turned around as far as I’m aware. It was convenient, with Motörhead. We never felt we were
when I was 16 and said they didn’t think because you could lump Def Leppard, worthy of the name. At the same time that

I was good enough. I had offers to join Iron Maiden, Saxon, Samson – all those the title NWOBHM wasn’t worthy of us.
the other local clubs, but I’d lost the bands that were around – together, even
passion by then. Then I was introduced to though our music didn’t all sound the After that initial media excitement
Joe, and he’s just got this passion, this same. Our sound and Motörhead’s was about your band died down though,
drive about this band we’re gonna put quite far apart! [Laughs] you seemed to suffer because of it.

together. And I thought, this is what I’ve To be honest, when it comes to true, Not just that Leppard dared to be
been missing the last two years: that 100 per cent heavy metal, we’re not very different to the conventions of the
camaraderie, that passion. Not selfish good at that. Maiden are a great metal NWOBHM, but that you dared also to
passion, but for the group. And it’s band because they encompass everything be ambitious, to look beyond that.
always ‘we’. We can do this and we can that’s great about heavy metal. And they Specifically, to America…

do that… a real belief that was created. were genuine, worthy of the name. Same [Laughs] In the end, it made us stronger
mentally. We didn’t understand it at first.
I remember seeing Leppard for the We were pretty much upset by it. But we
first time in 1979, and it was realised how these types of things can

obvious you were all in the same happen. In the end
gang. Such energy and it was about the
excitement coming from the vision and
stage. Was all that energy and ambition
excitement present then, right of the

from the beginning? Or did you band. We
have to work on it? genuinely
It was always there, everybody wanted to be
sharing exactly the same feeling and people who

vision. Musically, it probably made music not
wasn’t that good. But there was just for heavy metal fans
something there that was just that wore leather jackets
bigger than the music. An and rode motor-bikes. We
overall thing. wanted it to go beyond that.

We were doing something I can see why we were
fresh and youthful: a accused of selling out or not
combination of stuff that being true to the cause. We
had previously gone by. weren’t interested in any

We were predominantly hard cause. We just wanted to
rock and heavy metal, but it express ourselves and
wasn’t dreary heavy metal. We further this vision that we’d
weren’t all dressed in grey or harboured since day one, which
black. We were glam that was was: we wanted to sell as many
trying to be a little heavier. records to bank managers as blokes

We didn’t analyse it at the time. who ride bikes. We didn’t think there was
It’s only in interviews years later that anything wrong with that, provided it
you do that. But that was the feeling. came from an honest starting point.
We wanted to incorporate everything. A

bit of punk attitude, but allying the Sex Another big move came with you
Pistols and The Clash with Boston and leaving your hometown management
Queen. That was the feeling that we had team to sign with Peter Mensch, who
within the five of us. was then overseeing the career of
AC/DC. Marillion admitted they found

You broke through as part of the him too intimidating and ‘American’,
NWOBHM. But you were never really and turned him down. You were just
part of that though, were you? kids yet you embraced him. Why?
Who was really part of it? I mean, yeah, To me, it was an extension of the first

we were part of it. Not only in the sense time I met Joe. You get to one level,
that we were one of the up-and-coming then all of a sudden you’re talking to this
new bands being talked about that guy that clearly had so much passion, and
happened to be in that ilk. It was was opinionated in the sense that he
something that Geoff Barton invented, obviously cared about the band. It wasn’t


CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 49

RICHARD SAVAGE





























































somebody coming in and seeing a Brothers in arms: The other hugely significant addition you create the sounds that you’re hearing
Rick (right) with
financial opportunity. He wanted to be to Team Leppard, by the time you get in your head, but knowing how to bring
the late Steve Clark
part of the journey. And it was like, not in Germany, 1981. to your second album High ’n’ Dry, them to life. Again, he was amazingly
only has this guy already proved himself is someone Peter introduces to the passionate about making rock sound
to a point with AC/DC, he’s sharing our band: producer extraordinaire Robert mainstream, without losing credibility.

vision and our passion. He’s not even John Mutt Lange. How did that So that somebody that would buy a Dire
necessarily advising us, he just wants to relationship begin? Straits album would also buy a [Leppard]
be along for part of the ride. It was, It began with his relationship with album, while somebody that would
Fuck! We’ve found a true ally here! Peter Mensch, which probably developed buy Michael Jackson could also buy

Somebody that’s got the clout to help us through AC/DC [Lange had recently [a Leppard] album, or somebody that
get to where we believe we can be. I can produced their albums Highway To Hell and would buy a Maiden album…
see how he would be intimidating to some Back In Black]. Through Peter, Mutt heard We knew there was a sound waiting
people but we embraced it. To us it was a our first album and was really, really to be made that nobody had made before.
no-brainer. We absolutely loved our time impressed with what we were trying to And Mutt shared that idea and helped

with him. do. He could see the potential. He could show us how to achieve it. I thought
see where we wanted to go. More we came very close at the time with
Was it also attractive that Peter and his importantly, he showed us where we Pyromania. But we knew that it was still
partner Cliff Burnstein in management could go. We had ideas and we knew how essentially a heavy metal album that

company Q-Prime were American? Did we wanted the band to be and it soon was coated in melodies and harmonies
you feel they might be a shortcut to became obvious that here was a guy who that were typical to Def Leppard. Then
American success? sits in the control room and actually really everything we had tried and envisaged
No, it wasn’t the fact they were American. contributes. Not just helping when we were 16 came to fruition with
Mensch could have come from Russia,
as far as we were concerned. We had THERE’S NOTHING MYSTERIOUS

a passion but we didn’t have an intellect
like that. We weren’t clever enough to put ABOUT ME. I’M NOT HOWARD
the two-and-two together. Fortunately, it
did turn out that way. Specifically, Cliff

really got us moving in the States. It HUGHES. WITH SOMEONE LIKE MR
obviously was a huge help. But it wasn’t
that calculated. It was more youthful ELLIOTT IT’S HARD TO GET A WORD
passion and exuberance than calculated
next-move strategy. IN EDGEWAYS ANYWAY.


50 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

RICHARD SAVAGE





Hysteria. That’s the album we were point where we’d lost Steve and we
always trying to make; the songs we were ended up making a record almost by

always trying to write. By the time numbers. We were in a daze [after Steve’s
Hysteria was released we’d been together death]. We were numb. It wasn’t coming
pretty much 10 years, and it was 10 years from the same place anymore, and partly
of work to get to where we’d always that was through tiredness, through shock
wanted to be. And Mutt was the guy that of losing Steve, and from confusion over

could actually put it into practice. what kind of album we should be
making. All this shit that you’re dealing
It all came together for you on with and it confuses you. I found we were
Hysteria: not only your best album – all sleepwalking when we made
almost futuristically sonic in its musical Adrenalize. It’s not my favourite album by

scope – but your biggest seller. Twelve a long shot.
times platinum in the US; double We tried to outdo Hysteria, which was
platinum in the UK; mega everywhere a mistake. I remember early on in the
else. Do you look back on Hysteria as songwriting process, we had this song

the pinnacle of your recording career? that was a spin-off from Hysteria that
Yes. I still think it’s an incredible album. ended up on the Adrenalize album, called
It was almost genre-less. You know, the Tonight. And I remember at the time, Mutt
first Guns N’ Roses album also came out saying: “Guys, you’ve got to produce this
around the same time, and what record with [regular Lange engineer]

a fantastic album that was. But it was of Mike Shipley,” god rest his soul, who
an ilk. It was a brilliant album of a certain was more than capable. He was
style of music. But there are parts of a major part of Hysteria anyway, and Mutt
Hysteria which had just never been done would be the first to admit that.

before, just came out of left-field without So it was obvious Mutt wasn’t going to
being ridiculously weird. It was a stand- be a hands-on producer like he had been
alone album. There’s no question that in on the previous three albums. He actually
many ways it is our pinnacle. It was the turned round to us and said, “You know
album we envisaged making when the what you should do. You should

four of us – before even Steve Clark was completely forget about doing
in the band – first sat down and formed a Hysteria-type album and make a Guns
Def Leppard. That was the goal. N’ Roses-type album.” And we just didn’t
know how to take that. Because that

So was there no feeling that the correct wouldn’t have been natural to us, in
move then would be to make Hysteria II, a sense. It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut
again with Mutt, just to see how much that has brought you success. Even if the
further we can go this time? Rather songs are different, there’s a formula to
than what actually happened, which the writing and recording process. And

was to not work with Mutt? it’s so hard to get out of that because you
After the release of Hysteria we toured know it’s a tried-and-trusted formula.
for a very long time. They were All this shit was going on. Then we
wonderful days, just great times. But it made the album as a four-piece because
did have a draining effect on the band. Steve was no longer with us. It just

Then we went in to start writing songs for became… I don’t know. It came from the
Adrenalize, and Mutt was… I don’t think wrong source. The motivation, the
he had lost the passion, I think he was feelings were all mixed up because of the
getting tired of working with bands per circumstances surrounding it. So while
se, and having to cater for every the album was a commercial success it’s

individual member of the band and treat not an album that I look back fondly on.
them equally. Cos that was one of Mutt’s It doesn’t really cut it for me.
great strengths. Nothing was more
important than when it was being Also, you released Adrenalize in

recorded and it was getting his full the middle of the grunge
attention. And I think Mutt was getting a maelstrom, spearheaded by
little tired of the work that he was putting Nirvana. That had an
in to do the records. He was getting a little enormous blowback effect
jaded, if that’s a fair word. We got to the on you, didn’t it?


CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 51

RICHARD SAVAGE





THE VISION THAT WE’D HARBOURED SINCE


DAY ONE WAS: WE WANT TO SELL AS MANY



RECORDS TO BANK MANAGERS AS BLOKES



WHO RIDE MOTORBIKES.




The landscape was really changing, yeah. We absolutely went through that process,
I became aware of Peal Jam and maybe yeah. But it wasn’t to try and keep up or
even Nirvana kind of just before they all hang on to the supremacy that we’d

broke. My girlfriend at the time was created in the 80s. It was more internally.
closely associated with [the grunge We got to the point after the Adrenalize
scene]. She was in the video business but album and before we went in to record
she came from Seattle and she played me Slang, we really got to the point where

Pearl Jam and I remember thinking, we couldn’t make another album like
bloody hell, this is good! But it’s not even Adrenalize again. Or even Hysteria again.
encroaching on where our music’s at. We’d go mad. We’d absolutely just go
I thought, it’s good and it will probably nuts or just call it a day. We had to do
replace Tom Petty, rather than replace Def something different. Even the recording

Leppard. I didn’t feel threatened by it at process had to go completely different.
all. I admired it. I thought, what a lovely Just for our own benefit. Slang was
singer. And great feel to the drums and the such an important album within the
tracks in general. I didn’t realise that it band, because what it did was… it

was gonna get that big that it just gave us a springboard to the
swallowed up the bands that had been so second half of our career. Without
big in the 80s, whether it be Def Leppard, it I don’t think there would have
Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, although they been a second half to our career.
sidestepped it a bit. And then Nirvana, We needed to make that record

along the same sort of lines. It was like, for ourselves just to change it
bloody hell, it’s completely changed! around and record an album in a
We even said at the time: “Listen, completely different way without
everybody has their day.” Music, it is like worrying whether it’s gonna be

that. It is cyclical and whatever has commercially accepted or not. I
become overly popular for many years think that was the important
suddenly just… there’s something that thing. We just had to do it.
just comes along that is 180 degrees the In fairness, When Love And
opposite to what people have been Hate Collide was a song that

buying. The grunge thing was exactly didn’t quite make the
that. It wasn’t about glam. It wasn’t about Adrenalize album. So it was
David Lee Roth or Jon Bon Jovi or Joe more akin to that. We just
Elliott or all that stuff. We called them gave it more of the Slang sort
shoe-starers because they were all of treatment. We didn’t want

miserable buggers that were into art and to turn it into some big Love
doing heroin instead of cocaine. [Laughs] Bites-fest or anything like
That was basically it! that. From a songwriting
point of view, that was
Def Leppard and Bon Jovi survived it written four or five years

much better than bands like Mötley before it came out.
Crüe, Poison and Whitesnake. Because The record company,
of the more universal quality of your they wanted something to
songs you weren’t so wedded to that release a greatest hits album [Vault], but

one era. You also all cut your hair, began obviously they needed a lead-off single, a
dressing down, and released big power- brand new track just to sort of introduce
ballad comeback hits: Always for Bon it. So they were listening to current songs.
Jovi and When Love And Hate Collide They were listening to stuff that [later
for Leppard. Agree? ended up] on Slang, and they were like,


52 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

RICHARD SAVAGE





how do we match this current stuff up
with Def Leppard’s greatest hits?

The nearest one they wanted to do was
a song called Blood Runs Cold [which
ended up on Slang]. The head of the
record company came to see us and we
played him the demo for When Love And

Hate Collide and he nearly fell of his chair.
He said: “Fuck me! That’s the song!
That’s the song we’ve been trying to get
you to write!” So we said, okay, and we
virtually had it recorded in 10 days.

It was the perfect song for the greatest
hits album, but that was almost like
closing the door on the first stage. And the
Slang record was the real important album,

from a point of view of keeping the band
together, to be blunt. It ensured
a longevity that wouldn’t have existed
had we not made a record like Slang.



You have always been tougher than you
look though, haven’t you? Seeing off
a series of crises that on their own
would have finished off most other

bands: changing managers, firing band
members, losing Steve… Also, that
legendary killer of bands: American
success. You all had different ways of
dealing with that on the Hysteria tour,

your biggest tour ever. Joe and Phil
stopped drinking. Steve and Rick Allen
pointedly didn’t. And you just kept a low
profile. Mr Cool. Was that a deliberate

move to distance yourself from the
obvious waywardness of Steve?
You’re spot-on, really. I mean, things
have changed now but back in the day
Rick [Allen] just liked to get high. That’s
what he liked to do. Steve did it to excess

because I think he thought that’s what
rock stars did. That was one of the
reasons he wanted to be a rock star in the
first place, to do this sort of behaviour

after a show. To me it wasn’t a big deal. Work it out: I wasn’t really motivated by it. I could the consequences are, or what Joe’s gonna
I didn’t get into it for those reasons. If Sav sets his walk away from it. I guess I’m pretty say to you, or someone’s going to get mad
thin fingers to
somebody’s buying you a gin and tonic, work during lucky in that sense. at you. Certainly with Steve there was a
I’ll drink it. But I wasn’t looking for it. the Euphoria era. With Steve, without sounding like a worry about that, that he’d be upsetting
It didn’t motivate me. It absolutely shrink, it was all in his head. With some the band if he did this too much or that,

motivated Steve, just because it was the people there are deeper insecurities, but then in order to get away from those
image he had of the business in general, whether stemming from childhood or feelings he’d do more. It’s like a never-
which is what got him into the position in wherever, but they become a real ending circle that just comes and encloses
the first place. It was the Keith Richards- problem. But the stuff they do to get away in on you. I’ve always been happy with

Jimmy Page sort of thing. That’s what he from this bigger thing actually creates an who I am and what I do. I’ve always said
wanted to be, simple as. The drinking and even bigger problem for them. Me, Joe, there’s thousands of bass players that are
the drugs was part of the deal. Nearly as Phil and even Rick now, we’ve got to a technically better than me but I’m the best
much as playing the guitar. It wasn’t with point where there’s an individual security bass player Def Leppard could have, just
me. I liked being part of the scene but that allows you to not worry about what because it fits.


CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 53

In 1983, Pyromania, the third album from NWOBHM chancers Def Leppard turned them
into superstars on fire overnight. British metal was taking on the world – and winning.



