Def Leppard were recently interviewed on The Howard Stern Show, and Howard revealed that he wanted to have Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page on the show, but Page doesn’t want to talk about Robert Plant.
He said Jimmy Page wants to talk about the band but not Robert. Joe Elliott said he has moved on from the band. Howard said he loves that he wheeled him on to the stage.
MarksFriggin.com reported that later: Howard asked what the pressure it like after a big hit album like Pyromania. He said they must ask you to follow up that album. He said it worked for them. Phil said Mutt was there and he told them that they can’t make Pyromania part 2. He said they just followed him. He said there wasn’t pressure in that way. Howard said Mutt ended up abandoning them. Joe said it wasn’t like that. He said in 1983 they were having a talk and Mutt said why can’t they have 7 hits on their album. Joe said they were working from there. Howard asked why Mutt walked away from them. He said they had a lot of bad shit happening with them. Howard said they must have been burned out. He said Rick lost his arm. He said that must have been a mind fuck. He said then Mutt walks away from them. Joe said that Mutt was burned out. He said he wasn’t busy. He said he tried to set them up with someone else with a bunch of songs ready to go.
Howard asked Rick if he thought he’d never be ale to play gain. Rick said he did. He said he found the power of the human spirit. He said everyone was behind him. He said then Mutt came to visit him in the hospital. He said he asked him to come and help them. He said he’s not sure if he had any influence on him but he did come on board.
Howard asked if Ricks’s drum set weighs a lot more than a regular set. Rick said he is making things more simple now. He said as he gets older he is getting more simple. Howard asked why it has to weigh so much more. Rick said he keeps falling into it. He said he likes it all set up the same night so they have to bolt it together. He said sometimes they just leave him in there.
Howard said it’s a remarkable story about him coming back and playing. Howard asked when he said he was going to go try. Rick said he stopped comparing himself to how he used to play. He said he just went with being unique. He said it was such a weight lifted. Howard asked when he went and sat down and played. Rick said he was in the hospital for about a month and someone drove him to this place. He said this guy was building pedals for him and he sat in the store and played for 3 or 4 minutes. He said he was exhausted. He said that lit the spark. He said he was supposed to be in the hospital for 6 months but he was just there for one. He said his recovery was really quick. He said everything just worked out. He said he went straight for the drum kit and got to it. He said he slept for about a week after that.
