Def Leppard
Explore the band's historical lineups, musicians, and studio albums.
Active5 formations12 studio albums
Formation chronology
Newest first
Formation 5 of 5
Apr 15, 1992 – Present
Members
- Joe ElliottLead VocalsFrom Apr 1992
- Vivian CampbellGuitarFrom Apr 1992
- Phil CollenGuitarFrom Apr 1992
- Rick SavageBassFrom Apr 1992
- Rick AllenDrumsFrom Apr 1992
Formation facts
- After Clark, they invited a handful of friends rather than holding a cattle call — among them John Sykes and, while he was between Iron Maiden chapters, Adrian Smith. Collen said both could play and sing at a frightening level. Vivian Campbell got the job because he felt like family on the first pass: harmony voice, humor, football, dinner. Campbell said most of the "audition" was questions, not shredding.
- The world thinks Vivian Campbell's Def Leppard debut was the Freddie Mercury Tribute at Wembley. His actual first night was five days earlier, 15 April 1992, at McGonagles — a small Dublin club he had played as a teenager. Joe introduced him as the new flame after one had gone out. Those five musicians — Elliott, Collen, Campbell, Savage, Allen — are still Def Leppard's permanent lineup in 2026.
- By 1996 the polished trilogy of Pyromania, Hysteria and Adrenalize was a trap. The band recorded Slang more like a group in a room, with darker lyrics and a less airbrushed sound. Joe says they joked the working title was Commercial Suicide — they knew it was not what the market wanted. He still calls it going back to ground zero so they could build again. Some close friends told him it is their best record. Others told him it is not.
- In the 2010s Def Leppard's original recordings largely vanished from legal download stores during a royalty fight with Universal. Their contract let them veto uses of the masters. Joe's solution was to re-record the hits as close as possible — he called them forgeries — starting with Pour Some Sugar on Me and Rock of Ages, and sell those instead. For a while the familiar songs online were not the 1980s tapes.
- During the pandemic Joe was texting Robert Plant about football. Plant asked what he was up to. Joe admitted, quietly, that Def Leppard were making a record. Plant said he would have to tell Alison Krauss — she was working with him, and Leppard were annoyingly her favorite band. Krauss sang on two Diamond Star Halos songs, This Guitar and Lifeless. Joe had not even told the rest of the band before he asked her to do both.
- Eligible for years and nominated once, Def Leppard won the 2019 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame fan vote with more than half a million ballots — ahead of Stevie Nicks, Todd Rundgren, the Zombies and the Cure. Brian May inducted them. The historical lineup included the current five, Steve Clark, and founding guitarist Pete Willis, who was not in the building. Joe used the speech to thank the kid he had met after missing a bus in 1977.
Studio albums
- Diamond Star Halos (May 2022)
- Def Leppard (Oct 2015)
- Songs from the Sparkle Lounge (Apr 2008)
- Yeah! (Oct 2006)
- X (Jul 2002)
- Euphoria (Jun 1999)
- Slang (May 1996)
Formation 4 of 5
Jan 9, 1991 – Apr 14, 1992
Members
- Joe ElliottLead VocalsJan 1991 – Apr 1992
- Phil CollenGuitarJan 1991 – Apr 1992
- Rick SavageBassJan 1991 – Apr 1992
- Rick AllenDrumsJan 1991 – Apr 1992
Formation facts
- By 1990 Steve Clark's drinking had become a crisis the rest of the band could not ignore. After repeated attempts at recovery they gave him a six-month leave that September. He was still a member of Def Leppard. He was not replaced. On 8 January 1991, at thirty, he died in his sleep in London. The next studio album would carry his writing. It would not carry his playing.
- After Clark died, Phil Collen did not want to continue. They had written the new songs with Steve; finishing them felt wrong. Joe Elliott told him that was exactly why they had to: the songs meant something, and the album could be a tribute. Collen stayed. The four remaining members went back into the studio.
- Clark had demoed guitar ideas for the new songs. None of those performances survived on the released Adrenalize. Collen replayed all the guitar, often several times, learning Steve's parts as Steve had played them. He sat with the tapes of a friend who was gone. "It was like playing along to a ghost."
- The last music they wrote after Clark's death included Let's Get Rocked — and White Lightning, a long, sombre track whose title was Steve's old onstage nickname. Joe has called the lyric the most personal he had written: the things they had tried to say to their friend while he was alive. Even in grief, Lange reminded them people did not want Def Leppard to make a Leonard Cohen record. The tribute sits inside a pop-rock album on purpose.