STORY: PAUL ELLIOTT PHOTOGRAPHY: ROSS HALFIN


t was the album that turned Def Leppard into superstars. rock record with the punch of AC/DC and the
A multi-platinum phenomenon so huge that only Michael twin-guitar cut-and-thrust of classic Thin Lizzy.
Jackson’s Thriller, the biggest-selling album of all time, prevented But as Joe Elliott admits: “That album didn’t do
it from reaching No.1 in America. It was a state-of-the-art what we all hoped it would. And touring the UK
masterpiece that reinvented arena rock in the 1980s, that drove was a complete waste of time. We were pulling in
its creators half mad in the search for perfection, and led Phil 400-500 people in 2000-seat theatres.”
Lynott to claim it as the reason why he split Thin Lizzy. Leppard finished touring High ‘N’ Dry by
Famously dubbed ‘arson-oriented rock’, Pyromania made Def supporting Judas Priest on the European leg of the
Leppard the biggest British rock export since Led Zeppelin. And latter’s Point Of Entry tour. Sandwiched between
for the band’s singer, Joe Elliott, a working-class lad from Priest and Teutonic headbangers Accept, Leppard
ISheffield, it was a boyhood fantasy come true. made little impact on the massed ranks of denim-
and-leather-clad metalheads. On December 12, in
Amsterdam, the tour ended on a miserable note.
“When I watched Marc Bolan on reached No.15 in the UK chart. The band’s passports were stolen from their tour
Top Of The Pops, I just wanted to be But within months of this bus, forcing Leppard to miss the last two shows
up on that same stage, covered in triumph the young band would in Germany. And Pete Willis, their diminutive,
glitter and wearing women’s discover just how tough the heavy-drinking guitarist, pulled a particularly
shoes,” Elliott recalls. “I dreamed music business really is. stupid stunt – and not for the first time – by letting
of being the singer in the biggest In August 1980 Leppard’s off a fire extinguisher in a hotel. The prank cost
rock’n’roll band in the world. appearance at the Reading Willis £275. Def Leppard returned to Britain
Pyromania made it happen.” Festival was met with a hail of exhausted and frustrated, bloodied but unbowed.
On a freezing night in the bottles. A cover story in Sounds “There’s no such thing as a lack of confidence
winter of 1978, 19-year-old Joe – written by Classic Rock’s Geoff when you’re 21 years old,” Elliott says.
Elliott was walking home through Barton and provocatively titled
Sheffield city centre after a night ‘Has the Leppard changed its EF LEPPARD and Mutt Lange were a
in the pub. He and three other members of Def spots?’ – had led many British rock fans to believe perfect fit. The band had thought so
Leppard – guitarists Steve Clark and Pete Willis that the band had sold out. The title of Leppard’s Deven before they’d heard Highway To
and bassist Rick ‘Sav’ Savage – were so broke that single, Hello America, didn’t help. Hell and Back In Black. They loved the late-70s
their last drink was a single pint of bitter with four One year later, Barton gave Leppard’s second new wave-era pop hits Mutt had produced: The
straws in it. As he came to the City Hall, Sheffield’s album, High ‘N’ Dry, a rave review. But the damage Motors’ Dancing The Night Away, City Boy’s 5.7.0.5.,
leading music venue, Joe pulled a piece of chalk had been done; in Britain the album peaked much the Boomtown Rats’ chart-topping post-punk
from his pocket and wrote on the wall beside the lower than On Through The Night, at No.26. anthem Rat Trap.
City Hall’s front doors: ‘DEF LEPPARD WILL As Barton proclaimed, High ‘N’ Dry was a huge With AC/DC’s Back In Black, Mutt proved that he
PLAY HERE IN 1980!’ leap forward for Def Leppard. Produced by Robert was the best hard rock producer in the business,
His prophecy came true. On April 10, 1980, Def John ‘Mutt’ Lange, the man who had worked on yet he was equally adept at the art of the pop
Leppard played a sold-out show at the City Hall, AC/DC’s Highway To Hell and Back In Black and single. Combining the two had always been Def
after their debut album On Through The Night Foreigner’s 4, High ‘N’ Dry was a blistering hard Leppard’s aim.
Leppard spent just three months in the studio
with Mutt making High ‘N’ Dry, but even in a
“THERE’S NO SUCH THING relatively short period they made significant
progress. “High ‘N’ Dry was a big improvement on
AS A LACK OF CONFIDENCE the first album,” Elliott says. “Songwriting,
performance, sound, production, everything. And
WHEN YOU’RE 21 YEARS with the third album, we wanted to make the
same kind of leap. We didn’t want to be making
High ‘N’ Dry II. We’d gone from one to three, so we
OLD.” – JOE ELLIOTT had to go from three to five, not three to four.”
Mutt Lange shared this vision. He told the

54 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Coining it in: new boy
Phil Collen starts to
wonder about his cut.






























































In 1981, the Leps were
getting 400 people in 2000
seaters. By ’83 - this…






Joe Elliott: this is
what victory looks like.









































The Leppard roars: Joe
Elliott and Steve Clark
give it some.

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 55

Pyromania: “We wanted an Confidence man: “If
album that sounded how Pyromania doesn’t sell
Spielberg movies looked.” six million I’ll eat my hat.”





































band: “We can make a record that nobody’s ever but it’s true. And with Pyromania the whole thing
made before.” Mutt listed the cutting-edge studio was driven by vocals.”
technology at their disposal – digital recording, Recording began in March, and money was
new drum machines and synthesisers – and tight. The band were in debt to their record
explained how these could be applied to the company to the tune of £700,000, and each band
recording of hard rock. But he warned: “If we go member was on wages of £40 a week.
for it, we’re gonna go down a lot of dead ends and “Mutt was like a sergeant major,” Elliott recalls.
come back frustrated. Even I don’t know where “I remember him reaming Pete Willis for eating
we’re going with this.” an apple while we were supposed to be recording.
As Elliott says: “Mutt needed a band that was Mutt was shouting: ‘We don’t have the money or
prepared to go with him, and we needed the time to be pissing about!’ We were laughing.
somebody that was prepared to take the It was like being back at school.”
responsibility. It was perfect for Mutt. He had a It was only when Willis screwed up again that
band that wasn’t full of ego. We hadn’t had any the gravity of the situation really hit home.
previous success to fight him with. Foreigner had Elliott: “Pete turned up one morning around
had triple-platinum records. You can imagine 10am, and he was so bollocksed he was actually
them thinking, ‘Who does this guy think he is?’ doing the Paul Kossoff and wearing the guitar
But with us he could try anything.” backwards – strings inside – strumming the back
What made Def Leppard such willing pupils Good friends really: Joe of the guitar. Mutt was laughing so hard. But then
was a keen appreciation of rock history. “We’d Elliott and Rick Savage. he sent Pete home. I was really scared that Mutt
read about Queen and The Beatles using all these was gonna walk off the project. And I’m afraid,
toys in the studio,” Elliott explains, “and we You Drop), and a previously unfinished track, truth be known, Mutt was more important than
wanted to do the same thing, but within a hard- described by Joe as “a dual-guitar pop song”, Pete was.”
rock format. There were certain records from the was finally completed, and titled Photograph. Pete Willis had become a liability. And after
70s that were much better than the stuff that was Aside from drummer Rick Allen, every band lengthy discussions, a decision was made. “We’d
coming out in the early 80s. Boston’s debut and member contributed to the writing, as did Mutt made the decision 99 times before,” Elliott sighs,
the first four Queen albums, they were huge Lange, who co-wrote all of the album’s 10 tracks. “and every time we’d been talked out of it, either
productions, and that’s what we wanted – a Guitarist Pete Willis wrote the riff to Rock Rock by Pete or management.”
massive sound.” (Till You Drop). Their other guitarist, Steve Clark, a The band had already identified a replacement
Leppard wrote most of the songs for their third Jimmy Page fan, created the Zeppelin-styled epic for Willis: Londoner Phil Collen, guitarist with
album in February 1982. Some of the songs were Billy’s Got A Gun. Rick Savage came up with the NWOBHM-era glam-rock band Girl and a good
brand new, built from a stockpile of riffs the band express-train rocker Stagefright. friend of Joe’s. During the High ‘N’ Dry tour, Joe
had worked through after the High ‘N’ Dry tour. Elliott: “When we were piecing these songs had called Phil at 2am following another drunken
But they also remodelled a couple of older songs together it was all written with vocals in mind. outburst from Willis. “I asked Phil if he could
that hadn’t made the cut for High ‘N’ Dry: Medicine Guitar is a backing instrument to a voice. It learn 18 songs in three days,” says Elliott. “But of
Man was beefed up and renamed Rock Rock (Till sounds like an egotistical statement from a singer, course, in the cold light of day I rang him again
and said: ‘Look, one day, but not now.’”
Collen didn’t have to wait long. Willis was
“I THOUGHT, I’M NOT summoned to a band meeting and told he was
out. When he pleaded for one last chance, Joe
PUTTING MY LIFE ON THE replied: “You’ve had a hundred chances.”
It was a tough call but as Joe sees it, Pete had
LINE FOR THIS TWAT ANY only himself to blame: “When Pete had a few
drinks he thought he was King Kong. I mean,
Steve was a drinker but Steve was a nice guy. Pete
MORE.” – JOE ON PETE WILLIS’S SACKING wasn’t. In the end I thought, I’m not putting my
life on the line for this twat any more.”

56 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

On reflection, Elliott is keen to stress the HOW METAL WENT POP says Elliott. “I met George Michael and he said:
importance of Pete Willis’s contribution to ‘I bought Photograph – great song!’ That’s when
Pyromania. The guitarist co-wrote four of the DEF LEPPARD OPENED THE DOOR TO you know you’re crossing over.”
album’s 10 tracks, including Photograph, the key hit STADIUM METAL FOR EVERYONE ELSE. Leppard began touring the US in March,
single. And despite his run-ins with Mutt Lange, supporting Billy Squier on 24 dates. Squier was
Willis also played the rhythm guitar parts on every It’s no surprise that Def Leppard made it first still a big star at the time, “a bona fide arena-rock
track. Phil Collen joined the band for the final in America. They may have come from sensation”, as one critic called him. But Def
stages of recording, when they returned to Sheffield, but they were purveyors of pure Leppard blew him off stage night after night. On
London for overdubbing and mixing at Battery Americana, a sound that had its natural April 29 Leppard began their first headlining US
Studios. Collen played solos on five of the tracks, home on the radio there. Cheap Trick had tour, with support from Krokus and Jon Butcher
with Steve Clark taking the other five. been doing it since the 70s. So had Boston Axis. The first of these shows was a sobering
and Styx as they sowed the seeds of AOR, experience: a 10,000-seater sports arena in Odessa,
which to pop metal was the kind of cousin it
T WAS only when the album was being probably couldn’t marry – the blood lines Texas was only a quarter full. But within a matter
mixed that Elliott got a true sense of what being too close, and all that. of weeks shows were selling out. “By the summer
IDef Leppard had achieved with Pyromania. Then at the start of the 80s, radio rock got we were flying. We sold out two nights in Detroit
“We knew we’d done something that had never pretty. Pat Benatar and Rick Springfield faster than Zeppelin did!” Elliott states.
been done before,” he says. “And a lot of that was spiked their hair, wore spandex and marked Two more singles were lifted from the album:
down to Mutt.” out a genre. Springfield’s Jessie’s Girl and first Rock Of Ages, then Foolin’. Both received such
The producer was a hard taskmaster whose Don’t Talk To Strangers, and Benatar’s heavy airplay in America that the singer admits:
relentless pursuit of perfection pulled the best out Shadows Of The Night, Love Is A Battlefield and “I swear to God I turned the radio off cos I got sick
of each band member, none more so than the Hit Me With Your Best Shot, powered by the of hearing us every 20 minutes!”
singer. “I wasn’t fucking David Coverdale,” Joe emergent MTV and endless airplay, were During one amazing period in August,
ubiquitous hits.
shrugs. “We went to a lot of effort to make me They ushered in pop metal’s glory years, Pyromania was selling 100,000 copies a day in the
better than I was. It was hard work, but you got the heady days of the mid-80s when Bon US. The album climbed to No.2 on the Billboard
something unique. I was right on the peak of my Jovi, Europe, Bryan Adams and Def Leppard chart – second only to Thriller. “We actually out-
performance, and there was no better man than began getting hits. Songs like Photograph, The sold Thriller for one week,” Elliott says, “but that
Mutt to push me. Sometimes I’d be thinking, ‘Jesus, Final Countdown, Run To You and Livin’ On A just happened to be the week that the Flashdance
how many times have I gotta do this? I’m gonna Prayer, that retained the pop sensibility of soundtrack went to No.1, with us at two and
lose it!’ What Mutt got was a great performance Rick Springfield while being noticeably Jacko at three.”
from someone who isn’t a great singer.” tougher. The look was exaggerated too; On September 17, 1983 Def Leppard arrived in
Mutt was equally obsessive about backing ripped denim, big hair and lots of guyliner. San Diego, California for the Pyromania tour’s
vocals, using all five band members – and himself 117th and final stop on the US mainland. It turned
– to create stunning multi-tracked vocal Ratt: big-haired out to be the biggest headline show of the band’s
80s pop metal.
harmonies in the style of Leppard’s heroes Queen. career up to then, with 55,000 fans packing the
“The backing vocals on Foolin’ and Billy’s Got A Gun Jack Murphy Stadium to see Leppard plus support
are just nuts!” Elliott laughs. acts Mötley Crüe, Uriah Heep and Eddie Money.
But the producer’s masterstroke was to bring in That was just five years since Joe Elliott had
80s keyboard maestro Thomas Dolby to play on scrawled Def Leppard’s name on the walls of
the album. Mutt had employed him to brilliant Sheffield City Hall. Now 24, he was the rock’n’roll
effect on Foreigner’s 4: it was Dolby who played star of his dreams. As the band waited in darkness
the synthesisers on the hit ballad Waiting For A Girl before going on stage, with The Rolling Stones’
Like You. And he played a key role on Pyromania. Start Me Up booming out around the stadium,
“The band and Mutt, we wanted to make a really Elliott thought to himself: “Six months ago we
modern rock record,” Elliott says. “We wanted an didn’t know shit from shinola, and now we’re the
album that sounded the way Spielberg’s movies biggest fucking band on the planet!”
looked. And Thomas Dolby was perfect for that.” When the Pyromania tour eventually finished, in
The massed synthesiser chords Dolby added to Bangkok on February 7, 1984, after a triumphant
the intro of Rock Rock (Till You Drop) transformed a return to the UK and dates in Europe, Japan and
straightforward kick-ass rocker into a cutting-edge Australia, the album had sold more than six
stadium-rock anthem. As the opening track on GETTY million copies in the US alone. Pyromania was, as
the album, it was an emphatic statement. predicted, the birth of a legend. And for Joe Elliott
Elsewhere, Dolby added subtle textures to Foolin’ In the UK Pyromania was still selling slow. It its success was a very personal victory.
(reminiscent of Waiting For A Girl Like You) and peaked at No.18. And after a showcase gig at “When I was a kid in Sheffield,” he says, “I was
dramatic flourishes to Die Hard The Hunter. London’s Marquee club on February 9 the band’s this geeky twat who liked music and wasn’t living
The final mix of Pyromania was completed just British theatre tour drew disappointingly small in the real world. At 17 I was useless with women.
before Christmas 1982. It had taken nine months audiences. Joe called it “The Nobody Cares Tour”. They used to laugh at me if I asked them for a date.
to finish. However, at a cost of more than £1m it In America, however, it was a different story. I had no confidence with women. And now, all of
had to sell at least three million copies to get Def The album’s lead single, Photograph, was a huge a sudden I didn’t need any – they were chasing me
Leppard out of debt. Joe Elliott should have been a radio hit. “Photograph blew out the door the way all over the place! But the truth is, that was never a
worried man. He wasn’t. “We knew we’d made a More Than A Feeling or Radar Love or Black Betty did,” priority. All I ever wanted was to be a star.”
great record,” he says. “And we knew it had the
potential to be huge.”
Pyromania was released on January 20, 1983. The “WE KNEW WE’D MADE
album received great reviews. Rolling Stone
magazine’s David Fricke awarded Pyromania four A GREAT RECORD, AND THAT
out of five stars and stated: “This young band
demonstrates surprising sophistication as it
manipulates old heavy metal tricks into tight, IT HAD THE POTENTIAL TO
invigorating songs.” In Kerrang!, future Classic Rock
contributor Malcolm Dome hailed Pyromania as BE HUGE.” – JOE ELLIOTT
“the birth of a legend”.

