But theDef Leppardguitarist was a fan anyway.
Ive actually gotThe Silver SurferNo.
Ive still gotThe Incredible HulkNo.
Courtesy of Vault Comics
3 and early Batman stuff, all from the Sixties.
The guitarist explained that he been writing his own really dark short stories lately.
Instead, it tells the story of indie rocker, Foz, who fronts a band called Darkside.
Vault Comics
When she inherits her late fathers estate, she rediscovers a guitar he owned when she was little.
Writing this just seemed like a very natural, normal thing to do, Collen says.
Even the process was really …
I wont say easy, but its fun.
As revealed in the first few pages ofHysteria, the story gets bloody pretty quickly.
You look at history, social things, or politics, and its always been exactly the same.
The storys always the same.
Its just a very interesting way to dress up in different things.
My favorite movie isAlien, the very first one thats kind of right up there.Shawshank Redemptionis great.
Theyre all fairly dark.
The interest comes from growing up and loving the cult of horror movies.
How did you come up with the plot for theHysteriagraphic novel?It was fairly straightforward.
I thought, Well, it can be cheesy, but you could mention it.
But its about this guitar.
Its a metaphor for the modern obsession with celebrity.
It was really good creating the characters [with Eliot].
It was about a female punk band whose father had owned this guitar.
He ends up dying and then she goes on with this thing.
She doesnt really know what its really about.
Ive played some beautiful guitars that belonged to my favorite players though.
There wasthis famous Les Paul that Kirk Hammett from Metallica owns.
Gary Moore owned this guitar years ago.
And Peter Green, the original Fleetwood Mac guitarist, owned it originally.
Peter Greens from East London where Im from.
He said, Yeah, you want to play it?
I literally played it for an hour, and I got a blister.
I was just jamming on the thing.
Now Kirk has the guitar, so I wouldnt say its cursed.
Its actually just made some just amazing players have actually played it and become really famous.
And I got to play Mick Ronsons guitar.
Im a huge Mick Ronson fan, and I saw Bowie on theAladdin Sanetour.
The first time I met Mick Ronson, he was in this little pub, playing this guitar.
And Im like, Oh, my God.
He said, Yeah, go ahead and play it.
Its like, Wow.
Unfortunately, Mick died a few years later.
It was nice to actually have that contact and just play these wonderful things.
Rich Bich guitarslooked pretty sharp.I remember looking at some of these guitars, and definitely those Eighties B.C.
Rich guitars were a little awkward to play.
It sounds amazing, but its difficult to play.
They actually had one made like the drawing and everything, which is pretty amazing.
This thing actually changes color; when it gets hot, it kind of glows red.
Its got this massive chunky neck on it, because its obviously down to my specs as well.
Have you ever injured yourself playing guitar?Oh, yeah.
In 22, I broke my knuckle doing a Pete Townshend windmill.
My knuckles smashed the fretboard, and I chipped the knuckles and there was all bone fragments.
Itll just heal that way.
Did you finish the set when that happened?Oh, yeah.
And you would never know it.
We just push through it.
Obviously, we had to be away from everyone when were backstage, but you just plow on through.
You recently finished a stadium tour with Journey.
How did that go?I loved it.
Everyone was on in-ear monitors, and you could hear each other.
Everyone could sing better.
The timing was incredible.
The actual groove of the band and the tightness … it just never sounded like that.
Weve known them for years; the first time we met them was 1983.
So you dont really get into whatever theyre going through, that other stuff.
Can you imagine doing a tour with Joe Elliott suing you?Weve only ever have one dressing room.
We make a point of doing that.
Except when the Covid thing was happening, then everyone had different rooms.
If we can, were always in one room, and its just magical.
Its like a bunch of arrested development.
Everyone makes each other laugh.
Journey are such a great band.
I hope they get everything sorted out.
But it sure wouldnt happen to us.
We just have a different approach.
I dont want to be in separate rooms from the rest of the guys.
None of us do.
Theyre kind of nasty and theyre pissed off, and its all of these things.
Theyre just post-teen, so theyve still got this anger and rage and everything, so that comes through.
As they get more successful, the music starts changing.
It gets a little more refined.
Thats a whole new different project on that as well.
Youre writing the songs for that.
Who are you recording with?Well, at the moment, two girls …
Were actually back and forth today with a younger band, so theyre actually going to be Darkside.
So the father who owned the guitar was a huge Def Leppard fan.
Thats where the connection of the band is.
We didnt want it to be about the band at all.
Its just like a nod to it more than anything else.
Have you shown the book to your bandmates?Oh, yeah.
Theyre like, Oh, just do your thing.
Let Phil do that, because it wasnt particularly everyones wheelhouse.
It just worked out great.
How was it revisiting those songs?It sounded great.
Obviously, when we did it initially, it was ground-breaking.
Hes the best there is.
He taught us to sing, taught us to play guitar, and all of that stuff.
We owe so much to him.
He just has these fantastic ideas.
Whenever, thatd be great.
Are you working on anything now?Yeah, were constantly working, even on tour in hotel rooms.
Me and Joe, we just go, Ive got this idea, come down in the room.
Were singing it on the phone and getting the ideas across.
At some point, therell be new Def Leppard music.
