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Def Leppard Tour History Fan Archive.

Show Story - From Animal Instinct

A worrisome side effect of touring was the deteriorating relationship between Pete Willis and the rest of the band. Drinking was no longer the principal issue; it was whether Def Leppard could withstand the pressure of five young men on the verge of blowing their tops. While the band was on tour with Ozzy, Joe and Sav nearly came to blows over Willis. Sav believes that Joe sometimes overdid the disciplinarian act with Pete, often getting heavy with Pete when in fact lecturing him only made the situation worse. One night, Pete and Steve had one of their periodic blowups. Pete came over to Joe and Sav's room for a talk with Sav while Joe went down the hall to chat it out with Steve.

When Joe returned to go to sleep, Sav told him to get lost. "Fuck off!" he snapped. "You want to go to sleep? Go sleep with Steve. I'm sticking with Pete. He needs looking after."

"That's the only time I can remember having a real face-to-face argument with Joe," Sav claims. "Neither of us was going to give way."

Sav honestly believed the end was at hand when Steve went on a booze-a-thon during a few days' stopover in Seattle during the Blackfoot tour. "It was the only time I ever considered the possibility that the band was finished, actually dying. We were having problems with Pete. Rick was just getting over his attitude thing and I just couldn't see much life in us if Steve went over the edge. We were so close - the album was in the Top 40, people we're telling us it was good. And this one evening, I just got the feeling that it was ending. This was as close as we were ever gonna get."

Two days later, Steve came down from his hotel room and apologized to the band. "Sorry, I've been like a bee. It was one of those things." He didn't touch a drop of liquor for the next three weeks.

By Zomba Books 1987.