Before it stormed to 25 million sales, 1987’s Hysteria cost Def Leppard three years, $5
million and a drummer’s arm. Guitarist Phil Collen remembers the mayhem, tragedy and
skyscraping ambition of one of the era’s classic albums.
Read more below and get the magazine HERE
Phil Collen takes apart some of the band’s most iconic songs on Nikki Sixx’ show My Favorite Riff, a video series where some of the world’s greatest guitar and bass players, along with future stars, talk about music, gear, and most importantly, riffs. Read more HERE.
Introducing the new series: “The Hysteria Files with Phil Collen”
Via Ultimate Classic Rock: Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen takes fans on a trip back in time to the genesis of some of the biggest hits from the group’s Hysteria album in a new video interview conducted to commemorate the recent deluxe edition reissue of the classic LP.
Shot at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, California, Phil Collen takes a walk down memory lane as he re-visits the making of Hysteria 30 years later. Stay tuned for more videos coming soon!
In this clip, which is making its exclusive premiere above, Collen — toting a guitar outfitted with a GoPro camera so you can see exactly what he’s doing — looks back on a handful of the songs Def Leppard slaved over during the years it took to finish Hysteria. His comments shed a light on everything from the influences they absorbed while writing the songs — like “Armageddon It,” which Collen says was inspired by T. Rex, and “Love Bites,” which he recalls initially sounding like an Eagles song — to the incredible lengths they pursued to achieve sonic perfection.
Read More: Phil Collen Looks Back on Def Leppard’s ‘Hysteria’: Exclusive Video Premiere
“The 30-year anniversary of Hysteria, is going crazy. The response on that has been incredible. It was really cool to document everything, especially looking back on it,” he said. “I got to play ‘Hysteria’ last week with Joe Satriani, and it was really cool. That show was a lot of fun,” he added.
On his plans for the future, Collen said, “We are going to be busy. We have new Def Leppard material that we are starting to write, which is really exciting. We’ve got new Delta Deep material as well, and a live Delta Deep album coming out soon.”
Read more HERE
Hysteria, a meticulously crafted rock masterpiece infused with elements of pop, new wave, glam, and even rap, turned into one of the defining albums of the ’80s, certified 12x platinum by the RIAA and named the No. 25 biggest album ever on the Billboard 200 chart in 2015. The album spawned an extraordinary seven hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100 — including an impressive six top 20-charting smashes. Among those: the top 10s “Hysteria” (No. 10), “Pour Some Sugar On Me” (No. 2), “Love Bites” (their sole No. 1) and “Armageddon It” (No. 3). In the end, Hysteria spent 78 weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart — the most weeks spent in the top 10 for an album by a rock band in the chart’s 61-year history.
However, its success was far from certain when it came out Aug. 3, 1987.
In all new interviews, the remaining band members — guitarist Steve Clark died in 1991 — and others involved in the album’s creation and marketing talk about the long road fraught with doubt, pain, joy, drama, misadventures and, ultimately, tremendous triumph. For the first time since Hysteria’s release, recording engineer Nigel Green discusses the groundbreaking, innovative wizardry devised in the studio long before the existence of Pro Tools……
READ THE FULL BILLBOARD ARTICLE HERE
In this new clip from DiMarzio, Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen demos the Super 3, HS-2 and Super Distortion S pickups.
Collen also jams with keyboardist CJ Vanston on “Inside/Outside.”
“I’ve been playing DiMarzio pickups for at least forty years,” Collen says. “They’re all over our records. I put them in every guitar.”
Read more on GuitarPlayer.com
Check out Phil’s new interview with Steve Black on WRIF about Joe’s personal archives, his signature guitars, and traveling the world with Def Leppard.
Listen HERE
New audio interview with Phil Collen and Tesla drummer Troy Luccketta talking the current summer tour, Tesla‘s new album, legacy as well as Leppard’s Hysteria reissue, amongst other items.
Listen now on Music Mania Podcast
We’re celebrating #ThrowbackThursday all day with Phil Collen on Vevo! Stay tuned in to our social media @DefLeppard as Phil chats about the making of several Def Leppard music videos today.
Watch the VEVO playlist HERE
