Page 141 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

down on the drum riser and passed out.
But he didn’t pass out and try and beat
everybody up. Pete was a nasty little piece
of work when he’d a drink. Everybody else
in this band just threw up and went to
sleep [laughs]. Until Steve passed out and
never woke up again.
We’ve had some major problems in this
band with alcohol. Pete wasn’t great at it
and eventually Steve wasn’t great at it. But
at the time, when it was still neck and neck,
no way we were ever gonna fire Steve,
because he kept coming up with stuff, and
he’d be okay the next day after a shower
and some breakfast. He never, ever drank
until the encore.
When Pyromania took off so
spectacularly, were you relieved,
surprised, scared… What happened?
The honest truth about Pyromania is we
were at that stage of our lives where we
thought it was about time. We thought it
was due. We looked at other bands and we
thought the album that we’d made was up
there and beyond other bands that were
more successful than we’d been. And
when it was our time we all kind of looked
at each other and went, yeah, we did the
right thing. This is exactly what we wanted.
The first gig we did with Phil in the band
was at the Marquee club in London in
February 1983. Seven months later we did
Mac Murphy Stadium in San Diego, the
last show of the American tour, in front of
fifty-five thousand people.
The US tour had begun that year with
Leppard opening for Billy Squier, but
your tour shirt was outselling Squier’s
by a ratio of ten to one. Then you
began your own headline tour with
Uriah Heep supporting, then Gary
Moore. Meanwhile, the album’s taking
off like a rocket.
The headline tour started out a bit spotty.
The first gig we did was somewhere in
Texas and there were maybe four or five
thousand people in this arena that held
probably ten. Then three weeks later it
really started to kick off cos Photograph
really took off [as a single] and Rock Of
Ages kind of cemented it. By June, which
was a mere six weeks later, we were
selling out faster than the last Led
Zeppelin tour – arenas selling out in
three minutes!
You should have been all set for
your next album. But Mutt was
busy making Foreigner 4, so you
brought in Meat Loaf svengali Jim
Steinman to produce. And it went
horribly wrong.
That’s an understatement. Eventually
Steve and Phil just called a meeting and
said he’s got to go. I didn’t even work with
him. I didn’t record one note of the vocals.
It didn’t get that far. I do remember all
[Steinman’s] farting around, though.
RICK ALLEN
Having joined the band in ’78, Leppard’s drummer has come through
adulation, addiction and amputation without missing a beat.
Interview: Henry Yates
It’s 1978. How does a fourteen-year-old bring that conflict within earshot of us
kid come to be in Def Leppard? wasn’t very professional. That was it. I guess
Peter and Clifford had their eye on us for
I’d been playing with local bands, just beer
money and covers. At the ripe old age of a while. After they saw us opening up for
fourteen I was ready to quit the business AC/DC, I think they got it.
– I say that with tongue-in-cheek. But that
very same day, I saw an article in the Joe told us that Mutt was pretty brutal
Sheffield Star: ‘Leopard Loses Skins’; at that with you during the making of High ‘N’ Dry.
time it was still Deaf Leopard. They were That was the first time I really experienced
looking for a drummer. And when we met up hard work, and actually got to the point
at The Limit club in Sheffield, we realised where I doubted my ability as a player.
we’d probably all rubbed shoulders at the Because Mutt had this wonderful
same gigs – The Sweet, Thin Lizzy, you name psychology. He never said you were doing it
it. When they told me about this EP they’d wrong. He just had a set of criteria – y’know,
just recorded, I got this sense of being lifted good vibe, good timing, in tune, whatever
up. They were writing their own music, and – that made you challenge yourself. I learnt
that to me was huge. more about playing drums
“WE KEEP LEARNING doing that record than at
What do you remember any other time.
about the audition? FROM OUR SUCCESSES
A few days later we went AND OUR MISTAKES. Did becoming
down to the rehearsal THAT’S WHAT KEEPS a millionaire in the mid-
eighties make you happy?
space at the spoon factory. IT VIBRANT.” I wouldn’t necessarily say
Two other drummers
showed up. One was so. I think it’s an inside job
[original drummer] Tony Kenning, who – you’re either a happy kind of person or not.
wanted his job back, but they’d already told I must admit I’ve been through some really
me he’s more interested in his girlfriend than depressing times, but whether I felt happy
in coming to rehearsal. I went last – which or depressed it never had anything to do
kinda gave me the opportunity to learn the with money. I always felt like it was
parts in the few minutes I had – and when something within me, things I needed to
I played with them there were smiles all overcome, whether that was demons, self-
round. Lo and behold I got the job. I joined medication, you name it. Eventually I made
around about my fifteenth birthday. Crazy. the right choices, and now I guess I’m pretty
consistent – I don’t go to the lows that I used
Who was leading the band in those to. But I don’t think money has anything to
formative days? do with it. To be honest, after my accident,
Joe was always a great driving force. because the record [Hysteria] was taking so
Whatever he says about what he lacked long, I found myself pretty much penniless.
in talent, he definitely didn’t lack in his
knowledge of music. And Do you think Leppard might have sounded
confidence, just getting up different had you not lost your arm?
there and doing it. I really I think so. Mutt being Mutt, I think he saw
looked up to him as an opportunity, he didn’t necessarily see
a setback. And actually that was a big part
someone who fired
everybody up. of my healing – to stop comparing myself to
how I used to be, and other drummers, and
Joe told us about your embrace how unique this was and how it
involvement in cutting could set us apart from everybody else.
ties with the band’s That was a big factor in me getting better as
original management. a person and a player, to shed that weight of
I thought it was the right “God, I wish I could play the way I used to”,
decision. I was so naïve at or “God, I wish I could play like that guy.”
that time, I didn’t know what Instead it was like: “This is where I am.
I was doing. But I remember I can’t go back. I may as well go forward.”
grabbing Peter Mensch and A lot of that inspiration came from Mutt.
saying: “Come here, have He embraced it.
a listen.” So we stood
outside the door, and our Joe said that after the accident, you locked
old management team yourself away in Wisseloord Studios for
were in the room arguing five months and re-learned to play. What
about something. It was so are your memories of that period?
juvenile, the way they It became an obsession. I didn’t want to let
communicated. For them to them down. I didn’t want to let myself
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