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Rolling Stone Magazine
January 21st, 1991
Def Leppard guitarist found dead in London home
By David Fricke
Steve Clark, guitarist and founding member of the British rock band Def Leppard, died in his sleep at his house in London on January 8th. He was thirty years old.
The cause of death will be disclosed February 16th, when the coroner's report is made public. Clark is survived by his parents and two brothers who planned a private funeral. A memorial service is expected to held later in the year.
Clark had battled alcoholism for several years. He had undergone clinical treatment during the past eighteen months and regularly attended meetings of Alcoholism Anonymous. "He'd say to us, `I'm sorry guys, I know I've been a bit of a screw-up. I'm really going to try this time'" said Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliott. "He really struggled with it."
The guitarist's death is the second tragedy to befall the Leppards. On December 31st, 1984, drummer Rick Allen lost his left arm in an auto accident in the group's hometown of Sheffield, England. Although Allen continues to play with the group using a customized electronic drum kit, his injury was a major factor in the lengthy delays that plagued Def Leppard during the recordings of 1987's Hysteria, the multiplatinum successor to the band's 1983 breakthrough album, Pyromania. Ironically, the group was halfway through recording the follow-up to Hysteria when Clark died; the Leppards who had been on a Christmas break, were scheduled to reconvene in a Dublin studio on the very day Clark died.
"I don't know what we're gonna do," Elliott said, regarding Def Leppard's future. "We have to get together and have a serious think about it. I must add, though, that it would be a shame if we did split up. The four of us still have a lot to offer, and I know the songs on this album are great. And Steve would be annoyed if we split up. If he could talk to us now, he'd say, "Jesus, guys, get on with it!"
"We've had our fair share of bad luck," Elliott continued. "But At this point, the band's not important. I feel sad for all the people who will be distressesd that Steve is gone - his parents, his family, friends and the fans, the kids for whom Steve was their favorite. And as a musician, he had so much to offer, so much that he'll never have a chance to express now. I believe that if you've got it, flaunt it. And he had it."
Steve Clark was born April 23rd, 1960, in Sheffield and got his first guitar when he was eleven. His father, a free-lance cabdriver, gave it to Clark for Christmas on the condition that he take lessons. So young Steve learned to play classical pieces by Bach and Vivialdi with the same studious patience that he copied licks off of Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy records. In January 1978, he joined the original lineup of Def Leppard - featuring Elliott, bassist Rick Savage and guitarist Pete Willis (Who left in 1982) - after blowing them away with a note-for-note rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird," including the extended solo section at the end.
But Clark had melodic imagination as well as chops. He wrote many of the searing riffs and catchy guitar hooks that distinguished Def Leppard's classy heavy-melody repertoire. In a 1985 interview, Savage recalled how Clark rushed into the band's Sheffield rehearsal room one evening in 1978 and started playing a riff that had come to him on his way over in the bus: "It was a brilliant riff, but he didn't say anything to anybody when he first came in, in case he forgot it. He just ran across the room, picked up his guitar and started playing this riff. But he had more than just the riff. He'd put chords after it for the bridge, and he had an idea for the middle section. He walked off that bus with an instant song." That song was "Wasted," which later became a highlight of Def Leppard's live show.
Together with guitarist Phil Collen (Who replaced Willis), Clark was also instrumental in developing the soaring six string chorales that fueled Def Leppard's brand of epic hard-rock classisism on Pyromania and Hysteria. "He would give us bits of songs," said Elliott. "We would listen to his riff tapes and go, `Well, Phil has a good riff that will go neat with that.' Then there would be times when Phil or Sav would come in with a complete song that was good, but Steve would say, "Well, why don't we do this with it?" And he would turn a good song into a great song."
The Leppards enjoyed their forst taste of stardom at a young age. In January 1979, the group issued its vinyl debut, a self-financed EP on the band's own Bludgeon Riffola label. The Def Leppard EP sold more than 15,000 copies and established the Leppards as the flagship of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, a new generation of U.K. metal bands that also included future superstars Iron Maiden. Within eighteen moths, Def Leppard signed a worldwide deal with Phonogram Records, raced into the British top twenty with its debut album, On Through The Night, and embarked on its first major tour of the U.S., where the group opened for personal heros like Ted Nugent.
Def Leppard ascended into the big leagues with Pyromania and Hysteria wich together sold over 17 million copies. Clark remained a quiet, shy but very friendly guy amid the furor. Onstage, though, he was something else again, zipping back and forth with his trademark Gibson Les Paul guitar hanging down almost to his knees. "He could really really fill the stage," said Elliott. "He used to do the Chuck berry thing, stutting across the stage. And where Chuck Berry would do it at five miles an hour, Steve would do it ninety in reverse. You had to get out of his way or you were going to get knocked offstage.
"He'd be so quiet offstage," Elliott continued. "Then he would get up there and explode into this guitar god. That was his thing. He didn't have any hobbies whatsoever. He did crosswords. That was the nearest thinghe had to something outside of the band. But his guitar was it. Playing his guitar and having a drink afterwards - those were the two most important things in his life."
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