Page 47 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019
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e catch up on the What’s in First of all, away from the band is it Going back to your own boyhood, I was
a name? He
phone with Rick ‘Rick’ or ‘Sav’? intrigued to learn that one of the first
answers to ‘Rick’,
Savage as Leppard ‘Richard’ and I’m a combination of Rick, Richard songs you learned on guitar when you
‘Dad’ – but you
are approaching the can call him ‘Sav’. and Sav, depending on who I’m with. were just 10 years old was Maggie May
end of the second leg Certainly for the last 10 or 15 years when by Rod Stewart. Tell me about that
of their current US tour. I’m not actually doing anything related to song, and any other songs you learned
“We’ve got two more the band it’s just been ‘Dad’. Like most to play in those days.
shows to go, then we’ve got parents, your life revolves around your Maggie May was the very first song
a week’s break,” says Rick, kids. You go through the stages. You learn I ever learned to play. What it was, I’m
over his morning coffee. Tonight they how to change nappies. You learn to get the youngest by seven years from two
play an arena – natch – in a suburb of St less sleep. And then it graduates to other other brothers. They were seven and
Louis, Missouri, called Maryland things. I’m now getting to the stage where nine years ahead of me. My eldest brother
Heights. “It’s about our 10th time here,” I’ve become a taxi driver. I used to play John had just started work, or got a paper
he recalls without a trace of weariness. a lot of junior football at a very high level, round or something, and he bought an
Rick is the man of mystery in Def at 15 or 16. Now I’m seeing it all again, acoustic guitar. He got the sheet music
Leppard. Joe Elliott and Phil Collen do 35 years later or whatever it is. You for a few songs and one of them was
lots of interviews. Steve Clark was devote your time to your family because Maggie May. It was one of those things
a standout figure. Rick Allen always had it’s a lot harder when you are on the road where you got the lyrics and where the
his lost arm to mark him out. But Rick or in a studio in a different country. You chord changes were it had little dots in
Savage, or ‘Sav’ – not so much. miss [your family life] and you try and boxes, to show you where to go. And he’d
“There’s nothing mysterious about make up for lost time. gone out one evening and I thought, well,
me,” he insists. “It’s really my reluctance I’ll do this. I put my finger there and my
to do interviews. I don’t enjoy them as How many kids have you got now? finger there and started strumming.
much, perhaps, as the others. But that’s I’ve got two boys, aged 13 and 15, and I knew the song, it was current at the
the only reason. I’m not like the Howard a 21-year-old stepdaughter who’s actually time, top of the charts, and I found it all
Hughes of the band. When you’ve got a mother herself. So as far as everybody came rather easily! All of a sudden it was
someone in the group like Mr Elliott it’s there’s concerned I’m granddad. A bit like a brand new door opening. Like,
hard to get a word in edgeways anyway.” weird but… [Laughs] wow, I can actually do this reasonably
AT THE TIME IT WAS: ‘I’LL PLAY BASS ’TIL WE FIND
A BASS PLAYER.’ THANKFULLY WE STILL HAVEN’T
FOUND A BASS PLAYER SO I’M STILL HERE!
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