In a recent interview with Guitar Interactive, Phil Collen discussed the possibility of making a Def Leppard biopic in the future. Referring to 2018’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and 2019’s ‘Rocketman,’ he explained:
“I don’t think… You know, after the Queen one and the Elton John one was great, but they’ve done it. It’s much more of an interesting story, I think. And plus, you’ve seen it. It’s like a rock band does this, comes from this, massive success, someone dies – It’s always the same thing. It’s been done. So, I don’t think they could do that.”
It should be noted that Def Leppard had a documentary in 2001, produced by VH1, titled ‘Hysteria – The Def Leppard Story.’ It aimed to tell some key points in the band’s history, including Pete Willis’ dismissal, Rick Allen’s car accident, Steve Clark’s struggles with addiction, and the creation of ‘Hysteria.’
About the documentary, Collen went on:
“The one that VH1 MTV did for us was, I say, a TV hour, which is 50 minutes with commercials and what have you. So, it’s what it was, and it [was] low budget, obviously, you know, all of that stuff. I don’t think it was ever gonna be spectacular, but it was just an insight more than anything else.”
Further Thoughts On A Def Leppard Documentary From The Band’s Vocalist
Upon its release, the VH1 documentary received a lot of criticism for its quality and content, while Joe Elliott previously revealed that it portrayed many things, from the setting to the members’ backgrounds, wrong to the point of including Phil Collen in ‘High ‘N’ Dirty.’
That’s why, while talking about the documentary in a 2019 chat with SiriusXM’s ‘Trunk Nation,’ he said:
“It was low budget. It was an experiment on VH1’s part. We had barely any say in what they did… They were trying to rush the storyline so much that they had Phil in the band for the ‘High ‘N’ Dry’ tour. And I said, ‘You can’t do that. You’ll be slaughtered by our fans. You have to change it.'”
As for the possibility of a new film, the singer mentioned that they wouldn’t stop someone else from doing it and added:
“You never say never. We’re not gonna fund one ourselves, but if Pixar or Disney or somebody decided they wanted to do it, we would embrace it the same way we ended up embracing the [Rock And Roll] Hall Of Fame.”
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Def Leppard alongside The Cure, The Zombies, Stevie Nicks, Radiohead, and Roxy Music in 2019, with a ceremony held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.