DEF LEPPARD ANIMAL INSTINCT: THE DEF LEPPARD STORY by David Fricke


PUBLISHER: Zomba Books January 1987
GENRE: Nonfiction/Music
READ FREE: link
MY GRADE: A+
REREAD: 12/2022

SYNOPSIS: Def Leppard are the classic story of rock & roll schoolboys grown into rock superstars. Since their formation in 1977 they had the talent, determination and stamina to climb to the heights of international stardom, capped by their mega-million sales album PYROMANIA... 

But nothing could have prepared them for personal tragedies and professional disasters that inflicted their lives and plunged them back to relative obscurity in the mid 1980s. More than anything, though, Def Leppard had good instincts. And in rock & roll instinct spells survival. 

ANIMAL INSTINCT is the story of that survival, from the early days in Sheffield, England to their triumphant return to the international rock arena and HYSTERIA in the charts.


MY THOUGHTS: This is an excellent account of their lives together from the time they met as teens to the completion of Hysteria. This was published almost 35 years ago, right after they'd finished recording Hysteria in January 1987 and before the album's release in August 1987. The author worked closely with them for three years while writing the book and has their full cooperation, including that of ex-member Pete Willis, who's interviewed. The book's title was the tentative title for what became Hysteria.

This was far better than I'd expected, since it's only 144 pages with a lot of photos. There are 12 chapters and they're equally good. It was mentioned many times that Steve and Pete each had a drinking problem but the author never once asked them to discuss the issue, like he just wasn't interested.

This book has an odd mixture of American and British spellings. Sometimes words will be spelled with a u, such as colour, then other times it's spelled 'color', British words with an 's' will sometimes be spelled with the American 'z.' Time will be written with a point, such as 6.30 pm, and other times it's written the American way with a colon, 6:30. The date too is sometimes written in the British way- day, month, year, then other times it's month, day, year like in America. The author's American but it looks as if it's cowritten by someone British. Just some observations I made.


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