History Music / DefLeppard

* Rick Allen plays drums on a custom kit built to [[HandicappedBadass bypass his disability]].
* Vivian Campbell wrote and played the guitar parts on [[Music/RonnieJamesDio Dio]]'s "Holy Diver" and moonlit (moonlighted?) as a member of Music/ThinLizzy.
* Phil Collen is in too good of shape for a man in his fifties.
* Joe Elliott never met a [[IncrediblyLamePun bad metaphor]] he didn't put in a song.
* Rick Savage used to be [[TheChick "the Cute One"]] (even getting name-checked to that end on ''Heroes'').

* Steve Clark's playing style was [[Main/HerosMuse largely influenced]] by Jimmy Page's playing
* Pete Willis who unfortunately let alcohol get the better of him and was fired. However he's since turned his life around and has said that the firing probably saved his life by making him face his problem.

!!! "Rise up gather round burn these tropes to the ground":

* TechnicianVersusPerformer: Steve Clark was the performer (technical only when he wanted to) while Phil Collen is a pure technician. Steve was regarded as main songwriter by both Joe and Phil, composing many of the riffs and solos. After he died, Phil was almost driven to leave the band himself out of frustration over his struggles to emulate Steve's playing style, but was successful in doing so for the remainder of Adrenalize.
** Ironically enough, Steve was initially hired because ''he'' was a better player than original guitarist Pete Willis.

* TelevisionGeography - So very very much. Egregious signage,road marking and location errors, a road through high moorland being doubled by a wide (mostly flat) desert road, and the fact that almost none of the buildings, street furniture and power equipment actually look even remotely like they do in Britain. And those are the mild examples.

* TelevisionGeography

* SociopathicSoldier: "Die Hard TheHunter" is about a Type 4.

Best known for predicating a thirty-year career on the [[BawdySong bawdy]] ChorusOnlySong, "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and the terribly unfunny joke "What has nine arms and sucks?", they continue to release records (much more often than in their heyday) and do a world tour almost every year since 2003 despite becoming musical pariahs in the {{post-grunge}} era.

* {{Badass}}: Phil Collen is a Kempo Karate black belt and is also skilled in boxing and Muay Thai. He can also bench over twice his weight.

Originally formed in 1977 in [[OopNorth Sheffield, England]] by five teenagers who really liked glam rock, '''Def Leppard''' became grouped with the NWOBHM before turning early-MTV pop-rock sweethearts. After kicking out a founding guitarist for too much drunken tomfoolery (Pete Willis), they released a well-received rock album (''Pyromania''), lost another sixth of a member (Rick Allen's left arm), released a phenomenally successful pop-rock record (''Hysteria''), which was essentially aiming to be "the hard rock version of ''[[Music/MichaelJackson Thriller]]''", then the ''other'' original guitarist drank himself to death over the course of a few years (Steve Clark).

** When first auditioning for the band, Rick plays in the style of several drummers, then falls off his drumstool. He's just imitating the drunken antics of [[TheWho Keith Moon]].

-->''[[Music/{{Queen}} Sheer Heart Attack]] and a [[Music/RollingStones Jumpin' Jack Flash]], like a [[Music/TheShangriLas Leader of the Pack]]...''

Originally formed in 1977 in Sheffield, England by five teenagers who really liked glam rock, '''Def Leppard''' became grouped with the NWOBHM before turning early-MTV pop-rock sweethearts. After kicking out a founding guitarist for too much drunken tomfoolery (Pete Willis), they released a well-received rock album (''Pyromania''), lost another sixth of a member (Rick Allen's left arm), released a phenomenally successful pop-rock record (''Hysteria''), which was essentially aiming to be "the hard rock version of ''[[Music/MichaelJackson Thriller]]''", then the ''other'' original guitarist drank himself to death over the course of a few years (Steve Clark).

Originally formed in 1977 in Sheffield, England by five teenagers who really liked glam rock, Def Leppard became grouped with the NWOBHM before turning early-MTV pop-rock sweethearts. After kicking out a founding guitarist for too much drunken tomfoolery (Pete Willis), they released a well-received rock album (''Pyromania''), lost another sixth of a member (Rick Allen's left arm), released a phenomenally successful pop-rock record (''Hysteria''), which was essentially aiming to be "the hard rock version of ''[[Music/MichaelJackson Thriller]]''", then the ''other'' original guitarist drank himself to death over the course of a few years (Steve Clark).

* BadAss: Phil Collen is a Kempo Karate black belt and is also skilled in boxing and Muay Thai. He can also bench over twice his weight.

->''"[[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign Gunter gleben glauten globen...]]"''

* HairMetal: The band themselves deny that they were part of the genre and Joe Elliott has been somewhat dismissive of other hair bands when asked about Leppard's association with the style. They count the British glam bands from the 1970s, such as [[Music/MarcBolan T. Rex]] and Music/{{Sweet}}, as key influences. However it seems more a reaction to ignorant media types pigeonholing the band than genunine animosity as Leppard have toured with MotleyCrue, Poison and SteelPanther amongst others.

-->''[[Music/{{Queen}} Sheer Heart Attack]] and a [[Music/RollingStones Jumpin' Jack Flash]], like a [[Music/TheShangriLas leader of the pack]]...''

* EpicRocking: They often include one or more long songs on their releases. ''Pyromania'' has "Die Hard the Hunter" at 6:17, ''Hysteria'' has two equally long songs with "Rocket" and "Gods of War" both at 6:37, ''Adrenalize'' chips in with "White Lightning" at 7:03, ''Slang'' gives us "Pearl of Euphoria" at 6:21; their longest song by far is "Overture" from ''On Through The Night'', though they dialed back the song lengths on more recent albums.

* MoralityBallad: "From The Inside".

* ShoutOut: "Rocket", a shout out to the groups that the band likes.[[note]] In full: Music/TheRollingStones, Music/EltonJohn, Music/TheBeatles (specifically ''Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand''), Music/DavidBowie, Music/LouReed, Music/MarcBolan, Music/PaulMccartney & Music/{{Wings}}, Ram Jam, Music/ChuckBerry, Music/{{Queen}}, Music/ThinLizzy and Music/{{Sweet}}.[[/note]]

* ShoutOut: "Rocket", a shout out to the groups that the band likes.[[note]] In full: Music/TheRollingStones, Music/EltonJohn, Music/TheBeatles, Music/DavidBowie, Music/LouReed, Music/MarcBolan, Music/PaulMccartney, Ram Jam, Music/ChuckBerry, Music/{{Queen}}, Music/ThinLizzy and Music/{{Sweet}}.[[/note]]

* ShoutOut: "Rocket", a shout out to the groups that the band likes.