- They did not audition a replacement while the album was still open. Vivian Campbell later recalled Joe calling after they had finished Adrenalize as a four-piece and decided they would need a second guitarist for the road. Virtuosos were available. They wanted someone who could sing harmonies and live with them. The recording stayed four names.
Studio albums
- Adrenalize (Mar 1992)
Formation 3 of 5
Jul 12, 1982 – Jan 8, 1991
Members
- Joe ElliottLead VocalsJul 1982 – Jan 1991
- Steve ClarkGuitarJul 1982 – Jan 1991
- Phil CollenGuitarJul 1982 – Jan 1991
- Rick SavageBassJul 1982 – Jan 1991
- Rick AllenDrumsJul 1982 – Jan 1991
Formation facts
- On 31 December 1984 Rick Allen crashed his Corvette on the A57 near Sheffield. The seatbelt tore off his left arm. The easy industry move was to hire another drummer and keep the Pyromania machine rolling. The band refused. Allen has said family, friends, and sacks of mail convinced him to try again. The next album would wait for him.
- Losing an arm was not only a drumming problem. Allen has described having to relearn ordinary balance — even walking — before he could think about a kit. Engineers built him an electronic set that moved some of what his left hand used to do onto foot pedals. He was not pretending to be a two-armed drummer. He became a different one.
- Before they trusted a stadium, they played tiny Irish warm-ups with Status Quo's Jeff Rich on a second kit as a safety net. At one show Rich's return flight was late. Allen played most of the set alone; when Rich appeared, Joe had not even noticed the extra drummer was missing. Rich told Allen he guessed he was going home. Days later, on 16 August 1986, Allen walked out at Monsters of Rock, Castle Donington. Joe introduced him. The roar hit. Allen started crying and wondered, absurdly, whether tears on the pedals would electrocute him.
- Lange was exhausted and stepped back. Management sent Jim Steinman — the writer behind Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell — to produce the follow-up. Joe had already warned them Steinman was a songwriter, not a studio architect; Todd Rundgren had produced Bat Out of Hell. Steinman drifted in mid-afternoon after nights on Bat Out of Hell II and talked about "oily" guitar. Collen remembered him calling "it's a take" while they were still tuning. Lange's advice had been: try him, and if it fails, get rid of him. They did. Lange came back. The album became Hysteria.
- Lange's brief was not Pyromania 2. He told them to make a hard-rock Thriller: an album on which every track could be a single. Joe says Lange believed they could land seven hits. Hysteria came extraordinarily close, throwing off a parade that included Animal, Pour Some Sugar on Me, Armageddon It, Love Bites and Rocket. It is why the record feels less like a metal album with a couple of radio songs and more like a pop album played by a rock band.
- After years and a ruinous budget they had eleven songs and were finishing vocals. Lange left the control room. Joe picked up a spare acoustic and cycled three chords and a hook he had been too embarrassed to offer. Lange came back: that was the best hook he had heard in years; they were not done. Pour Some Sugar on Me was finished in days — the fastest thing on a three-year album. Joe has called it maybe the most important song of their career. Without it, Hysteria was already fading in America.
- Love Bites is Def Leppard's only Billboard Hot 100 No. 1. It was built in pieces, over years, in different studios, with stacked vocals nobody had tried to sing while playing. On the official site, Phil Collen says they had never played it together in the same room when it reached No. 1 in 1988. On tour they rented a rehearsal room in Vancouver for two days. Collen had to learn the chorus and the guitar at once. "That particular song caught us with our trousers down."
- Those bright, chiming guitar figures all over Hysteria — including the idea that became the title track — are widely assumed to be Clark or Collen. Rick Savage later said he played about 80 percent of those clean jangle parts. He could not shred like the others, he said, but he could play with a certain feel. The bass player quietly built the album's sparkle.
Studio albums
- Hysteria (Aug 1987)
Formation 2 of 5
Jul 12, 1982 – Jan 20, 1983
Members
- Joe ElliottLead VocalsJul 1982 – Jan 1983
- Steve ClarkGuitarJul 1982 – Jan 1983
- Pete WillisRhythm GuitarJul 1982 – Jan 1983
- Phil CollenGuitarJul 1982 – Jan 1983
- Rick SavageBassJul 1982 – Jan 1983
- Rick AllenDrumsJul 1982 – Jan 1983
Formation facts
- While recording Pyromania, founding guitarist Pete Willis was drinking more than he could hide. After a Stagefright session collapsed, Joe Elliott drew the job of telling him it was over. Willis asked to hear it in person. On Sunday 11 July 1982 — the day of the World Cup final, which bassist Rick Savage missed on television — they met at manager Peter Mensch's house in London. Willis left that afternoon. The parts he had already played stayed on the tape.
