The History of Def Leppard: Pete Willis and Rick Savage

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Ever Since the band was started in 1977 by Pete Willis and Rick Savage, Def Leppard became one of the most successful bands of its time. They fitted in with more established heavy metal bands and really stood out. As Def Leppard‘s popularity grew, their success also grew and they became the leaders of the 80s British heavy metal renaissance. The members age did not stop them from becoming a huge part of 80s music history. Along with the many problems in the band and tragedies they went through, it was not enough to bring down the famous sound and spirit of Def Leppard (Def Leppard/ Rollingstone).
The lead singer, Joe Elliott was brought into the band in a weird kind of way. He met Def Leppard pretty spontaneously after he missed the bus to school. They were all teenagers at the time in the late 70s during the initial forming of the band. Joe brought with him a different sound into the band, one with a soft rock influence. He was a follower of bands like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, which gave him a softer kind of approach to writing songs. This was not a bad change for the heavy style playing Def Leppard at the time because of some early hits it had produced which put them on the map. This young man from Sheffield, England played a big role in making the Def Leppard dream a reality (Joe Elliot Biography).
One of Def Leppard’s founders Rick Savage, who also plays bass guitar for the band, was born in Sheffield, England too. The band was in need of a bassist and at the time Rick was a guitar player along with Pete Willis. The group agreed that Pete was the better guitar player so Rick decided to pick up the bass guitar instead. In his early years he played a lot of Deep Purple too and Jimi Hendrix guitar cover...

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