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Behind the Music
A VH1 Special
premiere date: June 21, 1998

Start of Third Segment

(bridge to "Miss You In A Heartbeat")

Nar: In 1984, Def Leppard's bad luck had taken a brutal twist with the near-fatal car crash of their drummer, Rick Allen. But Rick refused to accept the idea that his terrible injury would end his musical career. He resolved to play the drums again.

Phil: Me an' Steve seen him in [the] hospital, and he was all done up like a mummy, you know, it was like, you know ... blood seeping out ... and just lying in the bed, and he said, "I've been practicing, I'm gonna play drums." And we were like, I mean, it was almost the first thing he said, and we thought *ffffft* MEDICATION! (laughs)

(upbeat guitar tune plays)

Rick: Things were EXCITIN' again, things were really ... I've got, you know ... I've got a GOAL, I've got a GOAL in life, you know ... I've got something to work TOWARDS.

Kath: Richard said that life was TOO easy, he was doing exactly what he wanted, he was traveling the world, and this was the kick up the backside that he needed. And I said, "Richard, it did not need to be such a HARD kick!" (laughs)

(intro guitar riffs to "Gods of War" plays)

Nar: In a show of loyalty, the band hesitated to replace Rick Allen; they decided, instead, to remain on hiatus until Rick might return.

Joe: There's no WAY he's gonna get fired, I mean, he's like a BROTHER, he's ... he's part of the family. It's up to HIM to tell us that he can't play it. So we played the coward role.

(intro to "Where Does Love Go When It Dies")

Nar: With Rick in the hospital, Def Leppard returned to the studio to continue work on the Hysteria album. Then, just six weeks after his accident, Rick rejoined the group, determined to keep the beat with one arm.

Joe: It was very emotional when he came back. There were a lot of tears and ... what-have-you, but um ... we locked him away in a room with a drum kit!

Malvin Mortimer: There was the bass drum, an-and the snare drum, and the high hat and ... and a stool and he sat there working away for almost 15 minutes, and then he almost collapsed.

Rick: It was almost like I was running on pure adrenaline, (drum solo by Rick throughout) I was just hell-bent on getting back in there ... and making the band happy.

Nar: While the band continued to labor in the studio, Rick spent eight hours a day mastering a custom built electronic drum kit that allowed him to play left-handed beats with his left foot.

Rick: It was just, eh, starting back, eh ... back at the basics again, and realizing that the information was in my head, it just needed to be channeled somewhere else. Although I couldn't get it out HERE (gestures to his left shoulder) you know, I could ... I could get it to other parts of my body.

(intro to "Where Does Love Go When It Dies")

Nar: Then in the midst of Rick's heroic comeback, the band was invited to perform in the Monsters of Rock tour, a series of European dates that featured Ozzy Osbourne and Bon Jovi. It was to be Rick Allen's one-armed return to the concert stage.

Rick: You know, a few people had said, "Oh, you know, you're not gonna let the freak show get up on stage?" or whatever, and, it was like (laughs dryly) that kinda hurt.

Sav: The big test was actually going out and doing it live.

(shows Rick practicing with his custom made drum-kit)

Nar: In preparation, the band planned a series of small club dates in Ireland. At Rick Allen's suggestion, drummer Jeff Rich was brought in to back him up. But traveling to the third date, Jeff Rich's flight was delayed and he missed the start of the show. And Rick Allen had to go it alone. He didn't skip a beat.

Joe: About 45 minutes into the gig, a very sheepish Jeff Rich turns up and sneaks onto his kit and joins in. Didn't even notice. And that's ... that's the highest compliment I can pay Rick for THAT.

Rick: After the gig Jeff came...came up to me and he just said, "Well, it's been nice knowing ya, I think you can do this on your own."

(intro riffs of "Animal" play)

Nar: On August 16, 1986, at the Monsters of Rock festival, Rick Allen made his first arena concert appearance since his accident. When Rick was introduced, the crowd exploded.

(sounds of crowd cheering)

Joe: I SWEAR, it was a like a hair dryer, I mean they nearly ... they VOLUME nearly blew you off stage! It was FRIGHTENING the reaction that the guy got.

Sav: You're talking 70,000 people. It was EXTREMELY emotional.

Rick: Tears everywhere up there, and I've never seen anything like it, and I've never FELT anything like that before. It was like I'd arrived, you know? It was brilliant. It was a really good feeling.

(guitar plays throughout)

Nar: It was one of the greatest come backs in rock history. From that day, Rick Allen became known as the "Thundergod."

Phil: It DID make us a lot stronger, and ... and ... and think about things in a different way, it's like, if he can do THIS after losing a limb, then how DARE we moan about "oh we can't get the bridge right on this song," or "I just missed the flight to Paris," or, you know, how dare we do that!

(Intro to the Vault version of "Pour Some Sugar On Me" playing throughout)

Nar: After a three year tragedy-plagued recording ordeal that left the band deeply in debt, Hysteria, the band's fourth album, was finally released in August of 1987. But by then, many fans had forgotten about Def Leppard. They had been out of the limelight for far too long. The first single flopped; early tour dates were played to half-empty houses. Deeply in debt, the band needed to sell at least 5 million albums JUST to break even.

Phil: ... and we stalled at three [million albums]. And it was like, "Oh .... Okay." Which is still great, but, not good enough unfortunately (laughs)

Joe: ... and then they released "Pour Some Sugar On Me," and then it just went ballistic; it went absolutely ballistic, it shifted four million albums in three months. It had gone in at number one in England, we'd FINALLY achieved success in our ... in our home country, for the first time, ten years after we'd formed ...

Phil: ... So there we are back on tour, we come back to the States, 'cause we was in Europe, ummmm, and everywhere it's sold out!

(chorus to "Pour Some Sugar On Me" with video clips)

Nar: What had first looked like disaster turned to triumph as Hysteria spawned seven hit singles, sold 10 MILLION copies in the United States and nearly 15 million worldwide. Def Leppard headlined an unforgettable 13 month world tour performed in the round. Performing in the round presented new challenges for the band, but the boys dealt with the situation in their own wild way.

Mick: When you're running around, cov-trying to cover four sides of a stage, there comes a moment when you NEED a break! And so they manufactured this moment in the show where by - the guitar players would all go underneath the stage, and Joe and Rick would be left on the stage.

Joe: I'm going around the whole crowd, doing this whole win-winding 'em up and getting 'em going.

("Rock Of Ages" from In The Round: In Your Face home video)

Mick: While this is going on, underneath the stage, where Rick Savage, and Phil, and Steve Clark are, and all the roadies, and any other "guests" that happened to be around, would be in there with a whole load of women.

Ross: It would like Sodom and Gomorra going on for twenty minutes.

Mick: Their passport into - under the stage area was they had to take their tops off and get their tits out. That was the bargain.

Ross: There's be sixty naked girls! And I mean with nothing on them ... you know, completely .... Mothers and daughters, performing sexual acts. I mean it was just ... full .... it was like - it was like Caligua.

Mick: Satirical. That's what it was. Fillini's Satirical almost. These weird little sex scenes going on. Some nights got a little crazier than others. And I photographed all this. Inevitably, Rick Allen and Joe Elliott come out of it really squeaky clean 'cause they were never below the stage! But the others were .... and so was I!

("Tear It Down" performance at the MTV Music Awards)

Nar: In October 1988, after fifteen months on the road, Def Leppard concluded the Hysteria tour in Seattle. It was to be Steve Clark's last show with the band.

Joe: I think it really hit Steve hard that this is getting harder, every album we do is getting bigger and bigger, how the HELL do we top this one? And I think that started to get to him.

("Jimmy's Theme" plays)

Mick: Countless nights I sat with Steve Clark, while he was chopping out coke. As he was doing it, he would be going, "Don't tell the others. Don't tell the others."

Lor: He didn't ever want the band learn about it, and the band didn't want to learn about it, because then they would have to look at their own .... addictions.

("Blood Runs Cold" plays)

Joe: Before the first show of the Hysteria tour, he was so desperately trying to break his fingers so he wouldn't have to go on stage the next night. He was slamming them against the model sink in his bathroom. He was just scared to death to go on stage. He was okay after the first gig, it was the FIRST one.

Nar: Then in late 1989, Steve Clark was found lying comatose in a gutter.

Joe: Steve was found in a coma in Minneapolis. Apparently ... the alcohol in his blood was double what killed John Bonham. Now, I mean, that's astonishing.

("Can't Cry Anymore" plays throughout)

Nar: Coming up next, Steve Clark is admitted into a psychiatric hospital ....

Joe: I mean, this was "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest." There is one of my best friends in with the lamp post scratchers, the ones that talk to trees ....

Nar: .... and Rick Allen is arrested for attacking his wife ....

Stacey: What happened had nothing to do with me. That I can tell you. It had to do with alcohol and a temper.

Nar: ... when Behind the Music continues.

