Def Leppard 2000 – Present
 Following their breakthrough, the band moved to Dublin in February 1984 to begin writing the follow-up to Pyromania. Mutt Lange initially joined in on the songwriting sessions, but then suddenly declined to return as producer due to exhaustion. Instead, Jim Steinman (of Meat Loaf's Bat out of Hell fame), was brought in.
On December 31, 1984, drummer Rick Allen lost his left arm in a car crash on the A57 in the hills outside Sheffield when his speeding Corvette left the road on a sharp bend and went through a drystone wall. Despite the severity of the accident, Rick was committed to continuing his role as Def Leppard's drummer. He practiced drumming with pillows, and realised that he could use his legs to do some of the drumming work previously done with his arms. He then worked with Simmons to design a custom electronic drum kit.
The other members of the band fully stood behind Rick's determination and never sought a replacement. During his recovery, Mutt Lange eventually returned to the fold as producer, and Rick's triumphant comeback was sealed at the 1986 Donington Monsters of Rock festival, with an emotionally charged ovation after his introduction by Joe Elliott.
Def Leppard's fourth album, Hysteria, was finally released on August 3, 1987. The second single from the album, Animal, reached #6 in the UK and finally turned the band into stars in their home country. Hysteria immediately topped the charts in its first week of release.
US album sales were relatively slow (compared to Pyromania) until the fourth single, Pour Some Sugar On Me. The song hit Number 2, and Hysteria finally reached the top of the US Album Charts in July 1988. In October, the power ballad Love Bites would become Def Leppard's first (and only) Number One single on the Billboard Hot 100, and in January 1989 the band scored another US Top 5 hit with Armageddon It.
Hysteria is one of only a handful of albums (and the third in rock history) that has charted seven singles or more on the US Hot 100: Women (#80), Animal (#19), Hysteria (#10), Pour Some Sugar On Me (#2), Love Bites (#1), Armageddon It (#3) and Rocket (#12). It remained on the charts for three years and has sold 18 million copies worldwide.
Equally as successful was the accompanying Hysteria world tour which ran for 15 months and saw Def Leppard perform In The Round. The concept proved wildly popular with fans, as evidenced in the videos for Pour Some Sugar On Me and Armageddon It (and was later used again for the Adrenalize tour).
In 1989 Def Leppard won Favourite Heavy Metal Artist as well as Favourite Heavy Metal Album (for Hysteria) during the American Music Awards. It was the first time that a heavy metal category was added to the awards show. (The category has since been deleted in recent years)
By the end of the decade, although Guns N' Roses, Motley Crue, and Bon Jovi garnered more mainstream exposure, Def Leppard had sold more records than any other rock band in the US
|
