Interview -- RAW 121 14-27th April 1993 - Part 3 - Rick Savage

ROCKET MEN

Three years after they had started work on the album, Def Leppard completed 'Hysteria' at an estimated cost of one million pounds. The first UK single, 'Animal', was released in July 1987, and promptly reached Number Six in the charts. 'Hysteria' itself was released in August 1987, and entered the album charts at Number One. The first time a Def Leppard album had topped the charts at home or abroad.

The band capitalised on their revived standing in the UK with a sell-out tour, climaxing with three nights at Hammersmith Odeon. Ironically, in the States, where 'Women' had been the first single, 'Hysteria' was making comparatively slow progress. That was to change with the arrival of Def Leppard's In The Round stageshow.

Savage -- "The great thing about 'Pyromania' was that everything was new. With 'Hysteria', there were many parts of it that you'd come to expect, so the novelty had worn off.
"The fact that we were playing in the middle was completely new to us and everybody else, so that made it special. We prided ourselves on doing something that not many people had done before. Whether it's good, bad or indifferent doesn't really matter, as long as it's different."

With 'Hysteria' taking off in the US, Def Leppard returned to Europe in March 1988. By now, they had graduated to arenas in the UK; although the band insisted that none of the venues could accommodate the In The Round stage.
In May they started the final leg of their World Tour, taking in Japan, Canada and a series of outdoor performances in the US. 'Hysteria' finally reached Number One on the Billboard chart 11 months after it's release, breaking a string of records in the process. Leppard had become the first band to sell seven million copies of successive albums in the States, and the first Rock act to lift three Top Five singles from one record.

Amongst the figures, though, the band were still courted by tragedy. In July, road crew member Steve Cater died of a brain haemorrhage before a show in Wisconsin. Through it all, 'Hysteria' was still selling 100-200,000 copies per week. At the last count, it had sold more than 14 million copies worldwide. At the end of the tour, the members of Def Leppard were rich young men.

"Yes we were," Savage says with a smile, "It does kind of hit you like that. My experience is that most people who are in bands don't really want to be bothered with the business side of things, and if they are then it kind of detracts from the artistic side.
"You don't really think about it. Obviously, you'd have to be pretty stupid not to realise that if you're playing in front of 20,000 people every night, you're gonna make some money out of it. Subconsciously you're aware of all this, but it's not really sinking in. It's not until afterwards, when everything is toted up, that you realise."

WHITE LIGHTNING

In the aftermath of 'Hysteria', Def Leppard were determined once more to waste as little time as possible recording their next album. Consequently, a release date for their fifth record was tentatively set for the summer of 1989. 'Mutt' Lange was tied up with work on Bryan Adams' 'Waking Up The Neighbours' set so the band decided to co-produce the forthcoming album with Mike Shipley (Lange was finally credited as 'Executive Producer' on 'Adrenalize', and inevitably contributed to the song writing).

With the album still a long way from completion, though, Steve Clark's condition had become desperate. The band had always managed to hide Clark's alcoholism from public view, but he'd moved from a rehab centre in Dublin to a psychiatric hospital in Minneapolis in search of a 'cure'. Elliott flew to Minneapolis to confront Clark, discovering on his arrival that the guitarist 'looked like a dead man'.

In September 1990 Steve Clark was given a six-month leave of absence from Def leppard. He tried to continue working on songs using a demo studio in his London flat. At 9am on 8 January 1991 the guitarist's girlfriend discovered his dead body in their Chelsea home. Clark had died the night before, following a heavy drinking session. He was 30 years old.

"I loved Steve to death, we all did, but there were times on tour when you'd worry about him," Savage reveals. "You'd worry about whether you were gonna do a show the following night. You just don't know. You see things, and you realise that anything can happen, The whole thing could blow up.

"That drains you, and for a long time we were functioning on 80 per cent. Now, we're functioning on 100 per cent, and there is a big relief there. Again, I don't want anybody to take this the wrong way, but anyone that knows an alcoholic would understand that you can only do so much for that person. It's not a relief when somebody dies, I'd hate to put it in those terms, but there is a sense of knowing that you couldn't do anymore.
"I don't think anybody suggested splitting up, it was more of a case of it being appropriate to question the fact out of respect to Steve. As you can imagine, there were days of depression. I say days, there were weeks and months of depression.
"We were fortunate, because everybody individually felt like knocking it on the head at one stage, but whenever that happened the other three were there to pull him through it. I shudder to think what would have happened if three people had been depressed at the same time."

Def Leppard decided to re-record the album from scratch after Clark's death. Beginning in Holland, the band and Shipley moved to Joe's place (Elliott's private studio) in Dublin to complete the sessions.

Savage -- "I didn't really enjoy many parts of it, to be honest. The only bit that you really enjoy is the satisfaction of nearing the final product. Obviously, there was a period where we weren't sure what we were going to do. We decided to carry on, and to be fair, we were going through the motions. We thought we were knuckling down, but it takes a long time."

On 16 March 1992, the band released 'Let's Get Rocked' as a single. A fortnight later the 'Adrenalize' album entered the UK and US charts at Number One. Vivian Campbell (who had played with Sweet Savage, Dio, Whitesnake, Riverdogs and Lou Gramm's Shadowking) was confirmed as the new Def Leppard guitarist on 14 April, making his debut at Wembley Stadium on 20 April at the Freddie Mercury Tribute before a TV audience of millions.

The 'Seven Day Weekend' tour began in May with a series of low-key club shows in Europe, before Leppard finally brought their In The Round set to the UK in June for another set of Arena shows. Since then they've been crossing the US, where 'Adrenalize' has sold more than three million copies to date.

ON THROUGH THE NIGHT

With the band set to play their largest-ever UK show at Sheffield's Don Valley Stadium on June 6 (supported by Thunder, Ugly Kid Joe and Terrorvision), the 'Adrenalize' chapter still has some way to run. When it does close, another Def Leppard saga will undoubtedly begin.

"We're a bunch of mates who got a band together and it went a little bit out of control, but we remained mates. That is the most important thing," Savage concludes.
"When the band isn't working we still socialise with each other, because the band is secondary to our friendship. If anybody can draw strength from that or admire it, then we've shown people at least one positive part of life."
Paul Rees © RAW 1993.