Page 144 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

so hard, and gone through so much. Rick
had the accident, and we’d spent all this
money on the record. Plus our parents were
all English and they’d lived through the Blitz.
There was a shared value system that we all
had. I think that really helped us not be blasé
or take anything for granted. Our ambition
wasn’t really to be famous. We wanted to
make great music and for people to really
dig it. The rock star thing is all fine and
dandy, but you’ve got to be able to back it
up; you’ve got to be able to write songs.
And not be a dickhead.
When you think of Steve, does it make you
feel happy or sad?
Both. I think of him every single day. He was
my best friend. When I think of shitty, sad
things about Steve, it’s usually followed by
something that makes me smile.
What have been the most difficult times
commercially in the band?
After Steve died and we were doing the
Slang album, and the musical landscape
changed. Y’know, Nirvana came out, which
I thought was a breath of fresh air, because
it had got really stale with these really naff
bands – hair-metal stuff. No lyrical content,
no vibe, just a bunch of people with good
hair products. So Nirvana came out – and
Pearl Jam and STP and all these bands
– and it was a bit like the punk thing in
England. It changed the landscape.
Unfortunately we got caught up in that.
I thought Slang was great, but it came out at
a weird time, and we were not very popular
at that moment.
What’s the secret to never splitting up?
It’s ego. It’s how you were raised. It’s your
value system. People get so big-headed
and stroppy.
How do you think the classic Leppard
material has aged?
Well, the other day, on the G3 tour, I was
trying out John Petrucci’s rig. I plugged my
guitar in and ended up playing all these
Hysteria songs to see how they sounded.
And they sounded amazing. And then, when
I listened to the record, it doesn’t sound
dated at all, because of what went into it.
For you, does commercial success trump
critical acclaim?
I like the fact that millions of people went out
and bought our record. That, to me, is a bit
more [important]. Especially as I get older.
I had a very interesting tip once from Ian
Hunter. He said: “When you reach fifty-five
you’ll stop worrying what anyone thinks
about you. You won’t care if a twenty-year-
old judges you.” And he was absolutely right.
Which do you consider to be the ‘classic’
Def Leppard line-up?
We play better right now. We sing better
right now. The last tour was the best we’ve
ever sounded, I’ve got no doubt. Pioneer-
wise, I think Hysteria was it. But as far as
the band being the best it’s ever been, it’s
absolutely right now.
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about it. That’s how we got tracks like Steve Clark:
Excitable. Tracks like Animal also changed a wonderful
from how they’d been before. We kept the guitarist, but
vocals and drums, then had Steve, Phil and he could not
escape his
Sav sit in the control room with their downward spiral.
guitars and see what they came up with.
Back on tour in America as the album
rises up the charts, once again you’re
all going through your own personal
struggles. Phil Collen stopped
drinking completely after
a night on the town with Steve
Clark during the making of “We were never
Hysteria. Then you stopped going to be a band
drinking too, for the duration
of the Hysteria tour. Was that singing about
also related to what happened
to Pete, and to Steve’s growing dungeons and
drinking problem? f**king dragons.”
Nothing to do with what you
think at all. We were five shows
into that in-the-round tour. I was in bed in
a hotel after the show, and I remember
staring at the ceiling, not being able to
sleep, going: “I can’t do this if I drink.” It
took me five gigs to figure it out.
In-the-round is an incredibly, insanely
aerobic kind of thing to do – and try and
sing as well. And those songs… We were
trying to replicate an album that is still to
this day state-of-the-art. We were still
learning how to do it. First night, in Glenn
Falls, I got to four songs in and started
hyperventilating. I went down my hole on
the side of the stage, during a Phil solo. End
up breathing into a paper bag.
So I stared at the ceiling, not being able
to sleep, thinking: “How am I gonna get
through two hundred and twenty more
shows if this is how it’s gonna be? ” So
I quit. Because it was hard in-the-round. It
was really hard. For a singer. You can’t
stand still, you’ve got to keep moving. The
guys had identical microphones on either
side of the stage, so they could stand still
for a little bit. I had to keep moving all the
time. It was insane. And I just couldn’t have
done it drinking. No way.
Meanwhile, Steve seemed to be falling
apart on that tour whenever I visited.
I remember reading articles where you
were out on the road with us on various
parts of that tour, and just you and Steve
would be in his room, and he would open
up to you and bitch. And you’d probably
think, fuck, what kind of organisation is he
in. But he was only like that with you. You
were like his mentor or his confidant.
There was nobody else that he ever did that
for. And those negatives that you got out of
him were only literally those nights that
you were there. He wasn’t doing this to
people every other night you weren’t
around. He didn’t pick another Mick Wall
from another town and bitch and moan.
You were the only person he trusted to talk
like that for. I guess he was harbouring
certain negatives in his thing. But he just
put them to one side for the rest of the tour.
It wasn’t like he was this miserable
wanker. He was a funny guy, man. He was
a really good guy. When Pete got angry,
Steve got sad. Steve’s past came back to
haunt him. He had some childhood issues
that I don’t really want to go into. You can
only imagine what they were. And they
were the reason he drank, I think,
personally. But I don’t want to get sued by
people so I’m not gonna go any
further on that one. Use your
imagination. But he wanted it
[success]. He loved it. Would he
have gone out there as a solo
artist and achieved the success he
achieved? Absolutely not. He
needed other people to pull him
into that situation. When they
did, he delivered. He was like
a circus. “Ladies and gentleman,
we’re pulling out the guy that
we’re gonna shoot out the cannon.” He’d
willingly get in the cannon. He wasn’t the
entire circus, but he wanted to be in the
circus. That’s the best way I can put it.
fter Hysteria, Def Leppard took
a long break, before coming back
Atogether to work on material for
their next album. Again, Mutt wasn’t
available to fill the producer’s chair. He was
working with Bryan Adams on what
would become the squillion-selling Waking
Up The Neighbours album, complete with
the number-one-forever hit (Everything I Do)
I Do It For You. Mutt did, however, involve
himself in the writing process with
Leppard, and, as Elliott puts it now, “was
only ever a phone call away”. Yet in
a tragically weird echo of Pyromania and