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 57

GETTY x2

































When Def Leppard teamed up with Meat Loaf associate Jim Steinman for the follow-up to

Pyromania, they expected big things. But all they got was a huge food bill… Words: Paul Elliott


58 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Def Leppard in 1983 and
(inset) Jim Steinman: a
marriage made in hell.
























































































he first time Jim Steinman met Def “Jim was a funny guy, very eccentric,” Elliott says.
Leppard, in the summer of 1984, he “But you could sit down with Charles Manson for
delivered an emphatic mission 20 minutes and probably come away saying: ‘Hey,
statement: “I think we can make he’s not that bad.’ And in that first meeting, we
Tbeautiful music together.” realised that Jim was in a completely different orbit
Steinman had just signed up to be the producer of to us. I got this uncomfortable feeling.”
Leppard’s fourth album, the follow-up to their six- It was too late. The deal had been done:
million-selling Pyromania. The band had already Steinman was their man. And what resulted was
begun work on the album, and had recorded several one of the most expensive mistakes in the history
demos on a rudimentary four- track machine. of rock’n’roll.
A self-confident New Yorker, Steinman carried a Jim Steinman was Def Leppard’s producer for just
big reputation as the creator of one of the biggest eight weeks before they cancelled his contract. None
rock albums of all time: Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell. of the recordings that the band made with him were
And when he arrived in Dublin to meet the five American bullshit.” ever released. And it was only after Steinman was
members of Def Leppard at the house they shared at Guitarist Phil Collen was impressed by some of replaced by ‘Mutt’ Lange, the producer of Pyromania,
1 St Helens Road, in the Booterstown area, he gave what Steinman said. “He talked about recreating that Leppard were able to complete the album they
them the full charm offensive. Phil Spector’s ‘Wall Of Sound’ while staying true to named Hysteria. For Def Leppard, working with Jim
“We all sat in the living room drinking tea,” recalls Def Leppard. It sounded like it could be cool.” Steinman was a disaster.
Leppard singer Joe Elliott. “And Jim says: ‘I’ve heard But as Steinman laid it on with a trowel, alarm “We thought we’d got the Ferrari,” says Collen.
your demos. I really dig ’em, man!’ It was that very bells started ringing in Joe Elliott’s head. “In reality, we’d got a second-hand Cortina.” É

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 59

he truth is that Def Leppard never wanted Joe Elliott, Steve
Steinman as their producer in the first Clarke and Phil Collen
Tplace. They had planned to work again with in happier times.
Lange, whose influence on Leppard’s sound, as
producer and co-songwriter, was so important
that he was considered their “sixth member”. But
in April 1984, after Lange had written several
songs with the band in Dublin, he told them he
was too exhausted to produce their new album,
having worked flat out for years on end, making hit
records for AC/DC, Foreigner and The Cars as well
as Leppard.
“When Mutt dropped that bombshell, we had an
emergency meeting,” Elliott says. Present were the
band and their co-managers Peter Mensch and Cliff
Burnstein. “We were desperate,” he admits. “Who
the hell do you get to replace Mutt Lange?”
Approaches were made to Roxy Music/Sex
Pistols producer Chris Thomas, and Trevor Horn,
former member of The Buggles and Yes and
producer of Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Both
said they were too busy. Phil Collins was also
briefly considered.
It was Cliff Burnstein who suggested Steinman. GETTY
But there was a flaw in his logic: although Steinman
wrote the songs for Bat Out Of Hell, it was actually
Todd Rundgren who produced that album. Across eight weeks, Steinman and Def Leppard dime, there would be a fucking banquet of food.”
“Steinman was not a producer,” Elliott says. worked on seven songs. In addition to Don’t Shoot But it was when Steinman demanded a better
“I pointed that out. But because Mutt was a Shotgun and Run Riot there was Animal, Women, Gods quality of carpet in the studio’s control room that
producer who assists in songwriting and Of War, Love And Affection – all titles that Elliott decided he’d had enough. The singer told
arrangements, Cliff thought we might need help would make it on to the final version of Hysteria the rest of the band: “We should be changing the
more in the songwriting department than in the – plus a song called Love Bites that was later producer before we change the fucking carpet.”
sonics of the record. Cliff got that completely wrong. rewritten as I Wanna Be Your Hero.
But at the time, Steinman was literally the only “They were works in progress,” Collen explains. nother of Def Leppard’s emergency
option we had, so we ended up going with him.” “They sounded… okay. But we’d sold six million of meetings was called. This time it was just
When Steinman was hired, Elliott consulted Pyromania, and for the follow-up you didn’t want to Athe five band members. “The problem
Lange, who told him: “Give it a go – and if it doesn’t do less, you wanted to do more.” was that Steinman wasn’t adding anything,” Collen
work, get rid of the guy.” Elliott laughs when he “We didn’t want to make Pyromania II,” Elliott says. “And if you’re going to pay someone to
reflects on that advice. “It was exactly what says. “We were looking to make a masterpiece of produce your album, you want them to be better
happened,” he says, “because Steinman was less production and songwriting. We didn’t want to than you are – at the very least.” When the meeting
than useless!” throw out an album that would have sounded like was over, a phone call was made to Mensch and
August 11, 1984 was Steinman’s first day in the anything else that came out in 1985.” Burnstein. The message was: “Get rid of this guy!”
producer’s chair at Wisseloord studios in Jim Steinman simply didn’t understand Def By mid-October, Steinman was gone. Neil
Hilversum, Holland. Working alongside him was Leppard as Mutt Lange did. “There was a flow of Dorfsman went with him. The band brought in
Neil Dorfsman, described by Collen as another engineer, Nigel Green, who had
“a fucking brilliant engineer”. But from worked with them on Pyromania. They
the start, Elliott sensed trouble. recorded with Green until the Christmas
“That first afternoon, we were break, during which the unthinkable
warming up,” he says. “We played a loose, happened – drummer Rick Allen lost his left
Stones-y version of Don’t Shoot Shotgun – just arm in a car crash on New Year’s Eve. It was
the riff and a part of the melody. We didn’t while Allen was recovering in hospital that
even have the chorus then. And Steinman he persuaded Lange to come back on board
says: ‘I think we got that one.’ We all looked at and finish the album.
each other, and Phil said: ‘We haven’t even tuned With Lange, the band re-recorded every track
up yet!’ Steinman says: ‘Yeah, but it’s got a vibe.’ from scratch. Hysteria was finally released in
That wasn’t a good sign.” ideas and inspiration that we got from Mutt,” August 1987 and went on to become a huge hit –
It went downhill from there. In the days that Collen says. “That’s what we were waiting for from the biggest album of Def Leppard’s career, with
followed, Steinman suggested some song titles. Use Steinman. And it never happened. Mutt wants to more than 20 million copies sold to date.
It Or Lose It was one. create something spectacular – almost like a third Steinman never got his new carpet, but he got
“What he assumed was a good title, we thought dimension, wildebeest sweeping majestically his payoff – “a big six-figure sum”, according to
was shit,” Collen says. “His ideas seemed a bit past… Steinman just came in and let us record. Elliott. “We had to sell a lot of records to pay him
hokey. Maybe it was a class thing. It was obvious And what he recorded was just ordinary. It didn’t off. Jim Steinman made a lot of money out of Def
that we were way more ‘street’ than he was. Jim’s even sound as good as our original demos.” Leppard for doing very little work. He’s a lucky
stuff was a bit theatrical, which is great, but it Adding to the band’s frustration was a sense that man in that respect.”
wasn’t us. We were polar opposites.” Steinman was not fully focused on the job at hand. Almost 30 years down the line, Elliott still has
This cultural divide was also evident in another “We’d be in the studio at 11am,” Elliott recalls. a box of tapes marked ‘Hysteria: The Steinman
of Steinman’s ideas. For the balls-out Run Riot, he “Steinman would stumble in at 3pm because he’d Sessions’. And he thinks it is best for both parties
proposed a Bat Out Of Hell-style flourish. been up every night writing Bat Out Of Hell II. He that these tapes remain unheard. “We would never
“He wanted to put a synthesiser run on it,” Elliott wasn’t giving us his full attention.” release that stuff,” he says. “There’s nothing
says. “Diddle diddle diddle… Like Rick Wakeman Elliott also claims that Steinman racked up an finished. It’s like the worst bootleg you’ve ever
on Siberian Khatru by Yes. You couldn’t have come enormous bill for food. “He would look at a menu heard. Those tapes are locked away in my library.
up with a worse idea, in our eyes.” and order one of everything. Every night, on our And that’s where they’ll stay.”

60 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

THE LEGENDS THAT BUILT ROCK!







From the pages of Classic Rock magazine comes this collection of incredible encounters


with rock’n’roll’s most iconic figures. From Jimmy Page and Slash to Freddie Mercury

and Keith Richards, join us in this 148-page celebration of music’s greatest stars.

The fearsomely



positive Leppard


sticksman reveals


how the band made


a school truant of



him and looks back


on the accident that


changed his life



forever…























































































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

62 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

he man born Richard John Rick Allen: the to rejoin Def Leppard. After tears and joy played drums – although my dad may
invincible man.
Cyril Allen in Dronfield, at his “comeback” gig at Donington in ’86, have done a little bit, perhaps in Scouts,
just south of Sheffield, on came the runaway success of Hysteria, and because I found his drumsticks.

November 1, 1963 peppers – from October 2003 – personal
his conversation with self- happiness as the husband of musician/ How old were you when you got your
deprecation and insights therapist Lauren Monroe, with whom he first kit?
that suggest the words has a four-year-old daughter. He’s very I must have been about 11. When I first
“positive mental attitude” close, too, to an 18-year-old daughter asked, my parents said no – we couldn’t

define him much better from his first marriage. That ended in really afford it. But then they said: “If you
than his status as a member of Def 2000 after a spousal abuse charge (in go for lessons and don’t lose interest then
Leppard or, more commonly, the world’s 1996) prompting a spell of community we’ll think about it. And in the mean time
best-known one-armed drummer. service and entering a programme with you can wash cars and do jobs around the

He joined the Leppard ranks at the age Alcoholics Anonymous. neighbourhood to get some money
of 15 , and the band had sold close to 10 In 2001 he and Lauren established the together and then we can put it all
million albums before he was old enough Raven Drum Foundation based in Malibu together and see what we can do.”
to drink – though he did that to excess in his now native California. Its mission
anyway. He lost his left arm, aged just 21, statement: “To serve, educate, and Can you tell us about your pre-Def
when the car he was driving crashed off empower veterans and people in crisis.” Leppard bands?

the A61 south of Sheffield en route to visit Positive mental attitude indeed – saving The first band I was in was called GRAD
his parents on December 31, 1984. He lives as well as driving rock’n’roll… – Garth, Richardson, Allen and Dunford
later admitted: “I was going too quick – – but then someone told us to change the
not just in the car, but in life.” Was there any music in your family? name to Smokey Blue, which was

Positive mental attitude got him out of My mum’s sister played piano, my mother probably the worst thing we ever did. We
hospital earlier than predicted, allowed used to sing in the choir… but not were young, playing covers… I’d just got
him to learn a new way of playing drums, anything that stands out. Nobody really my first drumkit and was immediately in
a band, which was the reason I wanted the
JOE’S PARENTS MORTGAGED kit in the first place. My friends, who were

a little older than me, all had guitars. It
THEIR HOUSE. MY PARENTS PUT A was a ‘first gig in my parents living room’
type of band, you know?
But I got thrown out of the band – after
BUNCH OF MONEY IN. EVERYBODY an altercation with the guitar player – so I


STEPPED UP. THEY JUST WANTED TO joined Rampant who were from Hoyland
Common near Rotherham. That was fun

SEE LEPPARD SUCCEED. because that got me into more rock songs
– Deep Purple, Zeppelin, Sabbath,


CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 63

RICK ALLEN





Cream… just anything that was fun to
play. We had a girl singer and were a
pretty decent jamming band.



Did you play barefoot in those days?
I did, I did! It was basically just from
rolling out of bed and sitting there stark

bollock naked playing drums because
I was too lazy to put any clothes on.


That’s an image I’d like to quickly move

on from…
Yeah, of course. You can’t unsee that,
right? Ha ha!


How did your Def Leppard audition

come about?
I ended up leaving Rampant and joined
the Johnny Kalendar Band – another
covers outfit. That became a bit of a pain
in the arse because they just wanted to

take the money and run instead of putting
money back into the band an invest in our
future. Remember, they were all a lot
older than me. Finally, at the ripe old age

of 14, I got fed up and was ready to ‘end it
all’, ha-ha.
I’m unloading my stuff from the van
after a show. I was just getting it all to the
top of the steps by our house and getting

really frustrated. I started throwing bits of
it back down the steps and started
exclaiming: “I’m done, I don’t want to do
this any more!”
Right at this moment my mum said: MAIN IMAGE: GETTY

“I’ve just seen this article in the Sheffield
Star about a band looking for a drummer.
So do you want me to call?” I ended up I can’t remember his name. They asked got a job and he’s doing really well.” The
going down to town and meeting Joe and me if I wanted to go first, I said no, and school said: “Let him finish his
Sav in the toilets of the Limit club – which instead listened to the two of them play – schoolwork and then he can go back to

we all used to frequent. The only place on my drum kit, I’ll have you know – and that.” But my parents insisted: “If he does
quiet enough to talk when the bands were got to learn the songs well enough to be that this opportunity may be gone, so our
on was in the toilets. Unfortunately they able to get up and impress the guys. I was suggestion would be to take him out of
had a bit of a plumbing problem so the the last to go, there were big smiles all school and see out the end of term with a

entire floor was just covered in… I don’t over the room and that was it – I got the tutor.” I ended up with a tutor in Scotland
know what, but it didn’t smell very good. job. That was November 1978. – because the term ended earlier up there!
When me and Steve and Joe got talking, When I think back they must have
it turned out we realised that we’d all been You’d just turned 15 – what about realised: “This kid’s not going to be a brain
to the same concerts – Thin Lizzy, Sweet, leaving school? surgeon. But he can count to four…” –

Slade, Alex Harvey Band, Mott The My parents were really cool. Def Leppard which is a virtue when you’re in a band
Hoople – so we had something in took off really quickly. But there were and they come in… sometimes, ha ha!
common right from the word go and they legal stipulations around someone of my That happened all across the board in
invited me down to their rehearsal rooms age doing this sort of work and being at Leppard. Joe’s parents were the same.

a couple of days later… school at the same time. I was only They mortgaged their house. My parents
When I got there, there were two other allowed to do a certain amount of this put a bunch of money on. Everybody
drummers, one of them being Tony before the authorities got involved. stepped up. They just wanted to see us
Kenning, the original drummer, and So my parents went to my school and succeed. Without our parents, none of
another chap who played left-handed but sat with the headmaster and said: “He’s this would have happened.


64 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

RICK ALLEN




































































































NEIL PEART SAID: ‘IF IT WASN’T FOR RICK,


ELECTRONIC DRUMS WOULDN’T BE WHERE



THEY ARE TODAY.’ IT WAS REALLY SWEET OF


HIM TO SAY THAT..




















CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 65

RICK ALLEN






































































BRIAN RASIC/GETTY






Their faith was rewarded not long after Band of brothers: But I listen to On Through The Night now was actually being conscious after I left
Hysteria-era
with the Phonogram deal, What do you and I really like it. I have no problems the car… I’d been trying to pass this car
Leppard, hanging
you think of the band’s first album On out backstage. with it. For maybe a couple of years after but every time I tried to pass him, he
Through The Night now? we made it I wasn’t as happy as I could would speed up. Finally, after about four
I think at the time all the songs were tried have been but that’s what happens with miles of this, I put my foot down and
and trusted. Nothing really needed to get experience… passed him but it was a left-hand drive car
changed in the studio. There’s always that and I didn’t really see this corner that was

danger when you’re a new band that all Recording the follow-up, High ’N’ Dry, coming up and ended up rolling the car.
you have to do is take the songs into a was Mutt Lange’s perfectionism initially As it rolled the seatbelt came undone and
studio and record them – because you’ve a pain? Or exciting? I was catapulted through the sunroof.
played them so often on the stage you It was exciting. He had this really gifted Fortunately, I had the sunroof open – but

don’t need to hone them. So, really, Tom way of challenging you without telling the seatbelt took my arm off and that
Allom’s job was not being a producer as you that you were doing it wrong – so you stayed inside the car while I landed in a
such – it was more recording the songs. ended up challenging yourself. You really field yards away.
There was a little bit of production here wanted it to be as good as it could be. You It was the fact that I stayed conscious
and there, but nothing like we what we wanted to make Mutt happy. It was like a that saved my life. My body just tensed, so

experienced when we got involved with fast track to self-awareness and actually I didn’t bleed. There was no blood and
when we met Mutt Lange. realising what you could do and what you that’s probably what saved me – initially.
I think we got lulled into a bit of a false couldn’t do, and then pushing that Then I just remember standing up in this
sense of what hard work was because the envelope and so that you became a better field thinking: “I’m a drummer and I’ve

first album seemed too easy to make, the musician and a better person. lost my arm…” It was surreal.
alcohol was flowing way too freely, and Then Roger and Eileen Pearce – Eileen
everything else… it wasn’t really until Inevitably, I’d also like to ask you about was a district nurse and Roger was a cop
High ‘n’ Dry that we got a taste of what the accident… – they were right behind the accident and
hard work was all about. The thing that I remember most clearly were first on the scene. Eileen went and


66 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

RICK ALLEN





knocked at a local house looking for ice AFTER THE CAR ACCIDENT I JUST
in which to pack my arm… Those two
things: me tensing up to the point where I REMEMBER STANDING UP IN THIS

didn’t bleed, and Roger and Eileen just
being right there – kind of those angels- FIELD IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
on-earth that you meet occasionally –
saved me.
THINKING: ‘I’M A DRUMMER


You speak their names as if you’re still
in touch… AND I’VE LOST MY ARM…’
Oh sure, they came to our wedding. I do
keep in touch. They’re just really special IT WAS SURREAL.

to me. I was in the middle of nowhere…
[His voice trails off]
mental stuff that was going on, I didn’t
You were 21 when it happened. More really understand that… the real depth of

than half your life has passed since – the trauma.
yet people, like me, are still fixating on So I’m at home for a couple of weeks
it. Does that feel odd to you? and I ended up getting right back on it.
Well, I’ve put it to good use. What was a Within seven weeks I’m back in Holland
horrible, horrible thing to me has become working with Def Leppard. As you can

a blessing. [With the Raven Drum imagine, being around Amsterdam, it was
Foundation] I work with a lot of warriors, very easy for me to get into all kinds of
a lot of wounded soldiers and it’s self-medication, and that was a huge
interesting – they think I’m doing it mistake. I should have spent more time

for them but really I’m doing it for just taking care of me. But all of that only
me so it becomes a win-win, a two- came up after the fact. All of the triggers,
way street. There are some all of the things I now hear people talking
warriors with more experience of about after their extreme traumas… But it
PTSD than me, how to manage led me on another journey, you know?

life after extreme trauma… I learn I got there eventually. But I’ll never tell
a lot from them. anybody that I’m healed. I just tell people
So I can only think of it now as that I’m a work-in-progress. If you think
a huge blessing. Don’t get me about it, we all are – it’s just that some
wrong – it’s a huge inconvenience, of us are more traumatised than others,

too! There are many things that I ha ha ha!
really want to do embark upon
that I can’t – but the bonus is I can I watched a soundcheck clip of you on
still play drums. But I can’t jump YouTube and you’re trying to put on a
out of a plane to parachute… or pair of headphones [Rick laughs] and

ski. But, generally I feel like I’m a I thought… which day-to-day things
happier person than I was – even wind you up the most?
before my accident. There are certain things that I’d like to do
with my daughters that I just can’t. Just

You talk about PTSD and these playing with them, picking them up…
days we all know what Post Shoelaces, chopping up vegetables and
Traumatic Stress Disorder is – but stuff like that there are alternatives for. But
back when you had your accident it there is always that feeling that I never got
was a relatively unknown study. Did the opportunity to spin my daughter

you receive any counselling back then? around. So at this point in my life it’s
No. And I think that’s one of the biggest really about my relationship to my family
mistakes I made – coming straight out of and friends and how it impacts on that.
hospital. They said, ‘You’re going to be in

hospital about two or three months’ but The idea of drumming using pedals with
within a month I was straight out of there both feet came after a hospital visit
because I was so determined to move from your friend Pete Hartley, correct?
forward. But I forgot about me – the Pete was an electronics guy – he passed
physical wounds are one thing but the away about a year ago, which was sad


CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 67

RICK ALLEN





– but he was the local fix-your-amplifier
kind of guy, but I realised that he had a lot
more going that just that. He came to visit

me in the hospital… Because I’d also
broke my right arm really badly, too, the
hospital fixed me up with a piece of foam
at the bottom of the bed so I could push

myself up if I’d slid down. About the same
time I requested this piece of foam, I’d
asked my brother to bring in my stereo
and all my music so I could listen to stuff
in the hospital. So I got to that point again,

as on making the new record, where I was
listening to stuff and drummers that had
really inspired me in the first place.
I began to realise that I could pay all the

basic rhythms using just my right and left
foot against this piece of foam. When Pete
came to visit me he saw that and said: “We
could build pedals. I could have you
playing drums again!” So he went away

and came up with these clunky looking
pedals – but it was a start. He brought one
to the hospital to show me.
Literally the day I got out of hospital–

which was just shy of a month after the
accident – I went straight to his store and
he had the pedals and a few drum pads set
up, hooked up to these things called
Simmons drums and I started laying. It

took me about five minutes and I was just
exhausted. I was really weak. But that
initial experience of playing the pedals
catapulted me into where I am today.
And, to be honest, the drum set-up hasn’t

really changed that much.


You not only re-invented yourself, you
reinvented how drums can be played.
Apparently that’s what Neil Peart said to

Phil. Rush rehearse in the same place as
we do in California and Phil met him one Rick in transit not something that everyone could go out really silly-looking baseball cap and I took
day, and he said: “You know what, if it somewhere in the and buy, I know. Instead of what the the arm off a mannequin and shoved it
world while touring
wasn’t for Rick, electronic drums Hysteria, 1987. electronics companies were building, I down the sleeve and put the hand in the

wouldn’t be where they are today.” He tended to wanna go with a custom system jacket pocket. Then I’d arm myself with
said: “He invented so many things and that I could call my own. But my drumset one of those big red Dixie cups and put
inspired so many people…” I thought that has more in common with a laptop than a that to my face and walk straight to the
was really sweet of him to say that. drumkit – the central processor is exactly stage. For months that worked fantastic.
the same, an Intel 7, and it works fantastic. Then one night Steve Clark comes up

How much does a kit like yours cost? I love it. State-of-the-art, as they say… to me wishes me good luck: “Have a really
The one I’m playing right now is probably good show, Rick!” And pats me on the
around $10,000… When you toured Hysteria and played back. I didn’t know it but he’d written ‘I’m
shows ‘in the round”’ you were wheeled Rick Allen’ on a piece of gaffer tape and

So three or four times more than a to the central stage in laundry baskets. stuck this on the back of my jacket. So I
conventional high-end kit? That must have been fun? walk out there thinking all is cool as usual
You can spend as much money as you Well, the other guys were in laundry until I get about 20 feet from the stage and
want, these days – but I consider it to be a baskets – I had a disguise. I had a union some guy notices and yells out: “Rick
really expensive piece of equipment. It’s worker’s wax jacket, a brown curly wig, a Allen, duuude!” I was busted!


68 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

RICK ALLEN














































































Do you have a favourite album? arms. It was interesting to be put in a You got me runnin’: wondering why are we doing this? Why
I have two that I really love, I love the Def situation where I had to figure them out. the boys sing the should we continue? This isn’t fun any
national anthem
Leppard album and I love Slang as well. It was really challenging. I used a system before a publicity more. But then, looking at one another, it
football game for
Those two records have more in common I call ‘substitution’ where if I can’t play it Philadelphia radio was like… Wow! We’re brothers. We
than a lot of our others. I mean, I love cleanly on one drum, I’ll substitute other station Z95FM actually have been doing this for so long
during 1983’s
playing Hysteria and Pyromania and all the beats on others drums. So I play Pyromania tour. and we really like each other.
other stuff. I like them all but your something that isn’t exactly the way Everybody has their own

favourites change… I originally played it, but is a version that idiosyncrasies – we know that – but
I think is more than acceptable. generally we just get on. That, coupled
Is there older stuff you’d like to play? with the fact that we still write music that
When we did Vegas (the Hysteria Finally, then, how do you account for we feel is relevant and we’re fans of.

anniversary Hard Rock Hotel residency, Def Leppard’s longevity? Fortunately, there’s an awful lot of other
spring 2013) and we created this covers The best answer I can give to that is: people who are, too! But genuinely,
band Dead Flatbird (who served as the because we like each other! After Steve without the friendship factor, the
opening act), we were playing a lot of died, I remember we were all just sitting brothers thing, it just wouldn’t work.
songs that I’d only ever played with two around in a room, really depressed, We just couldn’t do it.



THE PHYSICAL WOUNDS ARE ONE THING



BUT THE MENTAL STUFF THAT WAS GOING ON,


I DIDN’T REALLY UNDERSTAND THAT…



THE DEPTH OF THE TRAUMA.



CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 69

WORDS: MARTIN KIELTY

Their massive-selling fourth album turned Def Leppard into one

of the biggest bands on the planet. But recording Hysteria took
the band to Hell and back – more than once.




ef Leppard were under no illusions you managed to get an idea down, you were proud of


the achievement rather than asking yourself whether
about what they wanted to do: they
it was a good idea. Playing it back months later you’d
wanted to become the biggest band in
wonder where your head had been. Besides, we’d
the world, and were prepared to do
whatever it took to achieve their
that for nearly two years. We had nothing to go on.
ambition. Perhaps if they’d known
exactly how much ‘whatever it took’ would turn out enjoyed Pyromania so much, and we’d been living with
But we knew the knives would be out.”
to be, they’d have knocked it on the head and got a job If you’re a band like Def Leppard, you already have Smiling all the way to the bank:
at B&Q. But it’s a good thing they didn’t, because the a lot of the machinery in place. You know about Steve Clark, Rick Allen, Joe Elliott,
album that resulted from their very real battle against constructing a song, you know about presenting ROSS HALFIN Rick Savage and Phil Collen.
extinction turned out to be one of the classic British drama and contrast, you know how to pitch the lyrics
rock albums. to give your audience the entertainment they’re Fortunately, they had Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange on
By February 1984 Def Leppard were already a big looking for. But, again, the caveat this time is that it’s board, the producer who had got so much out of
deal – well, in the USA anyway. The band that started got to be double-perfect, bang on the button. them in their two previous studio epics, High’n’Dry
out in a spoon factory in Sheffield had a respectable and Pyromania. In classic ‘sixth member’ mode, Lange
count of massive US gigs and six million sales of had already become part of the organisation and was
1983’s Pyromania to their name when they settled into “MUTT SAID: happy to work on co-writing. “A lot of bands don’t let
a shared house in Dublin to start the grand cycle all the producer in,” he commented. “Def Leppard let me
over again. ‘LET’S MAKE A right in.”
To say they were worried would be an Elliott is in no doubt of Lange’s value to Leppard:
understatement. The pressures of success come from “He taught us so much. He taught us not to steal from
all directions – fans, management, your label, all need ROCK VERSION one genre, but to steal from as many genres as
whatever you do next to be better than what you did possible – that’s how you make something unique.”
last. But no one can tell you how to achieve that. “Mutt said: ‘Let’s make a rock version of Thriller – an
Waking up after another drunken night in the city, OF THRILLER…’ album you can have seven singles off,’” guitarist Phil
drummer Rick Allen observed: “This is hysteria!” Collen said in 2002. “And we did. It was amazing. It
And, boom, they were off… was his idea. He made us better than we were.”
“We were scared,” singer Joe Elliott recounts. “We And so the album that would be Hysteria began
had absolutely nothing in the way of ideas. We’d AND WE DID.” taking shape. The first song to be written to anything
learned we couldn’t write on the road; you were doing like completion was Animal. And it set out the band’s
all these shows and interviews and appearances. If PHIL COLLEN stall big-time. Guitarists Collen and Steve Clark

70 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

demolished the concept of the big riff, replacing the completed work on The Cars’ Heartbeat City, and was studio at 11, and after the coffee we’d want to get
solid rock face with a complex construction of fine forced to decide that he was too emotionally started. He would come in at half-past-two, then tell
brickwork. The idea was to tear the song wide open exhausted to work on Def Leppard’s album. Phil to play something more ‘oily’. Phil was saying:
and explore the space within, but still wind up Management attempted a coup by putting Jim ‘What the hell do you mean?’ Then when he finished
delivering a whopping punch of sound. In the same Steinman in the producer’s chair. The thinking with us at 11 he went away and started writing for Bat
way that all matter is 99 per cent space (That’s correct – seemed to go like this: Meat Loaf’s Bat Out Of Hell was Out Of Hell II. We were trying to be very focused, and
Science Ed.), thus it was with Animal. At the bottom a classic album, and Hysteria is going to be one too, so he was sleeping in because he was thinking about
end was a no-nonsense rhythm provided by bassist surely Steinman can do what’s needed? But as Elliott Meat Loaf’s next album. We were paying him not to
Rick Savage and drummer Allen; and at the top, pointed out at the time, Steinman was more of a turn up. Then when he tried to have the carpet
Elliott’s trademark croak-scream vocals. There’s a writer than a producer. changed because he didn’t like the colour, that was the
clutch of cunningly constructed riffs, a crowd- The partnership never really took off. The band end of it. It was always going to happen.”
pleasing singalong bit (complete with ‘wo-oah’s), and were poles apart from Steinman, who was more With eight tracks in various stages of construction,
some controlled tension. interested in catching the mood and feel of a take than the band’s management were forced to conclude that
As soon as the management and label heard in carefully building the perfect mix. Collen recalled a things hadn’t worked out. At great expense they
Animal, they knew everything was going to be okay. moment when Steinman said: “It’s a take,” and all bought Steinman out of his contract, and the work
How wrong they were. they’d been doing was checking their tuning. done was scrapped.
With a stack of songs in their pocket, the band “I’d warned them Jim Steinman was a writer,” Lange suggested they bring in Nigel Green, who
moved to Hilversum, Holland, in August to begin the Elliott says. “Bat Out Of Hell was produced by Todd had engineered Leppard’s previous two albums, So,
recording. Which is where the first kick in the nuts Rundgren, so why would we want Jim Steinman? working alongside Green the band started down the
took the wind out of them: Mutt Lange had just “His work ethic was all wrong. We’d turn up at the ‘self-produced’ trail.

