Joe Elliott Explains Why Making a Def Leppard Biopic Would Be Challenging
Def Leppard still brings fans out in droves when they’re on tour. Could that same enthusiasm translate to movie theaters with a biopic?
That topic was broached by Joe Elliott in a new interview with U.K.’s Metro. The Def Leppard frontman bluntly said, “There is a story to tell, but the only problem is from a media perspective, it’s just about two big things: Rick [Allen]’s arm and Steve [Clark]’s death. After that, there isn’t much that would surprise anyone.”
Elliott further noted, “I can walk down the street in a Def Leppard shirt on show day and no one knows who I am! We’d have to pull out a lot of truths that were never told to make it interesting.”
Of course, there technically was a Def Leppard biopic already: The 2001 VH1 TV movie Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story. Elliott has slammed that film many times in the press. One notable time was in 2019 when he told Rolling Stone it was “the biggest pile of sh-t ever made.” He made a point to slam the film again to Metro saying, “It was low-budget, badly researched, and I had to intervene at one stage to say ‘you can’t put Phil [Collen] in the band while we’re doing ‘High ‘n’ Dry.’ We’d get slaughtered by our fans. Anything that happens from here on will be a hell of a lot more accurate.'”
Def Leppard is currently on a break from touring, but they return to the road next month. They kick off the European leg of their tour with Mötley Crüe on May 22 with a hometown gig in Sheffield, England. A full list of upcoming tour dates can be found at DefLeppard.com.
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