I am sure some of you out there will be perhaps a little on in your years to have appreciated the Rock phenomenon that was ‘Def Leppard’ throughout the 1980’s early 90’s. I am glad to say they will be rocking the Brixton Academy, London, this Friday and shall have to go along to that.
When i was last into them we did not have such a great medium as the internet to find out answers to questions that bugged us. Now in this fantastic era that we live in (apart from this impending WW3) maybe now i can find out, What does their name mean? Does ‘Def Leppard’ have some deep and powerful meaning that will astound and impress us?
BTW i am aware that for centuries there has been a popular medium of information sharing called ‘books’, but in order to do some research with these ‘books’ I was told i would probably have to go to a ‘library’? apparently there are some of these ‘libraries’ in London but that would involve getting up from my chair and i am sorry but that just aint gonna happen!! (as i am at work at the minute)
P.S. sorry if some of you thought that i was merely somebody with dyslexia who had an interesting wildlife question.
You should watch “Behind the Music” more often. The boys thought up the name “Deaf Leopard” early on because they thought it sounded cool. Then, inspired by their favorite band Led Zepplin, they came up with the alternate spelling. There is no other special meaning attached to it, and the band members today confess that they’re a bit embarrassed by the childishness of the name. In their defense, the oldest members were only 17 when they thought of the name.
One of the members (I think Joe Elliot) claims that he doodled a picture in school of a leopard with a trumpet in its ear. That gave rise to “Deaf Leopard” and the rest is as Guy described it.
Not a lot of people know the real reason behind the name ‘Def Leppard’. I can tell you that Guy propski is correct in that they were all big Led Zepplin fans and did change the spelling in tribute (and the bit about their ages).
However what i am about to tell you is something that i doubt even the most worldly wise of SDmembers will know. Where did they get the name ‘deaf leopard’?
It was from the really early days of the band, in fact before they had actually formed. It was when little Joseph Elliot was visiting the Zoo with his father. He was fascinated with the leopards and kept trying to get their attention. Through frustration of trying he asked the zookeeper why this one in particular was ignoring him? The zookeeper told him that this was because it was ‘deaf’. However the reason this stuck in Little Joes mind was because some years later during a conversation with his father about the merit of ‘little white lies’, his father told him that the zookeeper had lied, the leopard was just ignoring him. Now clearly this is the sort of incident that would stick in a young childs mind, so when it came to naming the band this was what Joe thought of. And the rest of course, well you know the rest.
Well i knew there had to something to it. Thanks for the info guys/gals. I will try and ask him on Friday but so far havent managed to get my hands on a back stage pass. Not quite deep and meaningful but an interesting story none the less.