Page 143 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

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