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 71

GETTY


The year of Big Brother had been a year of big With Leppard holed up in in Wisselloord Studios Just as concerns about Allen dissolved, though,
bother. And then, with its last breath, it it kicked Def in Holland, the days passed, with Allen re-learning to another problem presented itself. Strange as it may
Leppard in the nuts again – but this time so much play in one room, and the band continuing work on seem, great songs do not necessarily make a great
harder. On New Year’s Eve, Rick Allen crashed his car Hysteria in another room. When he called them in to album. Elliott recalled: “We knew we had the songs,
in Yorkshire, and in the accident his left arm was torn hear him playing a Led Zeppelin track, they knew he and we knew what we needed them to sound like, but
off. It was a cruel blow for anyone, let alone a was going to fight it out. we just couldn’t do it. We were all trying to second-
musician. But with the kind of time the band had been “It ended up such a positive thing,” Collen said. guess Mutt.” After further weeks of struggling
experiencing, there must have been question marks “Rick was a guy overcoming a full-blown tragedy. It’s through recording sessions, attempting to imitate
over everyone’s heads, despite the band’s insistence a great human story of a person overcoming a terrible their missing producer, Lange finally felt able to return
ever since that no thought of quitting or getting a new situation.” to work, and committed to Hysteria. And then – as if to
drummer entered their heads.
With true Yorkshire grit, Allen was up and about in “I WAS JUST FARTING
a matter of weeks, working with pioneering electronic
drum makers Simmons to create a kit that could be
played with two feet and one arm. AROUND. MUTT SAID: ‘THAT’S
“I became a different person after the accident,”
Allen said in 2004. “I was spiritually transformed. But
there was an integration period that was very difficult. THE BEST HOOK I’VE HEARD
I had to grow into my new body and get my head
around myself.
Rick Savage recalled: “The initial reaction was IN FIVE YEARS!’”
horror. It was possible he wouldn’t survive. But once
he was off the danger list we began to come to terms
with it.” JOE ELLIOTT ON THE BIRTH OF POUR SOME SUGAR ON ME

72 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

who died in 1991 of alcohol-related complications,
was a master live artist who found Heaven on stage
and Hell in the studio. He can’t have had a great time
recording Hysteria, but he still gave it his all. In another
departure from the norm, Elliott’s lyrics reflected
bewilderment at the world leaders who ran the Cold
War for their own ends, leaving us mortals to suffer
the consequences.


s work moved towards the completion of 11
tracks, Lange was convinced they still didn’t
have an album – there was still something
A missing. With the budget bust, the money
men panicking and the band exhausted, no one
agreed with him. Until one day, during a break, Elliott
picked up a guitar and played a few notes of an idea
he’d had.
“I was just farting around,” Elliott explains, “when
Mutt came back from the toilet, or wherever, and he
said: ‘What the hell are you playing? That’s the best
hook I’ve heard in five years!”
They worked it up a bit into what became Pour Some
Sugar On Me, and then faced the job of convincing the
band that they had to record this one more track. “I
After almost four years knew there was going to be a problem with the guys,”
making Hysteria, playing live
was a great release. Elliott says. “I was into it because Mutt and I had put it
together, but everyone else was staggering over the
finish line. No one wanted to face another track. I
Phil Collen and Steve Clark remember seeing their faces when we said: ‘One more
prepare to trade, er, licks.
to go, guys.’ Steve put his hands over his face and
went: ‘Oh no…’ But when we played it to them they
realised how little needed doing to it, so we got away
with it.
“That was the only time anyone thought, we can’t
Backstage after wowing yet another
audience with their in-the-round show. go on, we have to stop. But it turned out to be the
most important song on the record.”
By early 1986 Def Leppard were stretched to their
emotional limits, and decided they needed to get out
of the studio. They booked a number of low-key
shows in Ireland, leading up to some European
festival dates over the summer. They also booked an
additional drummer, Jeff Rich, who at the time was
with Status Quo. The idea was to support Allen, in
case for any reason he couldn’t keep it together – a
thought that must have loomed large.
And it went to plan – until Rich didn’t make it to
one of Leppard’s shows. It wasn’t his fault: the
Leppard shows had to be booked to coincide with
Quo’s days off, and flying from Britain to Ireland
INSETS: ROSS HALFIN did so when the band played in Ballybunion; Rich
every day was bound to come unstuck eventually. It
arrived 40 minutes into the set and joined the show
late. But by then Allen’s confidence had a huge boost
confirm that bad things really do come in threes – primitive they had to be triggered manually. Slowly when he realised he could hold the show on his own.
they had to scrap all the recordings again. but surely, things began to come together. So the following night Rich was in the audience just in
“Binning all that work… It’s not something we Lange’s approach to the album involved finding a case, and Allen drummed alone. And did he
could do again,” Elliott says, almost shuddering at the some kind of production ‘hook’ for every song. Rocket brilliantly.
memory. “It was Mutt’s encouragement that helped us came together when Elliott heard a recording of tribal In a very cloud-and-silver-lining way, Elliott
do that. The thing is, it wasn’t terrible. What we’d drums, and was so inspired by the idea he stole the observed that Allen’s re-learning of his trade really
done was good enough – as good as Pyromania – but tape, looped it and built a song around it. The lyrics had paid off for the band. It meant Allen had had to
Mutt said: ‘Why do Pyromania 2? That was a leap from were a stream-of-consciousness concept, name- abandon some of his fills, and inventing new ones,
High’n’Dry, now we have to make a leap from checking all the things he’d grown up with from and as he built up his new technique around the
Pyromania.’ We were thinking: ‘Can we do this?’ It Ziggy Stardust to Gary Glitter. Hysteria production he was able to play exactly what
turned out we could.” Love Bites was a song Lange had written, based on the album needed.
At long last, it seemed as if things were starting to his country influences, but exposed to Leppard’s full If the world needed any further evidence that Def
happen. 16 months of work had been canned, but balladeering barrage. The cunning addition of little Leppard were back in business, it was presented at the
now it was time to clean up the mess, start again and squeaks and breaths, which Elliott refers to as “Simon Monsters Of Rock festival at Castle Donington on
come up with the goods. The challenge was steep: Le Bon bits” added an extra dimension of character August 16 that year. No one wanted any kind of
Pyromania had sold six million; Hysteria would now which lifted the track just above the ordinary. The sympathy vote, so the plan was to ignore Allen’s
need to sell five million just to break even. Bean- abandonment of a set of backing vocals – insisting missing arm for performance purposes. But Elliott
counters shivered as the band attempted to refocus, they understood what he was trying to achieve but it recalls the feeling in the audience was so warm, so
forget the bad karma, and try to be brilliant. just wasn’t them – was the one and only time the genuinely sympathetic, that something had to be said.
When Lange spoke, they listened. Instead of using band vetoed any of Lange’s ideas. “Ladies and gentlemen – Rick Allen,” was it. And the
big amps they used Rockmans, small Walkman-like Gods Of War was based on the opening riff created crowd went wild. After that trip, finishing the album
machines that generated a sound you could control to by Steve Clark. It was one of his off-the-wall ideas off felt a lot easier.
the nth degree. They began exploring multi-layered which only a band of Def Lep’s persuasion could “We were back.” Elliott says. “It gave us so much
vocal effects, and experimenting with samplers so really grab onto and make work – and they did. Clark, confidence. When we went back to the studio

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 73

“…ooh, in the name of love.”
The Steve ‘n’ Joe show.

























































GETTY


we were different men. Finishing an album is the
hardest part, but that gave us the energy we needed to “WE SET OUT TO BE THE
see it through.”
Mutt Lange took five months to mix Hysteria, most
of that time spent setting the mood. And there was BIGGEST BAND IN THE
one more ball-breaking kick for Leppard when he
had to spend three weeks in hospital with a leg injury. WORLD. AND FOR A SHORT
Finally, in early 1987, the album was finished: in the
end a dozen tracks instead of the usual 10, with a lot
of good songs having fallen along the wayside. WHILE WE WERE.”
“We’d had the original 10 songs,” Rick Savage
recalled, “but we were writing new ones all the time.
The amount of time we spent on that album meant JOE ELLIOTT
things kept going out of date, and this was a way of
keeping it fresh. But it got to the stage where we had word of mouth led to rotation play on radio stations ‘reverse’. You couldn’t go back to that way of
12 songs and nobody wanted to throw another two across the United States. Suddenly the album was working.”
out. So we thought we’ll give them two more tracks shifting tens of thousands a day. In the end it sold 16 Joe Elliott was once asked if he felt the album
than normal – which gives people a bit better value million copies. actually was, in fact, a bit over-produced. Predictably,
for money.” If any one track summarises the Def Leppard he didn’t: “It’s big production, though. It’s huge. It’s
Everyone held their breath as the release date was philosophy, it must be Pour Some Sugar… It’s simple, using the studio to your benefit; you don’t just go in
announced for August – 43 months, almost five it’s anthemic, it acknowledges inspiration from a and play live then master the tapes, you have to
years, after the project had originally begun. Futures range of sources, and the lyrics are tongue-in-cheek, create. That’s what we did.”
and careers were now riding on how many copies entertaining and upbeat. It’s in the spirit of I Love Almost 20 years after its release, Elliott has been
Hysteria would sell. The target could be no less than Rock’n’Roll but is much more than that, with the interviewed about Hysteria a countless times (he
six million. careful blend of guitars, layered vocals, strong describes it as a drawer in his mind which he opens
Animal was the first single (Women in the US), and it melody and shouty bits. And if Elliott’s raspier-than- when he’s in the mood but would rather ignore at
gave the band their first UK hit – an extremely usual voice makes it sound like it hurt to sing like other times). “If one word sums the whole experience
positive sign. Over the following months another five that, it’s because it did. up, it would be ‘determination’,” he says. “We were
tracks were released as singles as the band headed out “One of the reasons it took so long to finish the still young – I was 24, Rick was 20. We could deal
on tour, performing in the famous ‘in the round’ album was our approach to production,” Savage with things like that. But you couldn’t again – Pink
format (which required them to be taken from the reflected, years later in 2002. “The way we produced it Floyd have always said there could never be a The Wall
dressing room to the stage, through the audience, in started a new wave of recording technology. You can 2. There could never be a Hysteria 2.”
laundry carts). now do in an afternoon what took us three months Hysteria did everything that was expected of it and
Where fate had been throwing punches at Def with Hysteria.” more. It took more time and energy from the band
Leppard it was now smiling on them (and maybe “It’s incredible to think how fast everything’s than anyone could have thought possible, but gave as
even throwing them a kiss or two). Sales of the album become,” Elliott says. “When we put the reverse much back. Elliott summed up both the secret to
faltered, then stalled at around five million (which for vocals on Gods Of War, you physically had to take the creating a classic album and the result of achieving
just about any other band would have been a tape off the reel, put it on backwards, record it to one when he said: “We crossed over without selling
success). But then strip club dancers started using another reel, then put the tape back again. Now you out. We set out to be the biggest band in the world.
Pour Some Sugar On Me as their backing track, and just select the section you want to reverse and press And for a short while we were.”

74 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

THE EARLY YEARS OF METAL,




FROM THE CLASSIC ROCK ARCHIVES






Featuring 20 years of Satanic verses, forgotten pioneers and monster riffs, The Story

of Metal Volume 1 charts the birth of heavy metal and its unstoppable rise.































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Or get it from selected supermarkets & newsagents

Set faders to stun: Joe Elliott in
the studio, where Mutt Lange
created the magic for Leppard.






































































MAIN: PG BRUNELLI/ICONICPIX INSET: GETTY IMAGES



































He’s a man of mystery, a reclusive genius, a sonic

perfectionist – and he helped propel Leppard to


megastardom. But who exactly is Mutt Lange?


WORDS: DEREK OLIVER




76 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Robert John Lange in 1948 in Rhodesia (now Zambia) but
String driven thing:
Joe and the boys get raised in Durban, South Africa, the son of a German
back to basics.
mother and a South African father. It was his parents who
gave him the nickname of ‘Mutt’. By the turn of the 70s
he’d caught the rock’n’roll bug and formed a local combo
called Hocus (who cut a few now hard to find singles)
based in a place called Muldersdrift on the outskirts of

Johannesburg, More importantly it would find him
working with his school friend and future wife Stevie van
Kerken who had been a sort of child protégée and now
lead singer of the band.
Although Hocus failed to connect commercially, Mutt’s

songwriting and fledgling production chops brought him
into contact with other South African musicians and
entrepreneurs, not least of them Clive Calder and Ralph
Simon, two
MARTYN GOODACRE/GETTY forward-thinkers about to take
‘Mutt was
on the lookout
for bigger and
better Leppard to a
utt Lange – man or machine? That’s a opportunities.
question many have tried to answer Calder, in whole new level,

but no satisfactory conclusion has particular, had one that placed
been reached. I’ve been in the spent time
Mbusiness in one form or another for working for EMI them firmly on
30 years and I’ve never met the fella. In fact I’ve only ever in their A&R the map as

met a handful of people who’ve brushed by his presence, department and
and even they confess that he’s a hard one to crack. As a was looking to international
recluse he’s pretty hard to get to know, but he has a solid- branch out by contenders.’
gold reputation as a hit-maker extraordinaire; a knob- setting up a
twiddler with a track record that would shame even production and

masters of the art such as Roy Thomas Baker, Jimmy publishing company, a situation that took flight around
Miller, Trevor Horn, Jeff Lynne and Quincy Jones. 1974, with Mutt being retained as a sort of in-house
Arguably he’s the guy that got the golden ticket and producer/songwriter. A year later the trio sensed that
one that he used to brilliant, some might even say South Africa was far too restrictive on a number of levels

magical, effect with Def Leppard. A band that utilised his (artistically and politically) so they agreed to pool their
talent on no less than four separate albums, starting with resources and move to London in order to try their luck
the rough and ready sounds of High ‘n’ Dry (1984) and in a far more opportunistic environment. Stevie also
ending with Adrenalize (1992) but commercially peaking, joined them, having married Mutt a year earlier.
of course, with the mega-selling (20 million-plus Setting up a base of operation from Calder’s bedroom

worldwide) Hysteria album (1987), which became, in and calling the company Zomba (the capital of Malawi, by
effect, a greatest hits album, containing no less than the way), they got to work on a number of fledgling
seven smash singles. It remains a remarkable productions and undertook a barrage of song-pitching.
achievement, not purely because of its unquestionable Mutt and Stevie were even signed, under the unlikely

commercial achievement but as a statement of the handle of Stephen, by Dave Dee (of Dozy, Beaky, Mick &
perfect blend of pop and rock, a sound that Mutt fully Tich fame) to a tiny label called Antic (a spin-off of
refined and used to further success with artists further Atlantic Records) and released a now very rare and
down the line. Shang-a-Lange: besides expensive single in 1974, titled Right On Running Man.
Def Leppard, Mutt has
So who is this shy, retiring man? Well, as far as I know, produced bands such as Calder (who would later become the wealthiest man in

he’s never done an interview in his life, preferring to let AC/DC, Michael Bolton, the music business on the sale of Zomba to the German-
Deaf School, the Boomtown
the music do the talking. There are very few photos in Rats and Nickelback. owned BMG Company in 2002) and Simon wasted little
existence and most of what are available have been time in representing Mutt to a variety of acts and labels,
snatched by paparazzi and are linked to the fame of his trying to secure production work. In the meantime Stevie

ex-wife Shania Twain. They show him mostly in pensive, Lange started to carve out a reputation as a go-to backing
stoney-faced mood, suggesting that he is on a constant vocalist, lending her talent to a variety of artists,
mission, reviewing the day’s work in his head and including, but not limited to, Sweet, Colin Blunstone, Jim
figuring out how it can be improved tomorrow. Capaldi, fellow South African Trevor Rabin, Rick
So what do we know about him? Well, he was born Wakeman and UFO. And Stevie’s talent didn’t stop there:


CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 77

What you looking at?
Early Leps in full-on ‘Hysteria set a standard
glowering mode.
that has, from a

production point of view,

never been been beaten.’



















































