Page 30 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

JOE ELLIOT

He’s also very questioning. He asks you Sharp-dressed man:
Joe Elliott scrubs up
about everything, from your sex life to alright, 1986.
your food. But he’ll never tell you

anything about himself. To us, he was like
a teacher. He’s somebody that we have
ultimate respect for.

Did you know when you were working
on the Hysteria album that it was a
classic in the making?
Well, people thought we were mad and
we probably were, but Mutt spent three

weeks mixing one track, Women, and
four months mixing the whole album. But
when we heard the finished mixes, we
went, wow, this is something special. I will

always remember the moment when we
heard the final track of Gods Of War. It was
such a big song for Steve, and the
expression on his face when he heard it
was something I’ll never forget. We finally

got him his Kashmir, you know?

Ultimately, is Hysteria the band’s
greatest album?

I think it’s a great record. We’ve made
other great records, and there are great
songs on other albums. But nothing will
ever compare to Hysteria, because that
record is in the DNA of millions of people.

hat Def Leppard created in
Hysteria is one of the most
brilliant and innovative hard

rock albums ever made. It is
also one of the biggest selling
albums of all time. What makes the
success of this album all the more
extraordinary is what happened during its
making.

It was on New Year’s Eve, 1984 that
Rick Allen crashed in his Corvette
Stingray on a country lane just off the A57
near Sheffield. He was fortunate to

survive, but his left arm was subsequently
amputated. The story of Allen’s heroic
comeback – how he found a way to THE REAL DEF LEPPARD
continue playing drums for Def Leppard
– is inspirational. WAS BORN ON PYROMANIA.

In the story of Steve Clark, what
remains for those who loved him is WE MADE A RECORD THAT
sadness for a man who could not be
saved. On January 8, 1991, Clark was WAS BETTER THAN THE

found dead at his home in London. An
autopsy revealed the cause of death as an
overdose of codeine. A long battle with FIRST BOSTON ALBUM –
alcoholism had led him there. He was just
THAT’S HOW WE SAW IT.

28 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM