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Def Leppard maintains the hysteria
Heavy metal royalty Def Leppard grows up after 25 years of rockDate published: 3/13/2003
THE FREE LANCE-STAR There are both perks and pitfalls involved with fame. Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen laughs about the fact that you don't have to be a pretty boy to attract beautiful women if you're well known. He uses novelist Salman Rushdie as an example. "He's probably not the best looking guy in the world, but someone was telling me he just broke up with this Indian girl who's an absolute goddess. She was attracted to him because he writes books and is interesting to talk to. The whole thing is not based on what he looks like." The point Collen was making is that even though Def Leppard has been around for 25 years now and Collen doesn't look like Justin Timberlake, he and the band are still pursued by beautiful young women. "It still happens," he said. "Fortunately, I'm married to the best-looking woman I've ever seen in my life and that kind of helps out," Collen said with a laugh. The most popular heavy metal band of the '80s has had a greatest hits album, "Vault," continuously in the top 20 of the Billboard Top 200/Top Catalogue Albums Chart since its release seven years ago and is still selling over 5,000 copies a week. The band still frequently pops up on interviews on VH-1 and MTV and is still packing arenas on tour. But, Collen said, most of the craziness associated with big rock tours ended for Def Leppard some time ago because of personal lifestyle changes. "I stopped drinking right before the 'Hysteria' tour 16 years ago," he said. "I'm stone cold sober, and that's made a huge difference, not just to band stuff, but to my personal life," he said. "There are more hours in the day. I'm able to concentrate. I'm not just in a fog." He stopped abusing alcohol after his best friend in the band, Steve Clark, died from an overdose of alcohol and drugs during the recording of "Hysteria."
Date published: 3/13/2003
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