If there’s one rock band that can truly be described as heroes, it’s Def Leppard. overcame the death of singer to make the biggest-selling rock album of all time: . recovered from the death of bassist to become the most successful and influential metal band of the modern era.
But Def Leppard have suffered two tragedies: the car crash in 1984 in which drummer , and the alcohol-related death of guitarist in 1991. The fact that Def Leppard are still together in 2024, still making great music and playing to stadium audiences of 20,000, is testimony to the extraordinary courage and resolve of this great British rock band. Having formed in Sheffield in 1977, Def Leppard were thinking big from the very start.
Their name was inspired by , and the blueprint for their music was, as singer has stated: “AC/DC meets ”. In 1979 Leppard rose to prominence alongside Iron Maiden in the , although Leppard’s glam-inspired hard rock was radically different from what most NWOBHM bands were about. “We wanted to be a pop-rock band,” Elliott says.
“We wanted to do what Bowie and Bolan did. We had more in common with Duran Duran than with !” Leppard knew instinctively where their biggest audience was; they even wrote a song called . And when they teamed up with AC/DC producer in the early 80s they hit the jackpot.
With Lange’s creative input earning him unofficial status as the band’s sixth member, Leppard conquered America with 1983’s and 1987’s , the first back-to-back alb.