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Joe Elliott dreamed of one day fronting a band named Deaf Leopard. Influenced by Thin Lizzy, Queen, Mott the Hoople and Led Zeppelin, the Sheffield, UK native Elliott ran into the members of a band called Atomic Mass.

the band adopted the Deaf Leopard moniker and soon changed the spelling to Def Leppard to avoid being mistaken for a punk band. Laced with the dual guitar sound of Pete Willis and Steve "Steamin" Clark, bassist Rick Savage and a young drumming prodigy named Rick Allen, Def Leppard became a leading force of the New Wave of British Metal, along with Iron Maiden. While Maiden leaned towards the more metal side of things, Leppard's more melodic influences shone bright.

Albums like 1980's On Through the Night and 1981's High 'n' Dry set up the stage for the smash hit Pyromania, which was launched in 1983 and went on to sell well over 10 million records.

By 1984, Leppard was arguably the biggest rock band in the world.

Triumph gave way to tragedy on December 31st 1984 and drummer Allen's Corvette Stingray swerved off a road and hit a wall, severing his left arm off. Allen's life was in doubt, let alone his career as Leppard's drummer.

The band regrouped and by 1987, released Hysteria. Slowly but surely, Hysteria surpassed Pyromania's success and sold even more records, thanks to the ballad Love Bites and the catchy and contagious Pour Some Sugar on Me.

As the band ended touring after two years, once again misfortune struck the band, as guitarist Steve Clark succumbed on January 8th 1990 to a lethal combination of alcohol and painkillers. The episode closed off one of Rock 'n' Roll's best kept secrets: Clark's alcoholism and troubles.

The band managed to pick itself up and release 1991's Adrenalize. With tracks like Stand Up, White Lightning, Tonight, the album was stellar in tracks but by now, the juggernaut known as Grunge music had taken over airwaves. While Leppard never reached its pinnacle of 1983 and 1987, Adrenalize showed that Leppard still had many good years and albums ahead of itself, as demonstraded by albums Slang, Euphoria and X.

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