On July 12, 1982 guitarist Phil Collen officially replaced original Def Leppard guitarist Pete Willis. That makes today the 40th anniversary of Phil being a member of the legendary Def Leppard, which has worked out pretty well for both parties.
Collen was first approached by singer Joe Elliott about joining them on the road for the tour in support of their previous album, 1981’s High ‘n’ Dry, but Willis temporarily got his act together.
Phil Collen on joining Def Leppard in 1982 during the recording of their Pyromania album:
“When I joined, this stuff was very different to High ‘n’ Dry. I was very impressed — even the guitar movements and where the vocals were starting to go. I thought I was just helping out, playing a bit on the thing. And then [producer] Mutt [Lange] said, ‘Take this track home. Play a solo on it.’ And it was ‘Stagefright,’ that was the first one. So I went home, I worked out a kind of a rough thing and I came in the next day and everyone was like, ‘Whoa,’ ’cause it sounded different to what they had before. So this stuff was just great to play on. And so I had so much freedom from that point of view as a lead guitarist, so I was just playing all over the stuff.”
