MrZerr0's Def Leppard Memories: 1979 on

"Deaf Leopold"
Dr. Rox Remember When?
Article #174 August 2025
By: RLSchwinden aka MrZerr0

So when I was in High School at West in in Sioux City, my good buddy Jerry "Leopard" Johnson brought this album to me and said "You gotta listen to this, it's a bunch of kids from England and they rock" they were in fact Def Leppard. he handed me their 1st album "On Though The Night" released in March 198, admittedly, I was not impressed, I thought it as average at best, the stand out tracks to me were; "Wasted" "Answer To The Master" "Rock Brigade" I did find it interesting the band used Hamer Guitars, as so many at the time used Gibson or Fender. Def Leppard opened for AC/DC on 10 Sep 1980 in Lincoln, NE. It would seem several of my friends attended Jerry, Brett R. Brent H. because all 3 of these guys were raving on and on about Def Leppard.

The following year my one time musical partners Eric DeW. and Brett R. enlightened me to Def Leppard's new release "High And Dry" released in July 1981, now I was out of school by this time but a lot of my friends were still in school. Now this was a revelation to me, as I thought and still do think "High And Dry" is what I like to call a nearly perfect album, one in which I, myself loves nearly every song from start to finish. Stand out tracks to me: "Let It Go" "No No No" "Mirror, Mirror". Now I was clearly drawn to Pete Willis' song writing and playing way over Clark's, to me Pete Willis seemed to be the soul of the band, this time round I couldn't help but notice all the members had curly hair, I remember thinking what are the odds of all members having the same type of hair, it wasn't until much later I learned it was Joe Elliott's idea for all members of the band to get perms to look like his hero Marc Bolan (NOT Tommy Bolin) of T-Rex, which I also heard Willis was not found of and felt they should focus more on the music and less on the look.

Well, 2 and half long years later, their 3rd release "Pyromania" comes out. Hummmm..... well Pete Willis is gone, Phil Collen of "Girl" (1979-82) is now on 2nd Guitar, and a whole new sound, not necessarily bad, just totally different. However the 1st single off of the album "Photograph" well, I just hated it from the first time I heard it. The stand out tracks to me "Rock Rock Til You Drop" "Rock Of Ages" "Foolin" "Billy's Got A Gun" "Die HArd The Hunter". Now we are firmly in the age of MTV, and it seemed like MTV only played about 100 videos and so you could not tune in and not see Def Leppard. Well this was just too much for me. I was growing tired of Def Leppard. Then 31 Dec 1984 Rick Allen lost his arm in a car crash. My buddy Eric DeW. secured a copy of "The Def Leppard E.P." I loved the songs "Ride Into The Sun" and "Overture"

I read a few articles back then, 2 excerpts that stood out to me:
Clark said of Willis "We met in drafting school we both played guitar, but I was self taught and he knew the rules"

Tony Iommi said of the guitar players in Def Leppard "I was talking to Steve Clark and he stated "If you want to learn how to play like your guitar hero, then go back and study his influences" and this made a world of sense to me"

Then almost 5 years later, completely unheard of for an artist at the time, finally a new album "Hysteria" is released in Aug 1987. At this time in the music biz, Cassette is the chosen format having 8-% of the buying public and only 1 month later the Music Industry makes the decision to END Vinyl in lieu of CD, which at this time is only about 17% of music sales. The 1st 2 singles they released had NO effect on me, finally the 3rd single "Hysteria" I thought was pretty good, but it was "Pour Some Sugar On Me" that really grabbed me (at the time) I thought this is the biggest hit on this LP. Little did I know I would have to hear it 10 billion more times after this, on an almost daily basis. The only other stand out track to me was "Love Bites"

Again almost 5 long years later, the band release a new album "Adrenalize" in March 1992. The only song that really caught my attention was "Tonight" otherwise this release slipped right past me. By now I have almost no interest in this band, however it is on this tour, it is the 1st chance I get to see this band live, so I go. I have seen the band many times, here are the concerts I can remember for sure attending.

15 Dec 1992 Des Moines, Iowa @ Veterans Auditorium.
12 Aug 1999 Des Moines, Iowa State Fair
27 July 2002 Mall Of America, Bloomington
3 Sep 2007 Mn State Fair
17 Aug 2014 Target Ctr
G3: with Phil Collen 24 Feb 2018 MPLS State

I met Def Leppard in July 2022, I would say the nicest ones in the band were Allen and Savage. Collen seemed a little aloof. Campbell was the most talkative. And Elliot ... hummm.

Now one really cool thing I loved about Def Leppard was the fact that the "B-Side" to most of their Cassingles (Cassette Single) were Non-LP, so we, the fans got more songs from those albums we loved. I would say almost 20 Non-LP songs in total, that's another 2 albums worth of songs, stand out for me are: "Ride Into The Sun '87" "Only After Dark" several were released on "Retro Active" in Oct 1993, albeit, all of the songs on this release have been altered from the original recordings.

The band did release about 8 other titles later on, but I grew tired of them I did like their cover of "Waterloo Sunset" and how they changed the lyrics to "20th Century Boy" besides a 2009 Release of a Sep 1983 Concert, I was pretty much done with Def Leppard. But it's like I tell my long time friend Aggie S. Def Lep Fan Extraordinaire; "If you love Def Leppard, then do so, who cares what anyone else thinks"

The Def Leppard: PsychoGello Show 2025:
"Ride Into The Sun" Jan 1979
"Answer To The Master" Mar 1980
"No No No" July 1981
"Me And My Wine" Nov 1981
"Love Bites" Aug 1987
"Tonight" Mar 1992
"Only After Dark" Oct 1993

You can hear Mr. Zero's PsychoGello Show 8am Sundays on Radi0 WDGY. AM740, Streaming, FM: 92.1, 103.7, 107.1. Since 2017. Releasing 320 Episodes. Hear back Episodes at www.MrZeroS.Com -Podcast.
You can hear Mr. Zero's "Evolation Show" for 32 Programs and Rick Burnette's "Hits And History" with Guest MrZerr0 for 17 Programs at www.MixCloud.Com.

Check back next month ... MrZerr0

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