Hit Parader salutes the '80s International Metal Masters
Def Leppard High & Mighty

Def Leppard have probably never received their due credit.  Oh sure, it's hard 
to feel sorry for a band that has sold more than 50 million albums during their 
25 year career, and has received more accolades for their accomplishments that 
most Nobel Prize winners.  But the undeniable fact is that despite all that 
they've done in the rock and roll world - highlighted by their mid-'80s 
double-play combo of Pyromania and Hysteria which together have sold over 25 
million copies - vocalist Joe Elliott, bassist Rick Savage, drummer Rick Allen, 
guitarist Phil Collen and late guitarist Steve Clark (since replaced by Vivian 
Campbell) rarely receive the degree of respect one would anticipate.

Elliott, for one, admits that at one time such back-of-the-hand treatment 
bothered him.  He says that while so many of his compatriots were being singled 
out for being "cool", "hip" or "cutting edge", the Leps had to content 
themselves with selling more records than anyone this side of Bon Jovi.  But 
the truth is that perhaps no other band played a greater role in shaping the 
core sound and style of the '80s hard rock recent than these quintessential 
English aces.  Sure, chart-topping hits such as Photograph, Pour Some Sugar on 
Me and Rock of Ages may sound "cute" on today's rock radio, but their real 
significance is that they helped establish new hard rock boundaries and 
precedence... quite simply, they helped open the doors for the metal floodgates 
that would soon follow.

"I don't know if they could ever call us a 'critic's band'", Elliott said.  "In 
fact, they tended to hate us.  But we weren't an art-rock band like Genesis, 
and we weren't creating music for the ages like the Beatles.  We were just five 
lads from Sheffield who were having the time of their lives."

The Times of their lives, indeed!

But just as they were the ever-smirking good-will poster boys for the '80s 
metal kingdom, there was a "dark side" to the Lep's story that served as a 
vivid counter-point to all their good-time musical sensibilities.  It was this 
stark dichotomy that perhaps served as the most compelling element of the Def 
Leppard Story.  Through their own sheer persistence they had risen from humble 
beginnings in Sheffield, England, to become the single most commercially potent 
band of the mid-'80s.  But at the exact same time that their music was making 
the Leps the unquestioned kings of radio and MTV-friendly hard rock, the band 
was suffering through a series of personal disasters that would have done 
justice to any prime-time soap opera.

Soon after the band's first album, On Through the Night, was released, original 
guitarist Pete Willis was fired due to what those around the band termed "being 
a bad influence", which in fact, was later revealed to be an over-fondness for 
drinking.  Willis' departure only began to prepare Def Leppard for the true 
disasters that were soon to come their way.  First, drummer Rick Allen lost his 
arm during a New Year's Eve 1986 auto crash.  The accident put the skin basher 
in a British hospital for the better part of three months.  But almost as soon 
as he emerged, he stated his determination to return to his Def Lep drum stool, 
and less than a year later - with the aid of a specially designed electronic 
kit - that's exactly what he did.

Only a few years after Allen's accident, however, another tragedy hit the band 
when founding member, and lead guitarist, Steve Clark was found dead (an 
apparent suicide) after suffering through a long battle with drugs and alcohol. 
 Clark's death cast a pall over the band that briefly seemed destined to break 
Def Leppard apart.  In the wake of his passing, both Collen and Elliott went 
through bouts with alcohol abuse that threatened to put their own lives in 
danger.  But having overcome so much prior hardship, the band's surviving 
members decided to hire a new axe master, Vivian Campbell, and bravely forge 
ahead.  To say the least, despite their incredible string of album successes, 
life as a member of Def Leppard has been enough to try men's souls.

"If you're asking if the thought that we're cursed ever crossed our mind, the 
answer is yes," Collen said with a sardonic grin.  "At times it has seemed as 
if we've had to pay a very severe price for the success we've gained."

The tragedies that Def Leppard suffered through only seemed to add to their 
mystique.  There was something so painfully ironic about hearing the band's 
perpetually up-beat sound while knowing of the pain they had all endured.  It 
was all a compliment to their incredible professionalism that no matter how 
severe an emotional roadblock was placed in their path, the Leps managed to 
hurdle it - eve if it did take them a long, long time.  Remember that in the 
early and mid-'80s, at a time when most bands still routinely recorded a new 
album on a once-a-year schedule, Def Leppard often took four years between 
their releases.  While such a schedule would have brought the career of almost 
any other group to a virtual halt, these guys simply took the time they needed 
in order to release their studio-enhanced slices of hard rock perfection - and 
then they just waited for the public to warm to them all over again.  At times 
it seemed as if the Leps had actually taken too long between discs, only to 
discover that the second or third single from their album (rather than the 
first effort) was the one destined to turn their latest effort into a 
multi-platinum smash.

Such incredible success didn't come by luck alone.  Def Leppard became one of 
the hardest working bands in the world, touring North America virtually 
non-stop for six months at a time.  While many fans in Britain criticized this 
unit for "pandering to American tastes," the Leps knew that success in America 
was the key to their career; to paraphrase the old Broadway tune, "if you can 
make it there, you can make it anywhere."  It was a decision that the band was 
never to regret.  Eventually Europe decided to embrace them, as did the Orient 
and Australia.  And even in 2006, as they again tour the world in support of 
their latest package, the "covers" disc, Yeah!, it seems as if nothing can stop 
Def Leppard from rockin' until they drop.

"We've been through a hell of a lot over the years, both good and bad," Elliott 
said.  "But we're still here and we're still going strong."