Page 136 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

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

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

Words: Mick Wall Photos: Ross Halfin

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

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