PG BRUNELLI/ICONICPIX takes to the mic.
Vocalize: Elliott





the time was a Midlands-based melodic rock band called
City Boy – a unit that benefitted from Mutt’s production

chops, stretched over five albums. If anything, Mutt was
proving to be a reputable and reliable producer, sowing
GETTY the seeds for a big breakthrough, which came in the
unlikely guise of AC/DC.
in the late 70s she formed a band with Manfred Mann Although Eddie Kramer was in the frame for their

Earth Band vocalist Chris Thompson called Night who breakthrough album Highway To Hell, band leader
recorded two very satisfying rock albums, in the Malcolm Young baulked and turned to their then manager
Fleetwood Mac vein, the first of which was a considerable Michael Browning to recruit someone else. That someone
success in the US, producing the hit single Summer Night. was Mutt Lange. Both parties were sceptical at first but as

But perhaps the most recognisable achievement, with its recording progressed it was evident that Mutt was about
stunning vocal performance, was a song called Remember to take the band to a whole new level, one that placed
My Name, used extensively on TV as the music for a them firmly on the map as international contenders, but
Limara Body Spray advert. it wasn’t until Back In Black that the fireworks really
Mutt’s first productions were stylistically scattered, a exploded. It has sold more than 40 million copies

sign that he was not only trying to get his foot in the door worldwide, and is the biggest-grossing album, second
but also searching for a pathway to future excellence. only to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. A monumental
Initial projects included albums for Savoy Brown, Graham achievement for such an uncompromising record and its
Parker & The Rumour, Mallard (Captain Beefheart’s success shook the very foundations of the music business,

backing band), Kevin Coyne, Clover, Supercharge, Deaf opening up the way for hard rock to compete with even
School, The Records, Broken Home, Tycoon, The Motors the biggest pop stars of the day.
and, surprisingly, the Boomtown Rats. He even got in Mutt’s next move was to forge another mega selling
some southern-rock action, working with The Outlaws album, with Foreigner (4, 1981), a record that contained
on their Playing To Win album. However, his big ticket at three global hit singles in Juke Box Hero, Urgent and Waiting


78 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

For A Girl Like You, selling over seven million copies in the Crate expectations:
US alone. It was a massive win for Mutt and Foreigner, Viv Campbell in
repose, backstage.
underscoring the former’s Midas touch.
For Mutt, the world was his oyster, but instead of
capitalising on his success with superstar projects he
turned his attention next to an up-and-coming UK rock
band from Sheffield: Def Leppard. Their 1981 album High

‘n’ Dry trod familiar territory with its AC/DC-esque
swagger, but the seeds of future greatness were plain for
all to see and Mutt decided to continue working with
them on 1983’s Pyromania, a record that upped the ante
considerably. It signalled a shift in values from rough-

hewn riffs to a more sophisticated sound, helping to focus
the band’s songwriting and also their performances. It
was an immediate success, going on to sell over 10 million
copies and provided four hit singles with Photograph, Rock

Of Ages, Foolin’ and Too Late For Love.
Amazingly, instead of resting on his laurels, Mutt
thought he could still improve Leppard’s sound and songs.
However, the only fly in the ointment was his lack of




‘Pyromania signalled a

shift in values from rough- ROSS HALFIN

hewn riffs to a more


sophisticated sound.’ availability and by the time the band were ready to
embark on the recording of their Hysteria album, he
wasn’t readily available, being embroiled in the
production of The Cars’ Heartbreak City record. Instead,
Leppard turned to Meat Loaf songwriter and producer

Jim Steinman, a move they quickly regretted, with
sessions coming to resounding halt when the band duly
fired him.
The correct decision, to wait until Mutt became

available again, was made, resuming work some eighteen
months later, but not before a tragic setback, when
drummer Rick Allen lost his left arm in an automobile
accident. For Leppard the notion of sidelining Rick was
never entertained, and so work resumed with the band

and Mutt devising a method for him to play his left-hand
parts using his foot on electronic drums. It was a brilliant
solution and one that lent the band a signature sound,
with the drums recorded through a combination of

Fairlight computers and synclaviers.
Of course there’s a fair amount of mythology
surrounding the recording of Hysteria, such as Mutt multi-
tracking guitar chords one string at a time, compiling
hundreds of hours of backing vocals and tearing apart

songs near completion just because he thought that they
could benefit from a better arrangement. Animal, for
Mr Bassman: example, took a full three years to finally finish. Some of
Rick Savage,
plugged in the stories are true but most are pure hokum. At the end
and wired. Bearing the mark of Mutt: of the day, it was rumoured to have been the most
The Cars’ Heartbeat City,
AC/DC’s Highway To Hell, expensive record to have been made up to that point in
Muse’s Drones, City Boy’s time. Some wag suggested that they’d have to sell five
Dinner At The Ritz and
ROSS HALFIN Foreigner’s 4. million copies just to break even. As it’s now passed the
20 million mark, everyone eventually rested easy.


CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 79

ROSS HALFIN





Rick Allen with his specially in her life, offering to write songs and produce her second
‘Mutt devised a method made semi-electronic kit. album The Woman In Me, a record that eventually

for Rick Allen skyrocketed her to international stardom. They married
the same year – a Cinderella story in fact. While that
to play his left-hand album sold over four million, it was her third full-length,

parts using his foot Come On Over, that really blew the lid off the union, selling
over 16 million copies in the US alone, becoming the best-
on electronic drums.’ selling country album of all time from a female artist.

Sadly, the union between Shania and Mutt soured when
he, allegedly, commenced an affair with her best friend,
There’s no doubt that Hysteria set a standard that has, leading to a bitter divorce in 2010. In a bizarre twist (and
from a production point of view, still not been beaten. you couldn’t make this up) Shania went on to marry her

Sure, it was a product of its time but, remarkably, the best friend’s now ex-husband in 2011.
record still sounds immense and utterly compelling. The A strict vegetarian and a devotee of Indian guru
depth of production is staggering, with tracks such as Darshan Singh, Mutt Lange has continued to live his life
Gods Of War, Rocket, Animal, Armageddon It and the ballad away from the glare of publicity, opting to work , quietly,

Love Bites taking songwriting, arrangements and with a variety of artists, including The Corrs, Maroon 5
production to another level. No wonder guitarist Phil and Nickelback. In 2015 he stamped his particular style
Collen said he was completely speechless when he first on moody alt-progsters Muse. Despite mixed critical
heard the final mixed album. reaction the album – Drones – has performed as well as
For Mutt this could have been the zenith of his might be reasonably expected, but because of market

professional career but, unbelievably, he still wanted conditions in the record industry, sales have failed to
more. So, with lessons learnt and a compelling signature achieve the sort of blockbuster AC/DC and Def Leppard
sound, he moved the template to others, including Bryan figures of his past.
Adams (1991’s Waking Up The Neighbours) and then, post Somehow, one imagines that this is of no consequence

Adrenalize, to a young country starlet by the name of to a man that is prepared to ensconce himself in a
Eilleen Regina Edwards, better known as Shania Twain. recording studio for years on end searching for the perfect
Shania had first been discovered in the late 80s and EQ. One thought still lingers though. Wouldn’t it be great
recorded by AOR guru Paul Sabu, a sort of aspiring Mutt if Mutt and Leppard finally set some time aside and made
Lange. It wasn’t until 1993 that Mutt made an appearance a new record together?


80 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

METAL’S NEW TESTAMENT







From the superstars of the 80s and 90s to the modern day heroes


keeping the flag flying, The Story Of Metal Volume 2 charts more than

30 years of noise, from the Metal Hammer and Classic Rock archives.

THE STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS




Def Leppard




Pour Some Sugar On Me



An afterthought they didn’t even want to record, Def Leppard’s

signature tune was a tale of strippers, sexual metaphor, and victory
snatched from the jaws of defeat.



Words: Geoff Barton
“Keep playing it, Steve. All the
JOE AND PHIL ON girls are getting their kit off!”
THOSE LYRICS.

Joe Elliott “Myself
and Mutt Lange had
dictaphones and we
went to opposite
ends of the control
room and made
noises into them over
the backing track.
Then we swapped
machines and
started translating
what we thought
the words were.”
Phil Collen: “We
do that quite a lot.
We did it on Slang,
too. I just mumbled
gibberish into a
dictaphone, and Joe
translated it as being
something, which of
course it wasn’t.
Sugar was done in a
similar way. I think
once you have a
theme, then
subconsciously you GETTY X2
start mouthing noises
that are relevant to
that theme. And the t’s no exaggeration to say that “As far as we were concerned, that was
thing with Sugar their 1987 album Hysteria took Def the final track,” Elliott remembers, “so we
is that it was
obviously a ‘wink Leppard to hell and back several times were having a five-minute coffee break.
wink, nudge nudge’, Iover . Over three years of aborted Mutt disappeared, and I went into the
sexy sort of song.” sessions, a sacked producer and relentless control room and started playing this thing.
bad luck, the band’s fourth album was Mutt comes back and asks what it was. “The main problem with Hysteria was us
the 80s equivalent of Chinese Democracy, I said it was just this idea I’d got – no big dicking around with people like [original
swallowing an estimated five million deal. He said: ‘That’s the best hook I’ve producer] Jim Steinman. That’s what really
dollars from the moment recording began heard in five or 10 years. We should took the time. Once Mutt got involved it
in early 1984. absolutely do this song.’ And, of course, went pretty quick. So although everyone
The record’s emotional cost, however, I was thinking there was no way the guys went: ‘Oh, fucking hell, not more studio
became been even more expensive, after a were gonna go for it.” time,’ it was obvious that we had to do it.”
car accident on New Year’s Eve 1984 led to To start with, they didn’t. “We’d finished As work on the new song began, Elliott’s
the amputation of Rick Allen’s left arm. the record and were just winding down,” hook started to evolve, with a little help
The band were forced into hiatus, while the guitarist Phil Collen recalls. “And we’d from their Midas-like producer.
drummer bravely re-learned to play on a already spent so long [on the album] that it “Mutt Lange saw the intro as this kinda
customised electronic kit. “You really was a bit like: ‘Oh, fuck. Not another song country guitar lick, played with his fingers,”
would start to think that we were cursed,” that’s going to take six months.’ It didn’t, of Collen recalls. “I can’t actually do that, so
noted frontman Joe Elliott. course. It actually took about 10 days, I changed it so it was played with a pick.
By the end of 1986 the ordeal was finally because we were getting the hang of it. Mutt had said: ‘Just make it very gappy.’ So
firmly behind them. Or so the band
thought. As Elliott and producer Robert
‘Mutt’ Lange were tying up the loose ends
of Armageddon It at Wisseloord Studios in “The song became a hit because strippers
Holland, the singer reached for the acoustic
guitar that was kept in the control room. started requesting it on local radio.”

82 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

THE FACTS
RELEASE DATE
UK 1987, US ’88
CHART
POSITION
UK No.18,
US No.2
PERSONNEL
Joe Elliott
Vocals
I put this main riff in the gaps. It was really Phil Collen Sugar took less than two weeks. Some Sugar… on MTV pushing the single to
based on rap stuff; not your standard rock Guitar While it’s tempting to assume that Pour No.2 in the US and helping Hysteria to the
song. Run DMC was really popular back Steve Clark Some Sugar On Me was an instant smash hit, top of the album chart.
Guitar
then, and the whole Aerosmith crossover Rick Savage hard evidence shows otherwise. The song “The song became a hit because strippers
thing [with Walk This Way] was just Bass wasn’t deemed good enough to be released in Florida started requesting it on the local
happening too, so we kinda stole that idea Rick Allen as the first single from Hysteria; instead it radio station,” Collen recalls. “It had a
for the vocal. And the guitar part was really Drums followed Animal into the UK chart in second lease of life. Hysteria was all over bar
just to fill the gaps without going all the PRODUCER October 1987, reaching an unspectacular the shouting, and then all of a sudden this
way through it. So there was plenty of Robert John No.18. “When we first released it in Europe song just got popular, and then the album
‘Mutt’ Lange
space, like hip-hop or something like that.” LABEL it was ignored,” Collen confirms. went to Number One. It’s really funny how
With Lange acting as a buffer between Mercury In the US, meanwhile, Women had been it suddenly became cool because it was a
the band and their label, keeping impatient FACT chosen as the lead-off (it ultimately limped stripping song.
executives away from the studio, Elliott, In her early to No.80), followed by Animal and Hysteria. “I still get a buzz from it,” Collen adds.
Collen, Allen, bassist Rick Savage and career, Shania It wasn’t until the following year, with sales “For some bizarre reason, in America
Twain performed
guitarist Steve Clark laid down the new of Hysteria stalling at three million, that the women seem to feel compelled to take their
track, which now had the working title. Pour Some Sugar US record company finally released Pour shirts off when we play it. Pour Some Sugar
On Me in bars in
Pour Some Sugar On Me. According to Elliott, Canada. She Some Sugar On Me as a last-ditch attempt to On Me is like anything; if you’re rehearsing
the phrase was a “metaphor for whichever later married claw back some of the album’s huge it in the rehearsal room, it’s really fucking
sexual preference you care to enjoy”. Mutt Lange, production costs. boring. But as soon as you play it in front of
In stark contrast to the other tracks on before they The result was nothing short of a an audience who are into it, it makes all the
divorced in 2010.
Hysteria, the basic recording process for phenomenon, with the popularity of Pour difference.”

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 83

The death of Def Leppard’s Steve Clark in January 1991 robbed the band of their

heartbeat – and rock of a charismatic musician. The people who knew him best

look back on an unsung guitar hero and a complicated man.

Words: Geoff Barton Portraits: Ross Halfin





“Man, when I tell you he was cool, he was



With apologies
red hot. I mean, he was Steamin’.” to Phil Lynott


f the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal had one Sheffield – they were clearly a work in progress, despite the excellence of
fault, it was that it didn’t throw up too many hot their live performance and the undeniable potency of their songs. The
young guitar heroes. Indeed, it’s a curious experience, exception was Clark who, despite having turned a mere 19 years of age
looking back at the six-stringers who came to prominence the previous April, had this whole rock star schtick down pat. He exuded
during the ground-breaking UK rock explosion that the experience of a knowing veteran – and as seasoned observers will tell
straddled the late 1970s and early 80s. There was Paul you, that ain’t something you can fake. No amount of lip-pursing and
Samson of Samson, a grizzled old stager whose blues- hip-shaking in front of the bedroom mirror can magic up genuine
rock heart was obliterated by pyro and eclipsed by the attitude, poise and self-belief. Despite his tender years, Clark was so cool.
bizarre antics of hooded drummer Thunderstick. There He had a feline grace about him, slinking around Crookes’ unassuming
was Dave Murray of Iron Maiden, immensely likeable and school-hall-like stage in his permed hair and leopardskin pants, guitar
a true crowd favourite but too cheerful and self-effacing to swaying around his knees, a big cat stalking its prey.
be a genuine contender. There was Diamond Head’s Brian It wasn’t all plain sailing. When Leppard nabbed their first big tour-
Tatler, who had riffs flying out of his fingertips but whose support slot, playing second on the bill to Sammy Hagar, I saw them at
stage presence was too studious by far. There was Jeff London’s old Hammersmith Odeon. From my seat in the balcony
Dunn (aka Mantas of Venom), who certainly looked I noticed them getting in a terrible tangle as Clark darted left, right and
the part but wasn’t exactly playing what you might call music. There centre, the lead of his guitar criss-crossing the leads of the other
was Graham Oliver of Saxon, who used to toss his guitar into the air, members’ instruments, until the floor resembled an explosion in a
kick it across the stage, douse it with lighter fluid and set it on fire. All bootlace factory. The cabling was so intertwined at the finish of the set
good stuff, but fans knew the true musician in the band was Oliver’s that no one could move more than a foot in any direction…
syrup-sporting sideman, Paul Quinn. Thankfully radio mics put paid to such calamitous on-stage bondage,
…Then there was Steve Clark of Def Leppard. Leppard taking full advantage in later years when they played ‘in the
When I first clapped eyes and ears on an unfeasibly fresh-faced round’. As tour manager Malvin Mortimer recalls: “When the curtain
Leppard – the date was June 5, 1979 at Crookes Working Men’s Club in dropped – Kabuki style – at the top of the Hysteria show, revealing

84 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

“The last album he played on was





Hysteria. If you’re going to go, that’s





the one to go out on.”