- Phil Collen had already said no to Def Leppard once. After Willis was gone, Joe called again. Collen thought he was just helping with a few solos. Producer Mutt Lange handed him a cassette of Stagefright. Collen plugged an Ibanez Destroyer into a Marshall, and the first take became the record — the only first-take solo on the album. The rest of the band were in the kitchen drinking tea so they would not hover. Lange ran out and played it back. Collen was in.
- A casual listener might assume the new guitarist simply replaced the old one on Pyromania. The finished record is stranger and fairer. Pete Willis had already laid down the disciplined rhythm guitar on every song. Collen added the flash — the solos and leftover leads, including Photograph and Rock of Ages. He later joked that he got all the fun stuff and none of the heavy lifting. Both names belong on the sleeve.
- Halfway through Pyromania, Lange brought in Thomas Dolby — the English musician behind She Blinded Me With Science — to add keyboard parts that could sparkle like extra guitars, including the verse bed of Rock of Ages. Dolby did not want his real name on a hard-rock album. The credit reads Booker T. Boffin. Joe later told everyone anyway.
- They had a huge backing track and no chorus. A church choir had used the studio and left a hymn book open at Rock of Ages. Joe started singing the title over the riff; Lange spun around and said that was the chorus. The famous opening — Gunter glieben glauten globen — is not German. Lange was bored of counting one-two-three-four on a song with no guitars in the verse, so he shouted nonsense instead. They kept it on the mix. Rick Allen still has to say it live.
- Pyromania turned a Sheffield hard-rock band into an American pop event. Joe Elliott has recalled a stretch when it was moving on the order of 100,000 copies a day in the United States. It still peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in the shadow of Michael Jackson's Thriller. Joe later said they even outsold Thriller for a week — the week the Flashdance soundtrack jumped to No. 1 and parked Leppard at two with Jackson at three.
Studio albums
- Pyromania (Jan 1983)
Formation 1 of 5
Nov 28, 1978 – Jul 11, 1982
Members
- Joe ElliottLead VocalsNov 1978 – Jul 1982
- Steve ClarkGuitarNov 1978 – Jul 1982
- Pete WillisGuitarNov 1978 – Jul 1982
- Rick SavageBassNov 1978 – Jul 1982
- Rick AllenDrumsNov 1978 – Jul 1982
Formation facts
- In art class in 1975, two years before there was a group, Sheffield teenager Joe Elliott drew rock posters for imaginary names. One of them was Deaf Leopard. When he joined Pete Willis, Rick Savage and drummer Tony Kenning, he brought the name with him. Kenning later said he suggested Def Leppard because the spelling looked better on a logo.
- They still needed a second guitarist. Steve Clark, who had already skipped one invitation, walked into their rehearsal room in an old Sheffield spoon factory and suggested Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird. He played the whole song, including the long closing solo, without backup. By the end they were five.
- A week before their first studio date they fired original drummer Tony Kenning for missing rehearsals, then borrowed Frank Noon from another local band for one weekend. Joe talked his father out of the last £150 in the family account. Officially, two days at Fairview in Hull cost £148.50. With the £1.50 change they bought fish and chips and ate them on the Humber Bridge listening to their own cassette. Joe still had to borrow more money to press a thousand copies, and he and his mum glued the sleeves by hand. They put it out on Bludgeon Riffola — a nickname stolen from a review that had mocked their music as canned Italian food.
- Rick Allen was fifteen when he joined. Because he was underage, Phonogram's first contract could not be signed at an office. The Def Leppard Vault still holds the Sounds clipping: the band met at Rick's home so his father could sign on his behalf. Official histories date the deal 5 August 1979 — the day after some of them had watched Led Zeppelin at Knebworth.
- Opening for AC/DC on the 1979 Highway to Hell tour was their first real circuit. They watched the headliners like hawks — Joe later said AC/DC taught them that repeating a great set is a career, not a cop-out. Offstage they were broke. One hotel night they were sharing a single pint with four straws when Bon Scott dropped a ten-pound note on the table: buy yourselves a round. Joe never got to pay him back.
Studio albums
- High 'n' Dry (Jul 1981)
- On Through the Night (Mar 1980)