page_title: Def Leppard
section_title: Adrenalize, Clark's death, and change in musical direction (1990–1999)
hierarchical_section_title: Def Leppard / History / Adrenalize, Clark's death, and change in musical direction (1990–1999)
caption_attribution_description: English: Steve Clark with a Gibson Les Paul Polski: Steve Clark z Gibson Les Paulem
context_page_description: Def Leppard are an English rock band formed in 1977 in Sheffield. Since 1992, the band has consisted of Joe Elliott, Rick Savage, Rick Allen, Phil Collen, and Vivian Campbell, which has been the band's longest running line-up. They established themselves as part of the new wave of British heavy metal movement.
  The band's greatest commercial success came between the early 1980s and the early 1990s. Their 1981 album, High 'n' Dry, was produced by Mutt Lange, who helped them begin to define their style, and the album's main track "Bringin' On the Heartbreak" became one of the first rock videos played on MTV in 1982. The band's next studio album, Pyromania, was released in January 1983, with "Photograph" and "Rock of Ages" as the lead singles. In the US, Pyromania was certified Diamond, making Def Leppard among the most commercially popular bands at the time.
  Def Leppard's fourth album Hysteria, released in 1987, topped the UK and US album charts. As of 2009, it had reached beyond the success of Pyromania, having been certified 12× platinum for sales of over 12 million copies in the US, and has gone on to sell over 25 million worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums.
context_section_description: Following Hysteria, the band quickly set out to work on their fifth album, hoping to avoid another lengthy gap. Steve Clark's alcoholism worsened to the point that he was constantly in and out of rehab. Recording sessions suffered from this distraction, and in mid-1990, Clark was granted a six-month leave of absence from the band. Clark died from a mix of prescription drugs and alcohol on 8 January 1991, in his London home.
  The remaining band members decided to carry on and recorded the album as a four-piece, with Collen mimicking Clark's style on his intended guitar parts. Def Leppard's fifth album, Adrenalize, was finally released on 31 March 1992. The album simultaneously entered at number one on both the UK and US album charts, staying on the latter for five weeks. The first single, "Let's Get Rocked", was an instant hit, and the band performed the song at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards where it was nominated for Best Video of the Year. In April 1992, Def Leppard appeared at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium, London, performing a three-song set of "Animal", "Let's Get Rocked" and Queen's "Now I'm Here" with guitarist Brian May. Joe Elliott later performed "Tie Your Mother Down" with the remaining members of Queen and Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash.
  In a period between late 1991 and early 1992, auditions for another guitarist commenced. Among the guitarists who auditioned included Adrian Smith, John Sykes, and Gary Hoey. Ultimately, the band chose Vivian Campbell in 1992, formerly of Dio and Whitesnake. Another world tour followed but the band's fortunes began to be affected by the rise of alternative rock, including grunge. Amidst the increasing popularity of alternative rock, the band decided to balance their original image as rebellious rock stars with a slightly friendlier energy, combining heavy metal with melodies and hooks more reminiscent of pop music. On 6 June 1993, Def Leppard performed the first ever rock concert at the Don Valley Stadium in their home city of Sheffield before an audience of over 50,000.
  A collection of b-sides and unreleased tracks recorded between 1984 and 1993, called Retro Active, was released in October 1993, preceded by the success of the acoustic ballad "Two Steps Behind" (from the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Last Action Hero). Another single, "Miss You in a Heartbeat", hit the Top 5 in Canada, becoming one of their biggest hits there. Retro Active has sold 3 million copies worldwide to date. In 1995, Def Leppard issued their first greatest hits collection, Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits (1980–1995), which reached number 3 in the UK, and sold over 5 million copies in the US. Alternate track listings of the album were issued for North America, the UK, and Japan. The compilation included a new track, the power ballad "When Love & Hate Collide", which became their biggest ever hit in the UK, hitting No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart.
  On 23 October 1995, the band entered the Guinness Book of World Records by performing three concerts on three continents in one day (Tangiers, Morocco; Sheffield, England; and Vancouver, Canada). Slang, released in May 1996, marked a drastic musical departure for the band by featuring darker lyrics and a stripped-down alternative rock edge. The band rehearsed and played the songs together in the studio instead of recording parts separately, resulting in a much more live-sounding album. The US audience reception for Slang and its subsequent tour was a major dropoff from a decade earlier, but Q Magazine nonetheless listed Slang as one of their Top Ten Albums of 1996.
  VH1 revived the band's fortunes in the US in 1998 by featuring them on one of the first episodes of Behind the Music. Reruns of the episode yielded some of the series' highest ratings and brought the band's music back into the public consciousness (following years of burial by the alternative rock climate). The episode was even parodied on Saturday Night Live. In an effort to capitalise on this new momentum, Def Leppard returned to its classic sound with the 1999 album Euphoria
caption: Guitarist Steve Clark died in London in 1991.
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