Joe Elliott



























































CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 85

the band on all four sides, Steve would take Clark at Crookes Steve was. Being on stage allowed
off running like a greyhound out of the in Sheffield, 1979. him to escape. Writing songs gave
box, throwing his shapes with magnificent him that escapism.
abandon, his long blond hair “Steve was an artist – not just a
flowing behind him like he was in a gale- musician,” he continues. “And
force wind, his signature red bolero jacket usually the best artists are quite
and white silk scarf all following the one- sensitive. I consider myself an
man circus of colour and style, tight white artist but I’ve got a rhinoceros hide.
pants and thin-soled dance shoes… right Steve didn’t have that tough
knee pumping forward and upward like a exterior. He was still a very
Lipizzaner stallion. What an entrance! sensitive type of personality. He
I would watch the audience. All eyes took what he did very seriously.
would be following Steve’s parade.” I never saw him drunk on stage. He
Clark was inspired by Jimmy Page – of might’ve hada drink but he kept it
course – and his guitars were slung low. under control. He was very into
Very low. That made it impossible for the what he did. He wasn’t going to
five feet, two inches tall Mortimer, who fuck that up.”
started life in Leppard as Steve’s guitar
tech, to tune them in the usual manner. t’s better to burn out than fade
“I couldn’t reach the bloody tuning away’ might be an oft-used
pegs!” he laughs. “Steve used to turn up ‘Iphrase, but it’s one that sums
for soundcheck and make me wear his up Steve Clark’s life and career in a
Firebird just so he could laugh at how nutshell. He died on January 8,
ridiculous I looked with the longest 1991– unbelievably, a quarter-
guitar strap in the shop.” century ago – at age 30, during the
Frontman Joe Elliott remembers making of the Adrenalize album. In
Clark’s first jam with a fledgling Leppard: his absence, Phil Collen had to
“He picked up his Les Paul copy from his recreate Leppard’s signature two-
guitar case and put it on way too low. guitar sound alone, playing the parts
I just remember thinking: ‘Aye-aye, this that Clark would have played, as well
looks good.’ He had the long blond hair as his own.
and denim jacket, skinny as a rake and “We had recorded demos on multi-
wearing white clogs like Brian May or track, so it was really easy for me to
Brian Robertson. He played Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free get inside that,” says Collen. “I was
Bird and did the whole end bit on his own. It was “Steve really sitting there with him when he played the original
like: ‘Holy crap! This guy’s great.’ parts. I could relay that. But it was like playing
“He had that slightly sleazy sound, so he was did have a lot along to a ghost. When you hear that original track
very complementary to the studded, funkier style and there he is, it feels like he’s alive. It’s really
of Pete [Willis, fellow Leppard guitarist]. It was weird, a very strange sensation.”
instant. I remember telling Steve: ‘Look, you’ve got more left To this day, Joe Elliott believes that Steve Clark
the gig.’ Then Pete said: ‘Hang on, don’t you think does not get the kudos he deserves. “It’s because of
we should discuss this first?’ So I went: ‘Absolutely to say.” the band he was in, it’s as simple as that,” he says
not. So you want to lose this guy for somebody surprisingly. “Steve gets due respect from the long-
else? Are you kidding?’” term Leppard fan, but generally speaking we’re not
Phil Collen on the same level as Zeppelin, the Stones, The
ff stage Clark was a humble person, with Beatles or The Who. But Steve went out on top. His
no airs and graces – except when he put last album was Hysteria, so you really can’t go
Othem on for a laugh. Cigarette in one for about three days Steve was a little intimidated wrong. If you’re going to go, that’s the one. We were
hand and a drink in the other, watching the world by him and his speed-playing. Guitarists can the ones who were left with his legacy and who had
go by, he was detached but approachable – a rare sometimes hate each other because of ego to build it up again from scratch. We had to suffer
but endearing combination. And as a guitarist, jealousies. But once Phil explained that he wasn’t the downside of the success of Hysteria, which we
Clark was the riffmeister. His right hand was there to outdo Steve, that he was there to knew was going to come no matter what.”
perfectly loose, yet his style was fluent and classy. complement what he was already doing, the two of “I remember how [record producer] ‘Mutt’ Lange
Nobody looked and played like he did. No wonder them buddied up over a bottle of beer and probably summed up Steve one time,” recalls Collen. “He
he gained the nickname Steamin’. about ten bottles of vodka. And that was it.” said: ‘Give me the thinker over the player, any day.’
As Leppard’s career accelerated ever more Clark and Collen – dubbed the Terror Twins by That was Steve. ‘Mutt’ said there are a million
rapidly, relations between the hard-drinking Clark Leppard’s road crew – were more or less glued to session sausages – that’s what he called session
and the equally hard-drinking Willis became the hip from 1983 right up to ’87, when the latter players – but they have no ideas, they’re clinical. But
strained. “By the time we were touring in 1981 decided enough was enough and stopped drinking. Steve, he was a thinker. As a player and as a man.
Steve couldn’t even stand to be in the same room “They never fell out,” says Elliott, “but Steve lost his “There was a lot going on in Steve –
as Pete, because Pete would always be the one who drinking buddy and became a lot more isolated.” unfortunately, sometimes a bit too much. Steve
used up all the towels whenever he had a shower, “Our relationship became something completely was a work in progress. It’s very easy to talk about
and things like that,” Elliott reveals. “All those kinds different,” explains Collen, “something that’s not this after someone has passed away, but Steve
of crappy things that ended up in Spinal Tap. When based on going out and getting drunk. There was a really did have a lot more left to say. Steve was on
Pete had to go, there weren’t any great protests whole part of my life that disappeared pretty much this path to discovery, and booze put an end to
from anybody in the band.” straight away, and that was still part of Steve’s life. that. If the drinking had just been a phase, if he’d
Enter Phil Collen, hotfoot from London-based So that’s when we started drifting apart.” have come out of it, it would’ve been wonderful.”
Hollywood Teasers, Girl. “Steve was great,” says There is a popular image of Steve Clark as a dual “Steve Clark left behind a masterclass for
Collen. “Just a really warm, lovely soul, and you got personality: extrovert on stage, introvert off stage. absolutely anyone that wanted to write a unique
that from the first time you met him. Steve had But according to Collen, the truth was “way more opening riff and be a 24/7 rock star,” concludes
such a good vibe about him.” complex than that. Playing in a band, being an Malvin Mortimer. “To think that someone once
Yet according to Joe Elliott, “when Phil came in, artist, there’s an escape from reality. That was how called it Bludgeon Riffola.”

86 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

GO BEHIND THE SCENES




WITH THE TITANS OF ROCK!





Celebrate the story of one of rock’s most iconic bands. The stories behind the

songs, albums and make-up, this is Classic Rock’s ultimate tribute to Kiss.




























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Or get it from selected supermarkets & newsagents

Leppard’s livewire


guitarist on losing

Steve Clark, ditching


the booze forever,

and how wearing

make-up will drive


women wild…





































































































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

88 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

orn in Hackney, East Forever young: His career began with less-than- baby born earlier this year. When Collen
Collen swapped
London, on December 8, boozing for legendary stints in a handful of long- himself was just 14 he journeyed across
1957, Philip Kenneth jogging over forgotten bands before Collen answered a London to a Deep Purple show at the
three decades
Collen is 57 could pass for ago, and still classified ad in Melody Maker that led to Brixton Sundown (now the Academy) on
a man half his age. Turning looks good on it. him joining the London five-piece Girl Saturday September 30, 1972. Even before
his back on a decade or so alongside his bass-playing friend Simon discovering a photo of him among the
of enjoying the excesses of Laffy. Girl, fronted by Phil Lewis (later of heaving throng in front of the stage had

life in a rock band, he gave LA Guns) and signed to Don Arden’s Jet been used on the back cover of Purple’s
up eating meat in 1983 (a Records, achieved fame but no fortune subsequent Made In Japan live album, it
decision he says was partly inspired by with a fantastic debut Sheer Greed in 1980. was a night that changed his life...
watching The Texas Chain Saw Massacre), Like Def Leppard, Girl became associated
went teetotal the following year and with the New Wave Of British Heavy Was Deep Purple in Brixton really your
turned vegan in 2011. He cares Metal but were never really a part of it, first gig?

passionately about animal rights and has and were hated by many of its followers Yes, my cousin Dave took me there. He
acted as a spokesman for PETA. Colleen’s for their eye-liner and sleazy glam got me into Zeppelin, Hendrix and
no gym fanatic but keeps fit his own way: approach. After a less impressive follow- Purple, so I was a huge fan and already
mixing martial arts routines with intense up, Wasted Youth (1982), Girl folded and Purple were my favourite band and

60-second cardio bursts of skipping, Collen became a member of Def Leppard Blackmore my favourite guitarist. So we
push-ups and pull-ups. No wonder when in time to help them finish recording the went and that was it. It was fucking
he and his Def Leppard guitar partner breakthrough Pyromania (1983) and spiritual. We had front-row tickets and I
Vivian Campbell remove their shirts to conquer the world with ’87’s Hysteria. He’s was able to high-five Ritchie – or
reveal rock-hard muscular torsos singer been a key part of the band ever since. whatever you did back then.

Joe Elliott moans that it’s like standing on Married three times and a father of four,
stage with the Chippendales. Phil’s children range in age from 25 to a I know you’d had an acoustic as a child,
but how long after the Purple show did

THE CALIBRE OF WOMEN WE you get your first proper guitar?
There were two years of pestering them. I
SAW IN GIRL WAS WAY HIGHER was an only child and my parents were
really working class, living in

THAN IN DEF LEPPARD! Walthamstow. Dad was a lorry driver and
I just kept on and on and on at them until


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finally, on my 16th birthday, I got this
Gibson SG, which was a big deal because
they didn’t have a lot of money and went

into debt to get it for me.


You didn’t have any lessons, correct?
No, I didn’t have any lessons. My buddy at

school showed me a barre chord and the
rest I got out of a book. Everything else I
got playing along to the records. So I had
the best teachers in the world – Jimi
Hendrix, Ritchie Blackmore, Jimmy Page

and Mick Ronson. But I could just sit in a
room and pick it up pretty quick, not
because I was such a great student but
because the stuff I really liked seemed easy

to pick up. I didn’t learn whole songs, but
how to play a riff, a bit of a solo… I never
ever said, “Right! I’m going to learn the
chord book and all these covers.”



How long was it from doing that to
being in your first band?
I was in a band before I could play. I had
three chords and I could almost do this

barre chord and we set up in the front
room. My birthday is December 8 and by
Christmas I had a band going. It was really
horrible, but it was great!



Did the band have a name?
Yeah, we did the old atlas thing where you
open it at any page at random and point
to a place with your eyes closed.
Whoever’s finger it was landed up in

Canada on a place called Moosejaw. We Flame on: Collen
onstage at Ulster GEORGE BODNAR ARCHVE/ICONICPIX
thought, “Oh shit!” but we had to call Hall, Belfast,
ourselves whatever the finger landed on. during 1983’s
Pyromania tour.
So Moosejaw it was…

Both Girl albums are currently out of royalties. So… no clue!
You found slightly more success as a print on CD, with old copies being sold
member of Dumb Blondes wearing lots with hefty pricetags by internet It must have been odd when the
of makeup. How long did that last? retailers. How come? And who owns singer in the band, Phil Lewis, rocked
That lasted a few years, actually. We were the rights? up with Rod Stewart’s ex, Britt Ekland,

a kind of post-glam punk hard rock I have no idea. When Jet Records got on his arm?
group. We wrote really stupid songs with gobbled up by CBS I kind of lost track, That band was interesting, we had so many
dumb lyrics but it as great fun... not that we ever got paid anything in girls around us. We were from London
and London had a different scene. We
THERE WAS A TIME IN BIARRITZ didn’t do the rock thing like other bands.

We were hanging out with models and
IN FRANCE WHERE I BOUGHT actresses and directors. Some of these
directors would go to these gay bars
THE WHOLE BAR A ROUND OF and there would be all these amazing

women there. When the success started
DRINKS THEN PULLED MY to happen with Def Leppard I expected
things to go crazy in that department, but

TROUSERS DOWN. the calibre of women we saw in Girl was
way higher – even when Leppard were


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going multi-platinum. There was babysitting the son of their hard-living Collen and Joe falling to pieces. We lost our manager, it
Elliott, enjoying
something about guys in make-up, that guitarist Paul Chapman? the high life on wasn’t really on Jet anymore and the
attracted women more than multi- Yes, that’s true. I remember that well. the road. whole landscape changed.
platinum success. Ha ha! It was really Me and my girlfriend at the time, Liz,

interesting. Even now people sometimes used to go around to Paul and his wife’s Then, on July 12, 1982, the day of the
say, “Did you join this band so you could place. It was funny because his son had World Cup final, you got a better offer
get all the chicks?” but trust me, I’d had all these Tonka toys and Tonka was Paul’s when Joe Elliott called you. Although it
girls galore in a band no one ever heard of. nickname of course. Girl got very close wasn’t the first time Def Leppard had
But it was never about that. Def Leppard to UFO. They took us under their wing asked you about joining, was it?

was never a case of sex, drugs and and took us on tour with them on No, that’s right. Girl had become friends
rock’n’roll. We were all about borrowing numerous occasions. The very first tour with Def Leppard. When Steve and Joe
loads of money off our record company we did was in Europe with them. Phil came down to London, they’d stay on the
so we could make a great album. Girl was Mogg, Pete Way… all of them, they couch at my mum’s place in

very different to that. We were trying to really looked after us saying, “You want to Walthamstow. She’d make them bacon
write songs to get us out there. Def do this, but you don’t want to do that...” and eggs and Heinz beans in the morning.
Leppard was more like a spiritual quest to So, yes, I knew Joe, and about a year
write a great song, record a great album, Things started to go wrong for Girl before he’d called me and said, “It’s not
make the iconic statement. That’s what come the release of the second album working out great with Pete [Willis]. Do

we were doing while everyone else was Wasted Youth. Why was that? you think you could learn sixteen songs in
chasing women and all of that stuff. I On the first album there was a direction. two days?” or whatever. And, of course, I
thought it was wonderful when I joined We had all our influences together – punk said, “Absolutely!” But then he called back
Def Leppard and realised we were all on and post-punk, bands like Japan, New and said, “We’ve smoothed it over. It’s

that same page. I very rarely see that with York Dolls, Aerosmith – and we meshed okay.” But those problems with Pete are
other bands. them all together on Sheer Greed. Even the well documented and it went on
imagery and the colour on the sleeve constantly. I thought it was a real shame
Girl supported UFO on a couple of looks good. But on the second album because Pete played great. Remember,
tours. Is it true you ended up because of the lack of success it was when I joined, all the rhythm guitars on


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the Pyromania album – all the grunt, hard- WE IN DEF LEPPARD HAVE A
work stuff – had already been done. Mutt
Lange actually said to me, “Have fun. Be a WORK ETHIC THAT A LOT

lead guitarist. Come up with something
– whatever you want to do!” Which is not OF OTHER BANDS JUST
what I was expecting him
to say. I’d heard about Mutt Lange and DON’T HAVE.

