http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/2005/08/05/entertainment.20050805-sbt-MICH-D1-Leppard_set_to_delve.sto

Leppard set to delve into 'rock of ages' with covers album

WEEKEND

By ANDREW S. HUGHES
Tribune Staff Writer

For a guy named Savage, Def Leppard's bass player has a friendly, 
soft-spoken demeanor on the telephone.

"The blueprint for Def Leppard was guitars, hard rock, melodies and 
harmonies," Rick Savage says from a tour stop in Peoria, Ill. "We've 
always believed the song was the most important thing. It was just a 
matter of how we presented it. We like guitars loud, but we also like 
melody. It's a fine line of not compromising one or the other."

Savage formed Def Leppard in his hometown of Sheffield, England, in 
1977. Since then, he's seen both the highs of rock stardom, with Def 
Leppard's string of hit albums and singles in the '80s, and its lows, 
when personal tragedy struck the group twice: On New Year's Eve in 1984, 
drummer Rick Allen lost his left arm in an automobile accident, and in 
1991, lead guitarist Steve Clark died of alcoholism during the recording 
sessions for "Adrenalize."

"The one thing is this is the only band I've been in," Savage says of 
why Def Leppard continued after each incident. "I don't have any other 
references. It's just this bubble I've been in, and we genuinely like 
each other. Those two tragic circumstances, we felt it was the right 
thing to do. Also, we're smart enough to know we've had so many good 
times, too."

Within just a few months of his accident, Allen started learning to play 
an electronic drum kit built for him by Simmons drums.

"The best compliment I could pay Rick is that very little changed," 
Savage says of the musical relationship between drummer and bass player. 
"In fact, it became more of a groove once he established himself on his 
new kit. He was a great drummer before his injury, and the theory didn't 
change: He just had to redirect the signal to a different part of his body."

In May, Def Leppard released "Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection," 
a two-CD "best of." Like Styx and its recent "Big Bang Theory" look-back 
at its influences, Def Leppard intends to release a CD of covers titled 
"Yeah!" in 2006. "Rock of Ages" offers a preview with the group's 
version of Badfinger's "No Matter What." Def Leppard also recorded songs 
by Free, David Bowie and T.Rex for "Yeah!"

"It's basically songs that we really loved when we were 10, 11 years 
old, the songs that influenced us to pick up a guitar or hit some 
drums," he says of "Yeah!" "It's pretty much the Glam Slam era of the 
British music scene from 1969 to 1976."

British glam rock -- exemplified by T.Rex and Mott the Hoople -- exerted 
a major influence on Def Leppard and its sound.

"The thing is that it was the image more than anything else," Savage 
says of glam. "As you get to 10, 11 years old, you become more aware, 
and seeing these artists on TV with the glitter and platform boots just 
struck a chord."

For another visual comparison to Def Leppard's sound, Savage says, take 
a look at Steven Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

"In every scene, there was something exciting happening," he says of how 
the film influenced the group's music. "Whether it was the kick drum or 
the vocal, everything had to be exciting."

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