Def Leppard’s Phil Collen has reflected on the band’s classic 1987 album Hysteria.
The follow-up to 1983’s Pyromania was a massive success, racking up more than 25 million sales worldwide and spawned hit singles including Animal, Pour Some Sugar On Me, Love Bites and Armageddon It.
And while looking back on the record with Music Radar, the guitarist acknowledges its lasting legacy.
Collen says, “I think it’s the best thing we ever did. It was our commercial and creative zenith. Most of the credit goes to producer Mutt Lange, because he really pushed us to do something different.
The first thing he said was, ‘We can’t make Pyromania 2, because every other rock band in the world is doing that. We’ve got to dig a bit deeper, and it’s gonna be a lot of hard work.
Jimi Hendrix probably could have done it in his sleep. But us mere mortals have to work hard at it. But it paid off. Because here we are, 30 years later, still talking about it.”
Collen continues, “The thing is, a lot of guitar players, they all read from the same book, play from the same licks. With that album, we worked. We went somewhere. Mutt taught us how to sing, how to play guitar better. I came out of Hysteria a better player, without a doubt.”
Collen says that “the melody was king” on the album and that the guitars were there to enhance the sound, and adds, “Hysteria does sound like an 80s album, but it was trying to. It was trying to cross over, and hard rock bands didn’t really do that. There was a big difference between, say, Priest, Maiden and us. We were more in the area of The Police and Billy Idol and even ZZ Top, who were a blues band – but they’d done this electronic album, Eliminator and had their biggest hit. It wasn’t about trying to be a big, macho rock band. It was about trying to create great music.”
Read the full interview with Collen over on Music Radar, where the guitarist talks about his approach to playing on the landmark album, the riffs he used on Hysteria, the solos, and much more.
Earlier this year, Def Leppard released the 30th anniversary edition of Hysteria on several different editions, including a super-deluxe package and a double vinyl version.
source: Classic Rock via teamrock.com
17 Responses
Hysteria was/is a great rock album. Not hard, not heavy, but still a great rock album nonetheless. Minus Love Bites!
Oh boy Shirtless One I beg to differ…..
With all do respect Phil, Hysteria was your 4th best album, in my opinion. High n’ Dry, by far, is their best album, followed by Pyromania, On Through The Night, and then Hysteria. I get it that you raked in the cash for this album, and sold a crap-ton of this record, but for my money High n’ Dry is an album I will listen to from start to finish forever!!
As I’ve stated before in this blog, HYSTERIA is where Def Leppard lost me. It is a well produced, well played piece of music. The songs are great, and the production is first rate. But, to me, the whole essence of Def Leppard as they were before HYSTERIA was gone. There was no edge to them on that album. Everything was slick, sugar coated, and made to not offend anyone. Your Mom and Dad could listen to that album and enjoy it! I was a HUGE Leppard fan since ON THROUGH THE NIGHT was released. HIGH AND DRY is by far the ultimate Def Leppard album. On PYROMANIA, they started to move toward the less hard rock/ metal side of things, but there was still an edge to the music. But on HYSTERIA, they totally went for mass audience appeal. And, to their credit, they fully admitted to it. And it totally worked for them! They all became super rich, and are continuing to make money on that album to this day. They can continue to tour, playing only the songs from that album for years to come. Nothing wrong with that! But, for me, it took Def Leppard out of my comfort zone. Never bought another Leppard record, or a ticket to see them perform. Sorry!
Well, I guess it depends on how you define “best” and “we”…Hysteria may have been the most financially successful album with all the radio hits, but musically, I think High N Dry is the best Leppard album.
And Phil can’t say “we” about High N Dry cuz he didn’t play on it….otherwise, I’m sure he would have stated “High N Dry is the best thing “we” ever did” :o)
I think Hysteria is a good pop rock album, but for my music preferences, I think High N Dry is the best Leppard album. Dang, High N Dry is a thrash album compared to Hysteria! :o)