On the morning of Jan. 8, 1991, Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen obtained a telephone name from his supervisor Cliff Burnstein, bearing information he had been dreading for shut to 5 years. His greatest pal, co-guitarist Steve Clark, had died whereas sleeping on a sofa. He was 30 years previous.
An post-mortem revealed the Clark died from an unintentional overdose of alcohol, Valium and Codeine. “He had been ingesting and he cracked a rib earlier on,” Collen wrote in his biography Adrenalized. “The physician instructed him to not drink whereas taking his ache treatment. He drank anyway. The coroner’s report, I imagine, learn that it was as a result of a swelling of the mind.”
Clark joined Def Leppard in 1978, a 12 months after their formation, and was a key songwriter on the band’s greatest albums — 1983’s Pyromania and 1987’s Hysteria. Like his bandmates, Clark celebrated the band’s success and the perks that got here with it, particularly free alcohol. Through the time Pyromania was blowing up, Clark and Collen grew to become generally known as “the phobia twins,” due to their drunken antics and the pranks they pulled on different musicians. Along with relishing their ingesting adventures, the 2 guitarists bonded on a deeper degree.
“We shortly grew to become greatest pals,” Collen wrote. “It wasn’t simply the guitar enjoying or excessive boozing. We each discovered that we had been absorbing all that we may and studying extra on the highway than we had ever discovered at college, with a wholesome urge for food for brand spanking new and thrilling cultural discoveries. We additionally discovered that we liked one another’s firm. We may get into deep conversations that will final for hours.”
When Collen stop ingesting within the late ‘80s he realized Clark was spinning uncontrolled. For years he had been a functioning alcoholic, however he had developed a significant issue and his habits had grow to be erratic and unpredictable. Each morning he awoke shaking and needed to go to a bar and drink till he stopped trembling. At one level, he went on a bender in Paris and wound up in a hospital with alcohol poisoning. Then, within the winter of 1989, a number of members of the band had been in a studio when their co-manager Peter Mensch referred to as to inform them that Clark was discovered unconscious at a bar in Minneapolis and had been rushed to a close-by hospital, Hazelden Dependancy Remedy Heart.
The band flew to Minneapolis and a physician on the hospital urged them to confess Clark to rehab. On the time of the Minneapolis incident, Clark’s blood alcohol degree was 0.59, significantly increased than the 0.41 degree that John Bonham registered when he died.
Clark checked right into a rehab middle in Tucson, Arizona. He was given a go away of absence from Def Leppard for six months, and was promised that his slot within the group can be ready for him when he was wholesome. Whereas Clark was in rehab, Def Leppard continued engaged on new songs. In remedy Clark met one other affected person, Janie Dean, who was making an attempt to kick heroin. After they each obtained completed this system the 2 agreed to hang around and assist each other with their addictions. Their intentions could have been good and their relationship was sturdy. They shortly fell in love and obtained engaged. However simply as shortly, they began enabling one another. Janie started utilizing once more and Clark’s ingesting escalated.
From that time till the time Clark died, Collen stated in his guide that it was “nearly unimaginable” to search out out the place Clark was and attempt to preserve him out of hassle. Contemplating his unwillingness to get sober and the benefit with which he may get medication and alcohol, maybe Clark’s dying was inevitable, as tragic because it was. Shortly after he died, Clark was buried at Wisewood Cemetery in Loxley, Sheffield, close to his household’s property.
Shedding Clark was devastating for Def Leppard. They’d already overcome the tragic automotive accident, through which drummer Rick Allen misplaced an arm, and now Clark was now not with them. Grieved and angered, Collen stop the band, however vocalist Joe Elliott satisfied him that Clark, who was ashamed about his extreme alcoholism, wouldn’t have needed Def Leppard to interrupt up due to him. So Collen threw himself again into writing and enjoying, focusing intently on the band so he didn’t have to consider Clark’s dying. In the meantime, Clark’s slot was crammed in 1992 by former Dio guitarist Vivian Campbell, who stays within the band to this present day.
“In a manner Steve didn’t have a lot alternative within the matter,” wrote Collen. “He was surrounded by drink most of his life. Steve’s dad was a taxi driver and I believe Steve was at all times making an attempt to show he was worthy of his rock star standing … Steve needed to show his manhood to his dad on a regular basis, that he had the values of a Sheffield steelworker beneath his golden splendor.”
Loudwire contributor Jon Wiederhorn is the writer of Elevating Hell: Backstage Tales From the Lives of Metallic Legends, co-author of Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral Historical past of Metallic, in addition to the co-author of Scott Ian’s autobiography, I’m the Man: The Story of That Man From Anthrax, and Al Jourgensen’s autobiography, Ministry: The Misplaced Gospels In line with Al Jourgensen and the Agnostic Entrance guide My Riot! Grit, Guts and Glory.
