Def Leppard History

Def Leppard did not start out as Def Leppard. It was actually two years before the band coined this somewhat strange and somewhat cool name. It all started in 1977; Rick Savage, Tony Kenning, and Pete Willis were all students at Tapton School in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. Together they had formed a band known as Atomic Mass. Willis was on guitar, Savage on bass, and Kenning on drums. Joe Elliot, who was only eighteen at the time, tried out for the band as a guitarist after a coincidental meeting with Willis after missing a bus in November of 1977. During his audition however, it was decided that he was better suited to be a lead singer. According to the Rolling Stone, there was one Goldminic article described them as, “the heavy metal band you can bring home to your mother.” Not long after their first gig, they adopted the name “Deaf Leopard,” which was proposed by Elliot. He came up with the name while writing imaginary reviews for rock bands while he was in his English class. True story. Kenning suggested that they alter the spelling of the name a bit so they don’t seem like a punk band. So from there on out, “Deaf Leopard” was now known as “Def Leappard.” In January 1978, Steve Clark joined the band after playing Lynard Skynard’s

Here they began working on the follow-up for Pyromania. Mutt Lange, who helped the band produce High ‘n’ Dry, passed on working with Def Leppard due to “exhaustion.” Instead, Jim Steinman who produced Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell, decided to work with the group. However, tragedy struck on December 31, 1984. Rick Allen was flying down a country street near Sheffield, England. Allen misjudged a curve, collided with, and went through a stone wall, and his car overturned at a high speed several times. Allen was ejected from his car; he survived the accident, but in the process his left arm was severed. The microsurgery that was attempted to reconnect his arm