End of Third Segment

Start of Fourth Segment

(intro to "When Does Love Go Where It Dies")

Steve: (in 1989 interview) ... uh ... Next ten years? Well who knows what's in store after the last ten years ... car accidents and things .... um ... well I hope we're still together. It'd be a shame if we weren't. I don't think we'll probably do um another 15 month tour but we'll still be making albums.

("Can't Cry Anymore" plays)

Nar: Desperately ill from years of alcohol abuse, Steve Clark was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Minneapolis.

Joe: There is one of my best friends in with the lamp post scratchers, the ones that talk to trees. I mean, it's .... why?! Why is he in here?

Phil: It's very hard to convince everyone that there was a real problem there, you know. His girlfriend at the time, Lorelei, had been telling me for like five years.

Lor: He had a chemical imbalance. It ... and it was painful. Like I said, he had voices. And, you know, the compulsive behavior disorder. He was scared. And he was really lonely.

Mick: Steve Clark was undoubtedly was the unhappiest millionaire, rock star, I ever met in my life.

Steve: (same '89 interview) You can't sell 12 million records and not earn any money. But it can create very weird situations with, um, friends and people you used to know.

Phil: Everyone thinks, "They have a drinking problem, they go to Betty Ford, they come out, they're cured!!" You know? It's not like that.

Rick: I think a lot of his frustration came from the fact that he never got a pat on the back from his dad.

Lor: He loved his father. But he was scared to death of him. Because his father also had that mean streak where one minute, he'd be happy and laughing and the next minute he wouldn't be a very nice guy.

Ross: His dad used to like getting drunk. And it was like, "C'mon son, let's go and have a drink." Even this is after Clark's been in the clinic for three months. He never realized that Clark couldn't have three drinks, he had to drink ten. I think his family helped him. I think the fact is that Clark didn't give a shit. He went to rehab because everybody made him.

("Blood Runs Cold" plays)

Lor: He was home for maybe ten days. He had to go back to work in Dublin, you know The World Pub, and write again for the next album. So, off he was, back with the band, drinking again.

(intro acoustic riffs to "Tonight" play)

Nar: In Dublin, the sessions for the band's fifth album, Adrenalize, were constantly interrupted by repeated attempts to help Steve.

Joe: I mean we basically made Malvin, our tour manager, live with him. To keep an eye on him. Which musta-um, must've been a god-awful task for Malvin, because it was impossible.

Mal: You know, I'd stand there and tell him, "Steve, I love you, please don't do this. Please don't do this. 'Cause you're hurting - you know, you can hurt me as much as you like, but you're hurting yourself big time and full time."

Joe: He went into rehab, um, in Dublin and for one month, they needed [a] family member to be there and once a week I went in and basically just tried to make him feel bad. And he'd just sit there in his boiler suit, picking his nails, not even hearing a word I was saying. And then at the end of it he'd say, "Thanks for coming." And he'd be in there for a month, and then the day he checks out, he goes straight to the pub, gets blind drunk, and falls down.

(intro to "When Does Love Go Where It Dies")

Nar: Painfully aware that their efforts to help Steve help himself was futile, the band attempted one last desperate tactic.

Joe: So we gave him a six month leave of absence. Why don't you just go back to your house - he'd bought this house in Chelsea in London - why don't you go back to your house, chill out, write songs, demo them, do whatever you like, you know, get up at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, but GET WELL.

Sav: He was relieved and happy to be given the chance and the space and it was a-a little bit of a relief, I have to admit, on our point of view-from our point of view as well.

Joe: And uh of course, the six months never-never elapsed.

Lor: There was a point in there where I called his parents and I said you nee-need to help him.

Barry Clark: He came home for Christmas ah 1990, we could see that he was really looking uh worse for wear. I had words with him, if he carried on drinking like this he'd kill hisself. And uh, he said, "Well, I'm not bothered anyway." Just like that. And I uh I said, "Well, nobody's ever come back from dead to say what it wa' really like." (laughs)

("Can't Cry Anymore" plays)

Lor: And by now, he was mixing valiums, prozacs, alcohol, coke, whatever anybody would give him. And his heart was just, you know, beating (beats her chest) trying so hard to stay alive. But really he was really slowly trying to kill himself. And when you combine all that pain, with the uh prozac, and the alcohol, and the cocaine, and the valium, and the stress, I think his little heart just gave out and I think he died of a broken heart.

Nar: Steve Clark died in his sleep at his home in London on January 8, 1991. He was thirty years old. An autopsy ruled his death due to compression of the brain stem, for excessive alcohol mixed with anti-depressants and pain killers.

