YEAR
2019
INDUCTED BY
Brian May (Queen)
CATEGORY
Performers
The most commercially successful New Wave of British Heavy Metal band, Def Leppard ignited the 1980s reign of metal.
HALL OF FAME
ESSAY
By Robert Burke Warren
Missing his bus that autumn day in Sheffield, England, 1977, may have inconvenienced 18-year old wannabe rocker Joe Elliott, but it set in motion a series of events that would lead to his fronting one of the biggest bands in history: Def Leppard.
An undeniable eighties juggernaut still vital today, Def Leppard stand as one of a handful of rock bands to reach the RIAA’s “Double Diamond” status, i.e., ten million units of two or more original studio albums sold in the United States.
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