Page 129 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

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

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

Words: Ken McIntyre Photos: Ross Halfin

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

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