There was a TV show that talked about all the Classic Albums and Def Leppard were given one of those treatments. It was released on UK TV on May 27, 2002 and didn’t hit the States until August 27th, 2002. It had interviews from pretty much everyone involved. New interviews for the current band members and older ones for Mutt and Steve Clark. The band’s managers were interviewed as well as Ross Halfin, Jeff Rich and Rolling Stone’s David Fricke.

It kicks off with the band talking about moving to Dublin and the first song they started working on which was ‘Animal’. It took them 3 years to complete and get it right. It became the first single in the U.K. and finally gave the band their first hit in their home country.

They were in Dublin with Mutt Lange writing songs, but Mutt couldn’t commit to it as he was busy with another project. So, on to another producer. Jim Steinman was the first producer and Joe said Jim was a songwriter not necessarily a producer. The band did not agree with him ever. Jim wanted to capture the moment while the band was so used to Mutt and they wanted it to be perfect. They ended up paying Jim off for him to leave and they paid him a lot of money.

They then went to Nigel Green who was the engineer for Mutt, but he wasn’t Mutt. But around that time, Rick Allen had his tragic car crash where he lost his arm. They didn’t go in to detail of that until later in the show. This about the time Mutt finally came back in the fold and decided to produce the album. The work could seriously begin.

The next song they focus on is Hysteria and how it was created. And what was great about this section is where they talked about Steve Clark. Even Vivian was interviewed. Rick Savage made a comment that was great saying he didn’t know if Steve was a genius or a complete idiot…it was a fine line. Love that statement. The love they have for Steve is evident. They said Steve’s talent wasn’t necessarily for writing a full song, but for the cool riffs and moments he would create. They talked about his contributions to “Gods of War”. His contributions to their sound are sorely missed.

“Rocket” was the next song to be discussed and it was pieced together after they had moved from Dublin to Holland. Joe was at a sauna and there was a drum beat playing on the speakers, he took the tape, used a bit of it and then he wrote the chorus over it …off you go to another song. Thanks to a Lou Reed song “Satellite of Love”, the song turned in to a whole glam references and it is so fun.

They do break off and talk about Rick’s re-learning the drums and his new kit. He played a Led Zeppelin song and they were convinced he was ready. When they played their first live show, the vibe was so electric and when Joe introduced Rick Allen, the crowd went absolutely nuts for his return. It was so moving and exciting.

“Love Bites”, one of my favorite Leppard ballads, is a Mutt song and it was very country. When you put the Lep electric guitars on it, a new song was born. Later during a break, Joe was fooling around on the guitar and when Mutt came in and heard that, Mutt loved it and the next thing you know they had a new song for the album that they thought was finished. The record company wasn’t thrilled and want to squash it. Mutt argued back and forth and they added the song which became their biggest hit…and it was “Pour Some Sugar On Me”. Joe made a comment in the show about the lyrics of this song being a Hubcap Diamond Star Halo a line from T. Rex’s “Bang A Gong” and that Diamond Star Halo line would be the title of their latest studio album…crazy!!

The interviews of non-members talked about how the album wasn’t selling, only 3 million compared to 6 on the prior album. Then the label released “Pour Some Sugar On Me” and the sells went through the roof. The song was so big it pushed the album to over 12 million records sold double ‘Pyromania’. They needed to sell 5 million to break even and they did it.

And that was the main show. A great piece that gives you some back stories you might not have known about the album. But that wasn’t all as the DVD also had 50 minutes of Bonus Material too! The sections are extra parts of the interviews that were not shown in the main TV show and they are some killer parts like with Phil and Joe sitting at the board and talking about “Animal” and how they reminisce through bits and pieces of the song. Really cool stuff.

Rick Allen talks about sitting in the apartment talking about all the things that went wrong during recording and hit was pure hysteria…and that is where the name of the album came from (and the song as well). Throughout the bonus material we get a couple acoustic performances and first one is “Hysteria” with just Joe and Phil. Then they talk about about a set of shows they did live in small clubs so Rick could get used to playing live again before they did the Monsters of Rock show in front of thousands and thousands. They had a back up drummer in case he couldn’t do it. Jeff Rich from Status Quo was the back up. Jeff made it really late to the show and it turned out Rick was fine on his own. The band felt he was ready.

Joe comes on and talks about what the album according to him. Then Phil and Joe break down “Sugar” into the finer points of how the sound was created and parts were done. The second acoustic performance is “Pour Some Sugar On Me” with only Phil and Joe as well. The guitars, guitars, guitars bit sees Rick Savage. Rick Allen and Phil Collen talking about the guitar sounds on the album. They talked more about Gods of War and then how long it took Mutt to mix the record and it took 3 1/2 weeks on “Women” to set the stage for the overall sound of the album and it took 4 months overall to be mixed. Then the album was released.

And what an album it was. It was a critical album for me as well. I spent so much time sitting in my basement or my bedroom listening to this album. To hear all these intimate stories of the album from the band members was really cool. The TV show itself is great, but having the bonus material and total of 100 minutes of talking about this album is great. I don’t know how many times I’ll watch this, but I have seen it a couple times and enjoy it each time. My Overall Score is a 4.0 out of 5.0 Stars as I would’ve loved even more detail. Now, this is one for a diehard fan as I am not sure how much a causal fan cares about these stories, but I eat them up.