Mal: I really miss him .... everytime the show starts. I go home to Sheffield, um at least once a year, usually at Christmas time, I go up to his grave and I sit up there for a little while with him. It's freezing cold, you know, (laughs) it's on the side of a hill, the wind whipping through. I just huddle down. I just stay there for maybe two or three minutes. I'm not that spiritually inclined, but I do it for him.

Phil: I think my initial was thing was like, "Don't do this no more. It's not the same."

Rick: Why are we doing this anyway? It's kinda supposed to be fun, right?

Sav: It didn't take us long to actually understand that Steve wouldn't've wanted us to do that, at all. He'd've said, "Carry on."

(intro riffs to "White Lightning" plays)

Nar: Living with the ghost of Steve Clark, the band returned to the studio to complete Adrenalize.

Joe: We wanted to finish the album off as a four piece, just out of human respect to Steve and his family.

Phil: We'd worked out with his guitar parts out, so I had to play HIS parts like HIM. I had to sit down .... and-and that was really strange ... it was like ... a ghost, you know .... it was like, there he is.

Pete Woodruffe: It's very real. Studios and music aren't escapism. And-and real life intrudes enormously when people in the band die.

Phil: The idea of getting someone else was-was weird. It was a replacement. It's like, how do you replace ... you don't replace a family member. You know, and you can't. We talked about it for ages and we ended up getting Vivian.

Sav: We'd known Viv for a while, we knew him as a person, that was SO important.

Vivian Campbell: It has a lot to do with being able to work with people than necessarily being, you know, an Olympian athlete at your instrument, you know.

Joe: You know, he might not look like Steve, he might not play like Steve, but uh it fits-fits in perfectly.

Rick: He couldn't sing, couldn't play guitar ... but great soccer player, let's put him in the band, you know.

(insert break where "I Wanna Touch You" plays throughout along with clips of the video)

Nar: Vivian Campbell made his major concert debut (clips from Concert of Life) when Def Leppard joined Brian May and the members of Queen for the Freddie Mercury Concert Of Life at Wembly Stadium.

Brian May: I was just blown out of my seat. You know, I had no idea the impact that they were going to make. I have never seen the place sorta rise as one man to its feet. It was incredible! Joe has all the answers. (laughs) He said to me, he said, "Brian -" this was a long time ago - he said, "I figure you can be a rock 'n' roll star as long as you keep your hair and you don't get fat, right?"

(live performance of "Let's Get Rocked" at Don Valley Stadium, 1993, plays throughout)

Nar: Greeted by the usual mix of critical disdain and public delight, the band's fifth album, Adrenalize, debuted at number one in the spring of 1992. The following tour carried none of the baggage of the touring past. They were a lean, mean, rocking machine. In mid-1993, they were given a hero's welcome in their hometown of Sheffield, and staged a standing-room-only performance at Don Valley Stadium. But for Def Leppard every successful high was undercut by a staggering low. (intro to "Pearl Of Euphoria" begins) On July 5, 1995, Rick Allen was arrested on charges of spousal abuse at Los Angeles Airport, after grabbing his wife Stacey by the throat, dragging her into a restroom, and slamming her head against a wall.

Rick: It was one of those times when um I just completely lost my mind.

Stacey: What happened had nothing to do with me. ("Can't Cry Anymore" begins to play) That I can tell you. It had to do with alcohol and a temper. And they just don't go together.

Rick: My own addictions were, um, were also starting to um come to the surface and uh show themselves in ways that I-that I never dreamt possible.

Stacey: I did what was right. Richard ... got arrested.

Rick: She called the police right there and then. And I, you know, I was locked up for uh part of that night.

Stacey: And ... he had to go into rehab. I mean, there was no way that I could let our relationship continue.

Rick: I-I gave myself over to the fact that um I was probably gonna spend the rest of my days, you know, er locked up. I-I just have the most amazing sort of uh feelings of-of respect for-for Stacey, having allowed me to ... to work through my problems and her not sort of just turning her back on, you know, on the entire, sort of, relationship.

Stacey: TWO people have to want the same goal. One person can't make it work. And we have a child now, we have new focuses. And we need to continually try to make our lives work for us, and our family.

(clip of "When Love & Hate Collide," the very end where Joe sings "Without you/Can't stop the hurt inside/When love and hate collide.")

("Pearl Of Euphoria" plays throughout)

Nar: Coming up next: an older, wiser Def Leppard reveal the key to longevity ....

