In a recent article, Louder told the story of one of the most expensive and unsuccessful contracts in the music world . In the summer of 1984, Def Leppard was looking for a new producer for their next album. The band had just sold six million copies of the album Pyromania and the road to success was opening up before their feet.
The band members intended to continue working with the same producer from their hit album, Mutt Lange , but he declined the offer, claiming he was too exhausted to commit to a new record, having worked non-stop for years on projects with artists such as AC/DC , Foreigner , and The Cars .
It was in this emergency scenario that Def Leppard came across Jim Steinman , who had a great reputation for helping create one of the greatest rock albums in history, Meat Loaf 's Bat Out Of Hell According to guitarist Phil Collen , Steinman arrived for the first meeting with the band promising to "recreate Phil Spector 's Wall Of Sound , but remaining true to Def Leppard," which seemed like a good idea. Vocalist Joe Elliott , however, had a feeling that Steinman might not be the right person for the band at that moment.
With the contract signed, it was too late to reconsider, and the partnership lasted only eight weeks before Def Leppard parted ways with Jim Steinman.
According to Elliott, Steinman wasn't "giving his full attention" to the band's work, arriving at the studio several hours late and failing to show enthusiasm for the project or offer new ideas. "There was a flow of inspiration and ideas that we received from Mutt, and that's what we expected from Steinman, but it never happened," said Collen. "Mutt wants to create something spectacular, almost like a three-dimensional wildebeest floating majestically… Steinman just showed up and let us record, and what we recorded was mediocre. It didn't even sound as good as our original demos."
Def Leppard and Jim Steinman's ideas simply didn't mesh. The producer suggested song titles that the band thought were terrible and wasn't adding anything new to their music. "His ideas seemed kind of superficial," Collen reported. "Maybe it was a class issue. It was obvious that we were much more 'street' than he was. Jim's stuff was kind of theatrical, which is great, but it had nothing to do with us. We were complete opposites."
Def Leppard's frustration is completely justified: after the success of Pyromania , it was expected that their next album would live up to or surpass the previous one. "If you're going to pay someone to produce your album, you want that person to be, at the very least, better than you," said Collen.
After an incident in which Jim Steinman suggested replacing the studio carpet with a higher-quality one, Def Leppard grew tired of the producer and asked for the contract to be canceled, which caused the band significant long-term financial losses. "We had to sell a lot of records to pay him back," Elliott said.
Ultimately, the band convinced Mutt Lange to work with them again after a tragic incident where drummer Rick Allen lost an arm in a car accident. The new album was titled Hysteria and released in August 1987, becoming Def Leppard's most successful album, with over twenty million copies sold to date.
Regarding the work done with Steinman, none of the recordings made at that time were ever released and, if it's up to Joe Elliott, they never will be. Even after 30 years, the tapes are kept in a box that has been named Hysteria: The Steinman Sessions . "These recordings are stored in my library and that's where they're going to stay," Elliott assured.
READ ALSO: Def Leppard launches virtual exhibition about the band's history; check it out!