49 Fun Facts About Def Leppard

Def Leppard formed in which English city?

Sheffield: their first EP was recorded for £148.50 borrowed from the singer's father, and his mother helped glue together the 1,000 picture sleeves.

What was the name of the schoolboy band that became Def Leppard?

Atomic Mass lasted until a new singer joined in late 1977, bringing a name he had already put on hand-drawn posters for imaginary gigs.

Who is Def Leppard's lead singer?

Joe Elliott was 18 and had just bought a guitar when, by his own account, he missed a bus and ran into guitarist Pete Willis; he tried out on guitar and was made the singer instead.

Which spelling did Def Leppard's singer first propose for the band's name?

Deaf Leopard. Drummer Tony Kenning is credited with the respelling, meant to set them apart from the punk and new-wave bands of the day, though he later said he couldn't remember suggesting it.

How did Rick Allen learn that Def Leppard needed a drummer?

Local newspaper: the item was headed "Leppard Loses Skins", and it reached him just as he was ready to give up on bands altogether.

Which BBC Radio 1 DJ's airplay of "Getcha Rocks Off" sent sales of Def Leppard's first EP soaring?

John Peel, better known for championing punk, got his copy by hand: the band's singer jumped on stage during one of his university DJ sets to deliver it.

Which band rose alongside Def Leppard in the new wave of British heavy metal around 1980?

Iron Maiden and Saxon led the scene, but Def Leppard's singer says they never jumped aboard it, they "got sucked in": their own heroes were Thin Lizzy and 70s glam rock.

What was the title of Def Leppard's 1980 debut album?

On Through the Night reached the UK Top 15, but its single "Hello America" got the band accused of selling out, and the Reading Festival crowd pelted them that summer.

Which AC/DC producer shaped Def Leppard's sound from their second album, High 'n' Dry, onwards?

Mutt Lange had just made AC/DC's Back in Black. He did more than produce: on Pyromania he co-wrote every one of the ten tracks.

Which High 'n' Dry track won Def Leppard heavy rotation on the young MTV in 1982?

Bringin' On the Heartbreak missed the US chart as a single, but months of MTV play revived a stalled album, which went on to sell about two million copies.

Why did Def Leppard fire founding guitarist Pete Willis during the Pyromania sessions?

Drinking on the job cost him his place mid-album, yet his rhythm guitar stayed on every track of Pyromania and he had co-written four of its songs.

Phil Collen joined Def Leppard from which band?

Girl was a London glam band. Collen had first been sounded out a year earlier, during the High 'n' Dry tour, then told the job wasn't open yet.

Which Def Leppard hit opens with the nonsense count-in "Gunter glieben glauten globen"?

Rock of Ages: their producer, tired of counting in with "one, two, three, four", said gibberish instead. The Offspring later sampled it to open "Pretty Fly (for a White Guy)".

A lookalike of which Hollywood star appears in Def Leppard's "Photograph" video, fuelling a myth about the song?

Marilyn Monroe: a poster of her covered a hole in the singer's wall at the time, but he says the song is about anyone you can never have, not about her.

Which album kept Def Leppard's Pyromania from the top of the US chart in 1983?

Thriller held it at No. 2. Their producer drew a lesson from it: the follow-up would be built like Michael Jackson's album, with a potential hit single in every track.

Which synth-pop star played keyboards on Def Leppard's Pyromania under the alias "Booker T. Boffin"?

Thomas Dolby was their producer's idea, after his synths had helped make Foreigner's album 4 a hit. Dolby's chords open Pyromania's first track.

Def Leppard moved to which city in 1984 as tax exiles while writing Hysteria?

Dublin: they flew there straight from the last show of the Pyromania tour, in Bangkok, and shared a rented house on the edge of the city.

Which Meat Loaf collaborator was briefly brought in to produce Def Leppard's Hysteria sessions?

Jim Steinman had written Bat Out of Hell but not produced it. Within two months the band had dropped him and scrapped every recording.

Rick Allen lost his left arm when he crashed his Corvette on which day in 1984?

New Year's Eve: a nurse who lived nearby packed the severed arm in ice and surgeons reattached it, but an infection forced its amputation days later.

Which company helped Rick Allen design the custom electronic kit he returned with?

Simmons built him a kit with electronic foot pedals, so his left foot could play the beats his left arm used to; he practised alone for weeks before showing the band.

Rick Allen's comeback was sealed with an ovation at which 1986 festival?

Monsters of Rock, at Donington: a second drummer hired as backup for the warm-up shows had proved unnecessary, and the roar that met Allen's introduction left him in tears.

Hysteria arrived two weeks after which band's debut album?

Guns N' Roses released Appetite for Destruction on 21 July 1987. Both albums were slow burners: each took about a year to reach No. 1 in the US, and they swapped the top spot in the summer of 1988.

Which single gave Def Leppard their first UK Top 10 hit, in 1987?

Animal reached No. 6 at home, yet it had been the hardest track to finish: begun in early 1984, it was rewritten again and again under two producers for well over two years.

Which power ballad became Def Leppard's only US Hot 100 number one?

Love Bites began as a country-style ballad their producer brought to the band, who rocked it up; it reached No. 1 in October 1988, more than a year after the album appeared.

Which Hysteria track was a last-minute addition, finished within two weeks?

Pour Some Sugar on Me grew from a riff the singer strummed on an acoustic guitar during a break in the sessions. It peaked at No. 2 in the US and pushed the album to No. 1 almost a year after release.

