Gaining ground amidst the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) movement in the late ’70s/early ’80s, Def Leppard were as hard rocking as any other band at the time. Their first two albums, 1980’s On Through the Night and 1981’s High ’n’ Dry, provided the proof. However, midstream they focused on a more commercially accessible sound. The change lost some of the band’s early heavy metal followers but gained mainstream rock fans tenfold. Much of this paradigm shift can be credited to the guidance of producer Mutt Lange, but the real shine came from Def Leppard’s songwriting.
It’s easy to rattle off Def Leppard’s accomplishments during the high point of their career. The 1983 album Pyromania was certified diamond in the U.S., and 1987’s Hysteria became one of the bestselling albums of all time (over 25 million copies worldwide). There were four Top 10 U.S. singles on the Billboard Hot 100 — “Love Bites,” “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” “Hysteria” and “Armageddon It” — to top it off.
Tragedy struck Def Leppard with the sudden death of guitarist Steve Clark in 1991, but the band rebounded from grief with their next studio album, Adrenalize, reaching No. 1 in the U.S. in 1992. Even though their highest peak was between 1983-93, the band continued to make quality music and remain one of the world’s bestselling music artists, having sold more than 100 million records worldwide.
As their star power continues to shine, Def Leppard have given the world assorted flavor with their latest tonic thanks to the longtime lineup of Elliott, guitarist Phil Collen, bassist Rick Savage, drummer Rick Allen and the last recruit, guitar-slinger Vivian Campbell, releasing the new album Diamond Star Halos, with the Leppardbranded, high-powered single “Kick” leading the charge. The release ends one of the band’s longest gaps between studio albums (its predecessor, the eponymous Def Leppard, came out in 2015). Was there a seven-year itch? The first thing lead singer Elliot addressed was how excited the band are about this new studio record
JOE ELLIOTT: Very. A big surprise, really. When we look back to how we all started out. We didn’t set out to make an album, but pandemic offered us an opportunity to do one because there was literally nothing else we could do, except waste time, which is not really in our DNA. We were due on the road in 2020, in middle of June. So, rehearsals were gonna be in May. Everybody was coming to my studio in Ireland, 22nd of March. They were due in until all the flights were canceled and lockdown was announced. We had no idea how long lockdown was gonna last. Is it gonna be a week, two weeks or a month, two month, three months?
Once we realized that we couldn’t actually get together, I got on the phone with Phil (Collen), who was in California. Within about 40 minutes of