how he did the AC/DC albums. But no…
He said, “Take this and have fun. Do this,
do that, do whatever.” We worked out plans in mind… I don’t even know to this
some of the solos but others, like day. I’d met Mutt before, but it all worked
Stagefright, was just a one-off. That was a out a treat and we went on from there…

first take. After that it became easy and I
understood where I would fit into the You say you’d met Mutt and you were
band – it was melodic shredding. On aware of his reputation. So wasn’t it a
Photograph, Foolin’, Rock Of Ages and all the daunting waling into Battery Studios

other stuff it just fell into place. Then that first time?
when Mutt found out I could sing he’d No, it was great. He’s amazing. I find
have me singing on everything, it pure inspiration to work with
doing the dual part with Joe. him because it’s not work, it’s fun
It was a different sound and a and he’s always coming up with

different thing for me but all of a great ideas. He’ll say something
sudden I’d fallen in with a like, “Play this…”, and it’s
bunch of guys I knew and had impossible to play, but I’ll sit
been friends with, and I knew down and work it out and

that they were trying to do suddenly I’m doing stuff
something a bit special. I wouldn’t normally do. He
There were so many bands got me singing stuff at first
out there that were content I’d find a bit hard, but then
to try to sound like he’ll say, “No, you can do

someone else. With Def it… A bit higher… a bit
Leppard it was never like louder…” and before long
that. We always said if we you’re doing stuff you
could blend a bit of early didn’t know you could do.
AC/DC ferociousness He’s the only person I’ve

with some of the melodic ever worked with who’s done
approach, subtleties and it. Back in the day when we
genius of Queen, we’d were doing Hysteria he said,
be onto something. That “Some of these songs are okay, but
really is what we did. If they have to be more than okay.

you listen back to some Everyone else out there is going to be
of the AC/DC, Queen making Pyromania Part Two so we’ve got
and Def Leppard stuff to be doing something really special. Or
you can hear that’s the he’d go, “This chorus… it might be strong

blueprint. Even on our enough for a bridge but you have to come
new album we’re still up with a strong chorus as well.” He
sticking to it. would really get you working, on every
level, way beyond what you thought your
Obviously you were the capacity was. And before you know it

band’s first choice to you’re doing something else way beyond
replace Pete Willis, but what had gone before. You listen to
do you know if they had a Hysteria now, and it’s just a blend and
back-up? hybrid of all styles. It was <really>

I don’t know. Originally I just went different. Rock people are funny – they
down there to help out. I didn’t think I like to put things into categories and
was going to be in the band. I thought I sub-categories. You can’t like punk if
was just going to be helping them out on you like hard rock, you can’t like
the record, so whether they had other metal if you like… it’s such bullshit.


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We weren’t like that. We said. “We like thing didn’t work out [Leppard spent time You and Steve Clark were nicknamed
punk, we like pop, we like metal – we like working with the Bat Out Of Hell The Terror Twins on account of your
everything!” Being open-minded opens songwriter before Mutt Lange]. We heavy drinking. Was there a single

up the creative channels and before you worked with three different engineers and event that prompted your change in
know it you’re good to go. that didn’t work out. The concept of the lifestyle?
album was Mutt’s, so he had to be There were a couple. One of which seems

Your memories contradict the involved in it. When he came back into almost funny looking back, except it isn’t.
perception that Def Leppard were the fold [after finishing producing The It was me and Steve getting really drunk
driven mad by Mutt’s perfectionism Cars’ Heartbeat City] it went quite one afternoon in Dublin. I’d borrowed
over three years in the studio, trying to smoothly. Okay, it took about 11 months, Joe’s car, we got hammered and spent way
get Hysteria done... so almost a year from that point, but it too much money in a jewellers, then went
Well, we were initially. The Jim Steinman was just great. It was a pleasure. Okay, we to the band’s house and passed out. I

were burnt out but it was great to once came to and Joe’s in my face yelling at me,
again be making this music with the “You parked my car sideways and left the
person who’d had the original idea. The keys in it!” And I just went “Oh, fuck off!”
other people didn’t quite get that and we I can’t believe I said that to him but that’s

weren’t experienced enough to pull it what Joe and the rest of the guys told me,
off ourselves. so I must have done. Steve was in another
room and we’d both bought these
ridiculously expensive Rolex watches. So
things like that would happen and I’d be

passing out and not remembering. There


































































LET’S BE HONEST, ROCK MUSIC NEEDED



NIRVANA. IT WAS HIGH TIME. THINGS


HAD GOT RIDICULOUSLY STALE.




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ADRIAN GREEN/RETNA UK












































































was another time in Biarritz in France decided to stop, properly. I remember the Love and affection: With Steve it got worse. When I stopped I
Leppard enjoy
where I’d bought the whole bar a round of day in 1984: it was my girlfriend at the a harmonious could sense I was on a slippery slope and
drinks then pulled my trousers down. time’s birthday. We were in Paris and moment during had to get off it. Steve didn’t,and the
the Hysteria era.
Horrible stuff. So I just thought to myself, about to go to India the next day. I said, stories about him drunk got worse and
I’m not going to do this any more. So I “Okay, I’ll have one glass of champagne suddenly they weren’t funny anymore. He

stopped drinking and started running, with you to celebrate and then I’m not got a bit violent occasionally, too, which
just jogging along by the sea at Dublin. drinking… any more.” She said, “All right, wasn’t like him . Steve was this angel, the
I’ll do it with you.” And that was it – the most amazing guy, but the alcohol

But it wasn’t that easy? last time I had a drink. So I just stopped changed his personality.
I used to think I could be a social drinker and never looked back. But,
and just have one glass of wine, but for unfortunately, Steve couldn’t… Was Miss You In A Heartbeat written
some reason – maybe because I’m an about Steve?
alcoholic – I couldn’t have just one glass. How hard was it watching Steve It might have started off that way but it
I never knew why only that I couldn’t do continue down that path? ended up being about lots of people.

it. One glass became a bottle and then I’d It was horrible. Because I knew he wanted
move on to the Jack Daniel’s or whatever to stop, too. Sometimes we’d have the After Steve’s death you came under a
else was around. But it was bugging me discussion and he’d say, “I hate myself for lot of pressure to complete Adrenalize
that I was having black-outs and doing so doing this, I’m going to try to stop.” He – playing solo parts that he had demo’d

much stupid stuff that people would tell told us that’s what he wanted to do and he etc. Is it true to say that you came close
me about later. Dropping my trousers, took himself off to rehab saying he’d do to leaving Def Leppard at this point?
that sort of thing. Stupid stuff. Plus I whatever it takes. But he never could, he Yeah, I nearly did. But not because of the
would drive in that condition and that really struggled with it. And it continued struggle to play all the guitars, it was all
was really not on. So eventually I just for years until we got the phone call. the other stuff going on around the band


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that got to me. Particularly all the people Collen shows That affected me so much I wasn’t sure I everyone as our new member and it was
no sign of
phoning me up soon after going, “Hey wanted to carry on. In the end if was Joe wonderful to play Wembley Stadium,
flagging under
man, I could play guitar in Def Leppard…” the spotlights. who sat me down and talked me around. because we’d never done that, but the day
It was infuriating that people could be so was tinged with sadness because we had
crass. I wasn’t so much concerned that the Presumably one of the happier events in lost Freddie.
band had lost a guitarist as I had lost a that time was getting to play the Freddie
really good friend. He and I had been Mercury Tribute show at Wembley Around that time, the grunge

around the world and had all these Stadium on April 20, 1992? movement completely changed the
amazing experiences together. And then Well, not really. Freddie meant such a lot musical landscape for Def Leppard. Did
you’re supposed to turn around and tell to all of us as individuals and a band. We it force you to consider that the multi-
the world that it’s okay and you’ll carry loved him as a singer and a showman and platinum success you’d had previously

on. But it wasn’t like that at all. The band how he brought what he did into a hard was unlikely to happen again?
was like a family and we’d just lost a rock band. That was inspirational to all of It might sound strange but I didn’t see it as
member of that family. But we’d still be us, so to be there because he had died was a bad thing. I loved Nirvana – just another
getting all these phone calls and that really very sad. Don’t get me wrong… it was classic three-piece – and didn’t see them
pissed me off, I was like, “Just fuck off!” great to introduce Vivian Campbell to as part of a movement. Pearl Jam and



I’LL NEVER FORGET PLAYING DONINGTON IN



THE RAIN IN 1986 AND THE REACTION WE


GOT, BECAUSE IT MEANT THAT RICK HAD



PROVED HE COULD DO IT AGAIN.



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Soundgarden were different, and I also
really liked Stone Temple Pilots. To me
STP were a very important band. But, let’s

be honest, rock music needed Nirvana. It
was high time. Things had got stale, sixth
generation copies of Bon Jovi without any
songs, bands who’d diluted it all so much

the only thing they had was the hair gel.
So I did welcome the whole Nirvana thing
but it was embarrassing to get lumped in
with all those other older bands –
suddenly it was uncool to like Def

Leppard. In retrospect, we took too long
between albums. We took too long with
Adrenalize. We should have toured again,
done another stadium tour and maybe we

could have solidified. But we’re still here
and bigger than ever.


What are your personal highlights of
your time with Def Leppard?

I have many highlights but too many to
list. It’s like when people ask, “When did
you realise you’d made it?” But there is
more than one answer to that, too. I

thought we’d made it when Girl got a
record deal and I was able to give up my
day-job earning thirty quid a week as a
motorcycle courier for a typesetter. That
was a huge success to me, giving up work.

Another was getting a diamond award,
for selling more than 10 million records,
at a ceremony in New York City. I think
there were only 68 artists who’d ever sold
that many copies [Def Leppard have done

so with two original studio albums,
Pyromania and Hysteria, putting them
alongside Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Pink
Floyd and Van Halen as a rock band to
have done so more than once] and I

remember going up to the podium to say
my thank-yous and looking down to see
Elton John, Jimmy Page, Dave Glimmer…
Kenny G! All of these legendary artists

there to congratulate us. We knew how and would get woken every morning by Armageddon rich: them and come out a better person.
Collen (centre)
many millions of copies we’d sold, of him swearing and cursing – “Fuck! Fuck! and bandmates I really think Def Leppard have a work
course, but we’d never had time to reflect Fuck!” because he couldn’t do it. Just the begin coining it in ethic a lot of other bands don’t have. We
as Leppard hit
because we’d always been in the studio or memory of him trying so hard. So there the big time. all come from humble working-class
on tour. So that brought it home to us. are all these moments… playing in a cave backgrounds and it has given us that

One gig I’ll never forget is playing Castle in Morocco… playing three gigs in three edge. It all comes down to our parents,
Donington in the rain in 1986 and the continents in the same day. You know our working-class backgrounds. This
reaction we got because it meant that they say when you’re dying and your life might seem a bit off-topic but it’s what I
Rick [Allen] had come through flashes by you? I think if that’s true these believe. Our parents’ generation grew up

everything and proved he could do it are the things I’ll see, without a doubt. in and came through the war and had to
again. And together we’d achieved what put up with tremendous hardship. That
we set out to achieve. But by the same Not many regrets, then? gave them honest hard-working values
token another highlight is when we lived No, none at all. Even the fuck-ups are and, as we grew up, they transferred those
in the house in Donnybrook in Dublin there for a reason because you go through values to us.


CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 97

For Those About To








Get Rocked
















In 1992, reeling from the death of their guitarist Steve Clark and facing the onset of grunge,
Def Leppard were determined to keep the party going. The result was Adrenalize

– hard rock’s last great blockbuster album of a golden era.


Words: Paul Elliott Photos: Ross Halfin


t began with a question: ‘Do you wanna get rocked?’ In February 1992, one month before the release of
The answer came back loud and clear when Def Adrenalize, Joe Elliott ended up in tears when he spoke
Leppard’s Adrenalize hit No.1 globally in 1992. to me about the death of Clark and the band’s efforts to
For one of rock’s biggest bands, it seemed like save him. In a room at the St James Club in Hollywood,
Ibusiness as usual. In reality it was anything but. he said solemnly: “We’d lost Steve a year before he died.
If ever a band had to dig deep to make an album, it We couldn’t do anything more for him.”
was Def Leppard with Adrenalize. They had done so
before, in creating their 1987 album Hysteria after t was in January 1978 that Steve Clark joined Def
drummer Rick Allen lost his left arm in a car crash on Leppard, five months after the band formed in
New Year’s Eve 1984, and had to reinvent the way he ISheffield. At his audition, he played the end solo
played, using a specially developed electronic kit. But in from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird. It was so good that
the making of Adrenalize the band suffered their darkest Elliott said, without hesitation: “He’s in.”
day – the death of guitarist Steve Clark on January 8, In the band’s early days they dreamed of emulating
1991, following a long struggle with alcoholism. their heroes – Zeppelin, Lizzy, Queen. Those dreams
As Leppard singer Joe Elliott says now, looking back had come true with Hysteria, and predecessor
at that difficult time: “It was tough. Emotionally, so Pyromania, another multimillion seller. On stage, Clark
draining. But we didn’t want to split up the band like Led Zeppelin was the classic guitar hero. Off stage, he was an introvert who
did after John Bonham died. We were tying to keep ourselves from became heavily dependent on alcohol. During the Hysteria tour,
drowning.” Clark got drunk only after shows or on days off. After that tour
Def Leppard made Adrenalize under intense pressure, both ended in 1988, his problem deepened. As Elliott explained: “Once
internal and external. In the absence of Steve Clark, it was left to we came off the road, Steve’s routine became just drinking.”
Phil Collen, the band’s other guitarist, to replicate their signature What the singer revealed about the last years of Clark’s life was
two-guitar sound. They also had to find a new producer at a time harrowing. Between 1989 and 1990 he had six separate spells in
when their mentor Mutt Lange was busy working with another rehab. For a long period he remained a functioning member of the
client, Bryan Adams. In addition, there was the heavy burden of band. During the early songwriting sessions for Adrenalize, in
expectation to match an album that had sold a colossal which Mutt Lange was also involved, Clark co-wrote six of the 10
fifteen million copies worldwide. “How the hell do you follow songs that were included on the album. It was when he was away
Hysteria?” says Elliott. from the band that Clark went off the rails. While on holiday in
What they achieved with Adrenalize was, as with Hysteria, Minneapolis, he was found unconscious in a street, with an alcohol
a triumph over adversity. Def Leppard was always, in Elliott’s level in his blood higher than that which killed Led Zeppelin
words, “an escapism band, for us and for everybody else”. And drummer John Bonham in 1980; double the level that can induce
never more so than on Adrenalize. It included a memorial to Steve coma. Clark was admitted to a psychiatric ward in Minneapolis.
Clark: a powerful, sombre track titled White Lightning. But as they Elliott visited him there, and recalled: “It was basically like a nut
made this album, one comment from Mutt Lange resonated deeply house. I was looking at Clarkie thinking: ‘What the fuck are you
within the band. While acknowledging the impact of Clark’s death, doing in here?’ He looked like a dead man.”
Lange told them: “People don’t want to hear Def Leppard doing Later, in Dublin, Clark was present as the band began recording
Leonard Cohen.” basic tracks for the album. He was also attending a rehab facility
Elliott recalls: “A guy’s just died and here we are making this close by, where Elliott would sit with him during group therapy
euphoric, celebratory music. It seemed a bit weird. But we made sessions. What he realised then was that Clark was in complete
a point of remembering who we are, what we do and what we do denial. “He thought he was fine,” he said. “He didn’t believe that he
well.” And it was the question ‘Do you wanna get rocked?’ – the had a problem.”
opening line from would be the album’s opening track, Let’s Get And then there There was a deeper realisation that for Elliott was heartbreaking:
were four: (l-r)
Rocked – which set the tone. For all the sadness that surrounded the Rick Allen, Rick “Steve was the nicest guy in the world. But he was a very complex
making of it, Adrenalize was a celebration of the life-affirming Savage, Joe Elliott, person. I’d known for years, but I didn’t know him at all. He had
power of rock’n’roll. Phil Collen. everything, yet he had nothing. You do your best to help.



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