NEXT UP: DEF LEPPARD – ‘BEST OF DEF LEPPARD’ (2004)

THE DEF LEPPARD COLLECTION SERIES

1. Def Leppard E.P. – 7″ Single (1979)
2. First Strikes 1978-1979 (Bootleg CD)
3. Girl – Sheer Greed (1980)
4. On Through the Night (1980)
5. When the Walls Came Tumbling Down (April 26 1980) (2020)
6. High & Dry (1981)
7. Too Many Jitterbugs – B-Sides And Rarities (2020)
8. Raw – Early BBC Recordings (2020)
9. Girl – Wasted Youth (1982)
10. Pyromania (1983)
11. “Photograph” 7″ Single (1983)
12. “Too Late For Love” 12″ Single (1983)
13. Live at the L.A. Forum 1983 (2018)
14. Seattle, August 3, 1983 (Bootleg CD)
15. Pyromania TV Collection (Bootleg DVD)
16. Hysteria (1987)
17. “Animal” 7″ Single (1987)
18. “Women” 7″ Single (1987)
19. “Pour Some Sugar on Me” 7″ Single (1987)
20. “Hysteria” 7″ Single (1987)
21. “Armageddon It” 7″ Single (1988)
22. “Love Bites” 7″ Single (1988)
23. “Rocket” 7″ Single (1989)
24. Animal Instinct – The Def Leppard Story – Book Review (1987)
25. Rarities – Volume One (2018)
26. Live in Mountain View – August 17, 1988 (Bootleg DVD)
27. Historia – DVD (1988)
28. Live: In the Round, In Your Face (CD Video / DVD) (1989)
29. Adrenalize (1992)
30. “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad” – Cassette Single (1992)
31. “Tonight” CD Single (1993)
32. Live Sheffield 1992 (Bootleg DVD)
33. Retro Active (1993)
34. Visualize DVD (1993)
35. Hard Rock Café – Singapore, Malaysia October 26, 1995 (Bootleg DVD)
36. Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits (1980-1995) (1995)
37. “When Love & Hate Collide” – CD Promo Single (1995)
38. Video Archive (1995)
39. Slang (1996)
40. Montreal: The Classic 1996 Broadcast (Bootleg CD)
41. Live Bites: FM Broadcast (Bootleg CD)
42. Live in Argentina 1997 (Bootleg DVD)
43. Euphoria (1999)
44. Rarities – Volume Two (2019)
45. Rarities – Volume Three (2019)
46. Tokyo 1999 (Bootleg CD)
47. Cybernauts – Live (2000)
48. Cybernauts – The Further Adventures of the Cybernauts (2001)
49. X (2002)
50. Hysteria: Classic Albums DVD (2002)
51. Best of Def Leppard (2004)
52. Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection (2005)
53. Yeah! (2006)
54. Songs from the Sparkle Lounge (2008)
55. Man Raze – Surreal (2008)
56. B-Sides (2021)
57. Yeah! II (2021)
58. Yeah! Live (2021)
59. CMT Crossraods – Taylor Swift & Def Leppard (2009)
60. Down ‘N’ Outz -My ReGeneration (2010)
61. Man Raze – PunkFunkRootsRock (2011)
62. Down ‘N’ Outz -The Further Adventures of… (2014)
63. Def Leppard (2015)
64. The Lost Session (2018)
65. Personal Jesus 7″ Single (2018)
66. Down ‘N’ Outz -This is How We Roll (2019)
67. Hits Vegas: Live at Planet Hollywood – Vinyl (2020)
68. Hysteria: Live – Vinyl (2020)
69. Def Leppard Acoustic Vegas – 10″ Vinyl (2020)
70. Down ‘N’ Outz – The Music Box E.P. (2020)
71. Diamond Star Halos (2022)
72. High & Dry – Picture Disc (RSD) (2022)
73. Drastic Symphonies (2023)
74. Drastic Symphonies – Picture Disc (2023)
75. Definitely: The Official Story of Def Leppard (2023)
76. Def Leppard – ‘One Night Only: Live at The Leadmill’ (RSD) (2024)

PREVIOUSLY POSTED:

1. The Def Leppard E.P. (1979/2017)
2. Def Leppard: Interview Picture Disc (1982?)
3. “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak” – 12″ Promo Single (1984)
4. Live at the Top (Bootleg) (1987)
5. “Pour Some Sugar on Me” –  5″ Shaped Picture Disc (1987)
6. Hysteria U.S. Tour 1988 – Tour Book (1988)
7. “Make Love Like a Man” – 12″ Single (1992)
8. “Let’s Get Rocked” – 12″ Single (1992)
9. Adrenalize: The 7 Day Weekend Tour (1992/1993)
10. X: World Tour (2003)
11. Mirrorball – Live & More (2011)
12. Def Leppard: The Definitive Visual History – Book Review (2011)
13. Viva! Hysteria (2013)
14. And There Will Be A Next Time…Live from Detroit (2017)
15. Hysteria: 30th Anniversary Box Set (2017)
16. The Story So Far – The Best of (2018)
17. The Collection, Volume 1 (2018)
18. Hysteria: The Singles Box Set (2018)
19. Live at Abbey Road Studios (2018)
20. Def Leppard: Concert Review – Charlotte, NC June 9th 2018 (2018)
21. The Story So Far – The Best of Volume 2 (2019)
22. The Collection, Volume 2 (2019)
23. London to Vegas (2020)
24. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 29 March 2019 (2020)
25. The Early Years ’79-’81 (2020)
26. The Collection, Volume 3 (2021)
27. Def Leppard Funko Pop!