That time Steve Clark told me why it took Def Leppard so long to follow up Pyromania with Hysteria

By Steve Newton

Back in the ’80s, most successful recording bands liked to put an album out every year. Sometimes they’d skip a year, to vacation in the Bahamas or release a live or best-of LP.

After three years their fans would start to get a bit worried, and so would their record label–especially if the group was a mega-seller like Def Leppard.

Leppard’s commercial breakthrough album, Pyromania, was released in January of 1983, spawned four hit singles, and sold millions of copies. Yet the band didn’t release its follow-up, Hysteria, until August of 1987–a full four years and seven months later.

Obviously, a lot of the delay had to do with the fact that the band’s drummer, RIck Allen, lost an arm in a car accident and had to learn how to play again with just one. But there were a lot of other factors that led to the long wait for diehard Leppard fans.

When I interviewed guitarist Steve Clark in June of 1988–less than three years before his tragic death at the age of 30–he filled me in on what took so long for the band to release its most popular album ever.

Have a listen:

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