How Def Leppard OVERCAME The Odds & Persevered To Finish An 80s Rock Masterpiece | Professor of Rock

The unbelievable story of the 1987 blockbuster Hysteria by Def Leppard. How Joe Elliot, Steve Clark, Rick Savage, Rick Allen and Phil Collen created an album for the ages with Mutt Lange and the battle to finish a classic. With commentary by Joel Elliot

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No serenade, no fire brigade, just pyromania... The album that made Def Leppard a household name in
1983- selling over 10 million copies in America alone. Pyromania was the biggest selling album by a hard rock band in ’83, and fans couldn’t wait to hear what the band would come with next. Def Leppard was positioned to have even greater success for their 4th studio album, but they would have to battle through multiple setbacks, over a 3 year odyssey, that not only threatened the making of the follow up to Pyromania, but the very survival of the band.

The first complication the band had to deal with was losing their producer.They were eager to collaborate again with Pyromania producer Mutt Lange, but Mutt dropped out of the project after the pre-production sessions. Mutt was physically & mentally exhausted from working non-stop for years. The late Jim Steinman was brought in to replace Mutt. Steinman was most renowned for writing and arranging with Meat Loaf on the blockbuster album Bat Out of Hell.

Only Things didn’t click between Steinmen & Def Leppard. Steinman’s plan was to give the 4th album a ‘raw sound,’ but the band wanted a BIG, pristine production that had massive crossover potential. Like a Rock and roll version on Thriller.
After sacking Steinman, the band tried to self-produce the album with Mutt’s engineer Nigel Green, but the early sessions were futile, and the recording sessions were completely scrapped.
The next setback for Def Leppard was horrendous:

On New Year’s Eve, 1984, Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen, whose bandmates affectionately hailed as the “Thundergod", was driving at a high speed down a country road in Sheffield, England, when he lost control of his Corvette on a sharp left curve.
The Stingray whipped around a sharp corner, and hit a brick wall, taking a lot of the bricks with it as the car skidded along the wall, flipped over, and finally landed on its roof.

Rick’s fiancé, Miriam Barendsen, was trapped in the passenger seat, and had to be cut free from the wreckage. She was badly bruised, and suffered from head injuries, but she was lucky it wasn’t much worse.Rick was thrown from the vehicle out of the sunroof- landing in a field on the other side of the brick wall.
His left arm had been ripped off at the shoulder. The specialists were able to reattach his arm, and for brief time, Rick’s condition looked hopeful, but the reattached arm became infected, and they had to amputate. Needless to say, the band was devastated by what had happened to their brother, and their top priority was helping him to recover.