Which Hysteria track ends with sampled speeches by US president Ronald Reagan?

Gods of War: as it fades into battle noise, Reagan is heard warning terrorists that they can run but can't hide. It was among the first songs written for the album, back in 1984.

Phil Collen's side band Man Raze includes the drummer of which punk group?

Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook plays in the trio, an irony for a member of a band that respelled its name to avoid looking punk; the bassist is Collen's old bandmate Simon Laffy.

Which Def Leppard guitarist died in January 1991 from a mix of prescription drugs and alcohol?

Steve Clark, who had won his place by playing all of "Free Bird" at his audition, had been given six months' leave from the band to get well.

Def Leppard recorded which 1992 album as a four-piece?

Adrenalize: Phil Collen played all the guitars, copying his late bandmate's style on the parts meant for him, and the album entered both the UK and US charts at No. 1.

Vivian Campbell joined Def Leppard in 1992 after playing in which two bands?

Dio and Whitesnake. The band unveiled its new line-up to the world that April at Wembley Stadium, playing the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert.

Which 1992 Def Leppard single reached No. 2 in the UK?

Let's Get Rocked buoyed the album it came from, which entered the US chart at No. 1 and stayed there for five weeks.

Which acoustic ballad from Def Leppard's Retro Active also featured on the soundtrack of Last Action Hero?

Two Steps Behind began as a 1992 B-side. Asked for a new song for the Schwarzenegger film while on tour, the band sent its tapes instead, and Michael Kamen added strings.

Which ballad, newly recorded for the 1995 hits album Vault, gave Def Leppard a UK No. 2?

When Love & Hate Collide was written in 1990 but left off the next album as one ballad too many. Released five years later, it equalled their best UK chart place.

Def Leppard's 1995 feat of three continents in one day began after midnight in a cave in which African city?

Tangier: after an acoustic set in the Caves of Hercules they flew to London for a midday show, then on to Vancouver, where the time difference kept the date the same.

Which 1996 Def Leppard album marked a drastic departure, with darker lyrics and an alternative rock edge?

Slang: the band dropped their layered studio method and played together in one room, with the drummer back on largely acoustic drums. In the US, sales fell from multi-platinum to gold.

Which VH1 series revived Def Leppard's US fortunes in 1998?

Behind the Music retold the crash and the comeback to a new audience, and VH1 followed it in 2001 with a full TV movie about the band.

Which guitarist inducted Def Leppard into Hollywood's RockWalk in 2000?

Brian May, who had joined them on stage at the 1992 Freddie Mercury tribute, inducted them again in 2019, telling the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame crowd they were "a magnificent rock group".

What was the title of Def Leppard's 2006 all-covers album?

Yeah! revisits the 70s records the band grew up on, from the Kinks and ELO to the glam of Sweet, the sound their singer had wanted his band to revive from the start.

Which country star co-wrote and sang on "Nine Lives" from Def Leppard's Songs from the Sparkle Lounge?

Tim McGraw sings on the lead single of an album named after the "Sparkle Lounge", the fairy-lit backstage room where the band wrote new songs while on tour.

Def Leppard taped a 2008 CMT Crossroads show in Nashville with which singer?

Taylor Swift called it her "childhood dream come true": her mother was a fan, and she had said Def Leppard were the only band she would ever do the show with.

Def Leppard's 2013 Las Vegas residency at the Hard Rock Hotel was titled what?

Viva! Hysteria: each night they opened for themselves as a spoof cover band, Ded Flatbird, playing rarities, then returned to play the Hysteria album from start to finish.

Def Leppard's 2022 album Diamond Star Halos takes its name from a lyric by which band?

T. Rex: the title quotes Marc Bolan's 1971 hit "Get It On". The album salutes the glam rock the band grew up on, and has bluegrass star Alison Krauss singing on two songs.

Which ensemble performs on Def Leppard's 2023 reworkings album Drastic Symphonies?

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra recorded its parts at Abbey Road around vocals mostly taken from the original recordings. The album reached No. 4 in the UK, a place higher than the band's new studio album a year earlier.

The Stadium Tour, announced in 2019, paired Def Leppard with Poison, Joan Jett and which band?

Mötley Crüe had signed a "cessation of touring agreement" in 2014, swearing they would never tour again; in 2019 they blew the contract up on video to announce this tour.

As of 2025, which of these bands, like Def Leppard, has two studio albums certified Diamond in the US?

Van Halen, with their 1978 debut and 1984. Def Leppard's Pyromania passed the 10-million mark in 2004, despite never having topped the US chart.

Roughly how many records have Def Leppard sold worldwide?

About 100 million, though Britain was slow to join in: Pyromania sold six million in America in 1983 while stalling at No. 18 at home.

Which side band, playing Mott the Hoople covers, does the Def Leppard frontman lead?

Down 'n' Outz was meant to last one night: backed by members of the Quireboys, he opened for his favourite band, the re-formed Mott the Hoople, in London in 2009. Three albums followed.

Which rock star was the guest speaker when Def Leppard received their Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2025?

Jon Bon Jovi spoke at the Vine Street ceremony. It was the band's second Hollywood pavement honour: in 2000 they had pressed their hands into cement at the RockWalk on Sunset Boulevard.

Which Def Leppard bassist has been with the band since its schoolboy beginnings?

Rick Savage started the school band as a guitarist and moved to bass only months before its new singer arrived; he has played on every Def Leppard album since.