Page 145 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

VIV CAMPBELL
Hysteria, Leppard fell foul of fortune when
Steve Clark went to sleep one night in
January 1991 and never woke up again.
We touched on Steve’s death earlier,
and you’ve talked about it at length
in Classic Rock in recent times. Can
I just ask you this: were you relieved,
in the sense of seeing someone clearly
so pained and broken finally out of
their misery, and also in terms of
allowing the band to carry on without
that burden?
In no specific order, I felt incredibly sad
when I heard that he’d died. But there was
a part of me that was actually quite
relieved. Cos I knew it was gonna happen
sooner or later. At least now we can both
be at peace with it and move on. We’d
given him six months off, told him to go
and spend some time in the beautiful
house he’d bought in Chelsea, eat some
food he’d cooked himself, and take his
clothes out of the suitcase and put them in
the wardrobe. But instead he spent most of
his time in the pub round the corner, and
do things like get so drunk he’d fall down
the stairs and crack his rib. So he’d be on
serious [pain] medication for cracked ribs.
Then he’d carry on drinking. That’s how he
died. It wasn’t cocaine. He had morphine,
probably, cos he was on prescription
painkillers. He washed it down with vodka
and never woke up. Just fell asleep so deep
he just died.
If he hadn’t died but instead come back
after six months still messed up on
booze, would you have made the
decision to let him go?
Yes. That’s the honest answer to that. But
that’s why we gave him six months off. Pete
Willis, we wanted him to go. With Steve
we wanted him to come back. He was
creative, he was our friend, he was in pain.
The stuff that happened around Steve’s
drinking and was unreported – and will
stay unreported – just puts you in that
head-space where you go: “I just don’t want
to do this any more.”
On tour, if I was in the hotel room next
to his, there were times I’d think I’d be very
surprised if he doesn’t wake up in the
morning. I’d see him the next day and go:
“What the fuck was going on last night?”
Noises and just shit going off in his room.
I don’t miss that. That used to stress me out
unbelievably. And I don’t have that any
more. That’s what I mean when I say
After 1992’s Adrenalize, the Irish journeyman helped Leppard
turn the corner in a tough commercial decade. A quarter-century later,
he reflects on hard times, absent friends and matching pyjamas.
Interview: Henry Yates
Rewind to 1992. What made you want to the guys that I could elevate the band’s
join Def Leppard? vocals. I don’t think Steve Clark was much
I was always a fan. I had their first single. into singing.
I always thought they were head and
shoulders above everything else that was Did you ever feel bad about taking over
happening with that whole NWOBHM from Steve?
movement. There was Leppard, there was It was obviously a difficult situation. By that
Iron Maiden, and then there was a bunch of stage I was used to walking into bands with
others who were nowhere near as good. Dio and Whitesnake. But for them [Leppard]
The first time I met them, I was in it must have been very difficult. To this day,
Whitesnake. We had a day off and we all I’m sure when they look over stage-right and
went to the Leppard show in Detroit. After it’s not Steve, that’s gotta be strange. I’ve
that, Joe kept in touch, because we had always tried to be very respectful of the fact
mutual friends in Dublin. We’d go to dinner, that I’m walking in Steve’s shoes, because
play pool, talk shite. A year after Steve had maybe even ninety per cent of what we play
passed away, Joe is music that
called me to say “I CAN SAY OBJECTIVELY – Steve created.
that now they’d
finished Adrenalize BECAUSE I WASN’T IN THE BAND Your arrival
they’d decided to THEN – THAT HYSTERIA IS ONE coincided with
continue as a five- OF THE GREATEST F**KING tougher
piece and were RECORDS OF ALL TIME.” commercial times.
looking for another Did you feel
the downturn?
guitar player, and Oh yeah, absolutely. It was quite soul-
would I be interested. Had it been any other
band on the planet, I’d have said no. I’d been destroying, actually. It was just bad timing,
in and out of so many bands and I was really I guess. I wasn’t involved in the Adrenalize
burnt by it all. But this was Def Leppard, one record. I stepped into the band for that tour,
of the biggest bands in the world. Certainly which was something like fifteen months.
the most ambitious band in the hard rock And I mean, we started the tour as a huge,
genre by a country mile. long-haired, dressed-up arena-rock band,
and we finished it looking like Pearl Jam,
Your backing vocals changed the wearing ratty jeans, growing goatees and
sound of the band immediately. cutting our hair. During the course of that
Something that not a lot of people fifteen-month tour the entire musical
knew about me was that I was landscape changed.
actually a pretty good singer. Back Right off the back of that, we went in to do
in the Dio days, Ronnie never Slang. It was such a strange time in the music
wanted me to sing. And I’m sure business. It was such a strange time to be in
I wasn’t very good. I remember Def Leppard. And this was my first album
asking: “Ronnie, can I sing with them. It was a bit of a double whammy.
backups?” And he said: So I have very mixed feelings about Slang. In
“No! Ritchie some ways it’s incredible, in other ways it’s
Blackmore never disappointing to me. But it is what it is. And
I think it was pretty much all we could do.
sang. Tony Iommi
never sang. Guitar The only thing we knew for sure at that time
players play guitar. period was that we couldn’t be Def Leppard;
Singers sing. Get we couldn’t go in and make a record that was
over there!” So that off the heels of Adrenalize.
was me shut down.
In Whitesnake, When I’ve interviewed you in the past, I’ve
Coverdale was sometimes got the impression you wish
actually very Leppard would stop being so obsessive in
encouraging about the studio and just get on with it.
my nascent vocal I think it’s fair to say that I’m the one guy in
aspirations and turned the band [who has that attitude]. Because
me on to a vocal coach. I didn’t grow up in that mentality. But I fully
So I’d worked on it understand why the band operates that
pretty hard. By the way. My first album was [Dio’s] Holy Diver,
time I got into where we wrote the songs and we played
a rehearsal room with them in real time with Ronnie. That’s what
Leppard I think it was I’m used to. I think there’s pros and cons to
a pleasant surprise to both approaches. Sometimes things
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