Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott has recently spoken about how a “drunken rampage” helped the band to score a massive hit.
The track that Elliott was referring to was ‘Photograph’, a song with was their lead single from that 1983 album.
In a recent interview, Elliott claimed that the band were “penniless” when they were working on their 1983 album, ‘Pyromania’.
Pyromania was eventually certified diamond, going on to sell over 10 million copies in the US.
Joe Elliott and The Shawshank Redemption
Speaking on the Rockonteurs podcast, Elliott also revealed that he was living in a small apartment in the English town, Isleworth, in poor living conditions.
“The previous tenant, obviously on a drunken rampage one night, had punched a hole through the bathroom wall”, Elliott said. “So it looked like The Shawshank Redemption”.
Joe Elliott continued, “I put a poster of Marilyn Monroe over the hole because I’m not going to fix it. It’s not my place, I’m renting it”.
“Over time, the poster covering the hole generated an idea in Elliott’s head. “You’re staring at this thing every day. And when we came to the idea of ‘Photograph’ I said, ‘How about we write it like [The Who’s] ‘Pictures of Lily’,’ where it’s about this girl that you’re madly in love with and then your dad taps you on the shoulder goes, ‘Sorry son, but she’s dead.’ The ultimate want you can never have”.
At the time, ‘Photograph’ was an instrumental track without lyrics.
“We knew from a musical point of view, this is really special,” the frontman recalled. “Just don’t ruin it now [with the lyrics]”, Elliot stated. ‘Photograph’, reached number No 1 on the rock chart and No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In other news, Def Leppard also confirmed plans to release a new album for Record Store Day back in March.
More on that from Nova here.
