Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen recently revealed that after the death of his bandmate Steve Clark in 1991, he

seriously considered leaving the band. While the group ultimately decided to continue working on their Adrenalize

album, Collen wasn’t sure he wanted to proceed.

“It was a strange time,” Collen shared with UCR. “Steve had just passed, and we had written some of the songs with

him. It felt odd, and I remember thinking I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep going.”

It was Def Leppard’s lead vocalist, Joe Elliott, who persuaded Collen to stay with the band and finish the album.

“Joe talked me into it,” Collen said. “He pointed out that we had written these songs with Steve, and it was a

meaningful tribute to him. That convinced me to carry on.”

Although Adrenalize became a success, debuting at number one in the U.S., Collen admits he had mixed emotions

about it, especially considering the turbulent time of the L.A. riots.

“When it came out, it went straight to number one, but it was during a dark period with a lot of strange events

happening. It was definitely a weird time.”

Looking back, Collen feels the band might have benefited from releasing their more experimental album Slang

instead of Adrenalize in 1992.

“In hindsight, we probably should’ve followed Hysteria with Slang. You can’t really top Hysteria,” Collen said. “If we

had released Slang right after, it would have been a bold shift, but it could have worked better. Things had changed,

especially with the rise of Nirvana, and it was a different musical landscape then.”