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When Def Leppard released "Pyromania" in 1983, the album was so successful that it was hard to imagine the British arena rockers would ever top it.
When Def Leppard released Pyromania in 1983, the album was so successful that it was hard to imagine the British arena rockers would ever top it. Featuring radio hits such as “Photograph” and “Rock of Ages,” Pyro immediately, ahem, caught fire, and went on to sell more than ten million copies in America alone.
But when it came time to start the next album, Def Leppard’s producer—the now legendary Robert John “Mutt” Lange—revealed surprisingly lofty ambitions for the band.
“Mutt told us, ‘Every other rock band in the world is trying to make Pyromania 2, so let’s do something different,’” says Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen. “He said, ‘Let’s do a rock version of Thriller, where we have seven singles, and we create a genre of our own. Let’s make a record we’re still talking about in 20 years.’”
The record that would come to pass was 1987’s Hysteria, and it shattered even the most optimistic sales forecasts by going 25-timesplatinum. And, as Collen points out, we’re still talking about it 30 years later.
“We were doing rock without the rock-machismo attitude,” explains Collen about the sessions. “I meet a lot of bands who shoot themselves in the foot because they’re ego driven. But with us, it was like, ‘Whatever makes the song great.’ It harkened back to that whole Beatles thing, with George Martin saying, ‘We’re going to put strings here, and a brass band there.’ It’s inspiring not having limitations based on whatever genre your band is in. Any artist who’s massively successful doesn’t stay in a box.”