Def Leppard never stopped rockin'
Reached by cell phone somewhere in California, Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen refuses to be a rock 'n' roll casualty.
A vegan who hasn't tasted booze in 16 years, Collen is leaving the gym in his Toyota 4Runner (his wife is cruising the Mercedes, he says) and enjoying the good life at a time when Def Leppard should be high and dry after well-documented bouts of alcoholism, a changing music scene and the literal losses of life and limb.
The band's critically acclaimed 10th album, "X," has been called a comeback on par with Bon Jovi's latest, "Bounce." With radio-ready ear candy such as "Unbelievable," "Long, Long Way to Go" and "You're So Beautiful," the new album marks a full-circle return to the power-ballad pop-rock that helped Def Leppard sell 45 million albums and cause hysteria in the late 1980s.