Sav: The one thing you never lose sight of is the original fire that you had when you were sixteen, the only difference is it's just another decade (chuckles) ... or two .... (chuckles again)

Nar: .... when Behind The Music continues.

End of Fourth Segment

Start of Fifth Segment

(clips of the "Work It Out" video play)

Nar: In 1995, Def Leppard began work on a new album entitled Slang. It was to be a dynamic departure from their previous successes. It had come time for the band to reinvent itself.

Pete: Nirvana stormed out in 1991 with a completely new thing and it made everyone sit up and think.

Joe: These bands were coming out, and they were fighting the sound of bands like us. We were Beelzebub to them. We were the enemy.

Pete: But it is ironic when you turn on the radio and you hear an arco band like Chumbawumba with a chorus that says, "I get knocked down!" There's a Leppard influence, I think.

Joe: The whole album was interrupted by um the greatest hits record, which was thrown into our lap as an idea .... half-way through making the Slang record.

Nar: On October 23, 1995, as a promotional stunt to trumpet the release of their greatest hits compilation, Vault, Def Leppard performed three concerts on three continents within the same day: Africa, Great Britain, and Canada.

Joe: We all do silly things sometimes, and there's no greater way than publicizing your greatest hits than doing something outrageous. But, um, I think I'd rather bun-bungie jump next time.

Phil: We got into the Guinness Book of Records. And it was .... it was fun. And we'll probably try and do it again one day and try and figure out four.

("Slang" plays, along with clips from the video)

Nar: Having out-lasted the great majority of their '80s hard rock contemporaries, Def Leppard released Slang world wide in early 1996. The album marked a new, more experimental musical approach.

Joe: Bands like REM an-and U2 are very good and are allowed to do a complete 360 everytime they put an album out. We wanted to see if, wanted to test the water, to see if people would allow us to move on.

Ross: And I actually enjoyed the tour ... because we weren't drinking, we weren't drug taking. It was actually, it's the Slang tour. And we had really ... It was FUN. It was like actually doing America and enjoying it.

Sav: It's almost like coming full-circle. The one thing you never lose sight of is the original fire that you had when you were sixteen, the only difference is it's just another decade (chuckles) ... or two .... (chuckles again)

(riffs to "Work It Out" play)

Nar: In spite of all the trauma and tragedy, Def Leppard is literally a band that does not know when to quit. To this day, talent, determination, and stamina remain their tools for survival.

Phil: We're about a team, we're about a family really. You know, we've-we've grown up together. We've experienced, you know, from ... having nothing to experiencing really high highs together. And actually turning into men, basically, from boys.

Viv: The band has gone through that whole ... crisis period and we have a much more uh cohesive vision as to what sort of a record we should make. That makes it easier for us all to see light at the end of the tunnel.

Joe: At this stage of our career, we have to look at people like the Stones and Aerosmith and go, "Look, these guys are in their fifties, you know. We're still only in our thirties!"

Sav: We HAVE over-come a lot of things, we definitely have. And you could look at as-and say that, you know, now we're battling against time. It-it is quite easy sometimes actually to take the opposite view and actually think that time can be our friend.

(bridge riffs to "Two Steps Behind" plays)

Nar: And for Rick Allen, a new life means a new start.

Rick: It's definitely a new start. Now I have Lauren. I really realize that whatever goes on outside-outside of our home really, you know, doesn't matter. I don't really wear a watch anymore it's like - well (gestures to missing left arm) I lost the other one - but I don't wear a watch on this-on this wrist anymore simply because .... you know, I really don't want to live by the time.

Stacey: He turned me onto scuba diving. We race cars together, he plays tennis, he water skis with me ... there's nothing he won't do. Nothing.

Rick: I have to keep working. I have to keep myself busy. Otherwise, you know.... I hear voices. (laughs and shrugs) You know, and they tell me to do the wrong things. (laughs again)

Joe: It's a bit silly if people think there's, you know, the curse of Def Leppard, or something like that, and then expect lightning and thunder to go off as I say those words. Think about it logically: you've got five people, for the last eighteen years, pretty much lived in and out of each other's pockets. We've had one guy die, and a guy have a ..... a VERY serious accident. And there's been a hell of a lot more good times then bad times, you know. I don't think that we will maintain an audience through sympathy, we'll maintain an audience by constantly making great records.

(video for "Slang" along with other footage from over the years, throughout the credits. After credits, a clip from the video "Me & My Wine" with the band posing and Joe yelling, "Thank you!")

The End!