Def Leppard was awesome. From the first time I saw the video for “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak”, I was hooked. Joe Elliott was to be my future husband. Granted, I was a child still, but I loved those guys. Pyromania was released, and I owned it on vinyl. It’s probably still at my Mom’s house alongside Zenyatta Mondatta and Under a Blood Red Sky. When Hysteria came out, hit after hit after hit kept coming. As soon as an 18+ dance club opened, we were there, dancing our tails off to “Pour Some Sugar on Me”.
Soon To Follow "Rugrats" On Cartoon Network.
The boys from Def Leppard were known for performing “in the round”, on a circular stage in the center of an arena. During “Armageddon It”, My Future Husband Joe would spend 15 minutes or so getting the crowd pumped and screaming while the other members of the band were underneath the stage. Debauchery ensued. Groupies for hair metal bands were not, as everyone knows, particularly unusual. They were more common than lice, and often less clean.
But now the mates from Sheffield, England have traded in the three-ring circus for wedding rings. All of them. Their wives travel with them and they have become quite a bit calmer. Maybe it’s because they got tired. Maybe it’s because of the string of tragic events that came to be known as the “Def Leppard Curse”.
More likely, it’s because they’re all in their late 40s and early 50s. They still look like rock stars in the way other aging rockers like the Rolling Stones and Aerosmith do. And they’re pretty well-preserved, really. Okay, so no-longer-my-dream-husband Joe Elliott could lay off the bleach and let his hair do what it did 30 years ago when it was brown and wavy, but other than that…
Now they are embracing change and making themselves into cartoons. They signed a deal with music publishing company Primary Wave that is working on a cartoon TV show based on Def Leppard, with the bandmates as the primary cast. According to Primary Wave CEO Larry Mestel, the project is still in the early planning stages, but the five members of the group would be in a “fictional, adventurous setting”. Probably not more adventurous than the bacchanalian carnival that was the entire 1980s, but fun nonetheless. One has to wonder in what kind of cartoon environment a group of aging rock stars might find fun and excitement when they are now husbands and parents.
SpongeJoe SpandexPants?
Sav the ‘Splorer?
Ricky Mouse?
Evidently, Primary Wave is also developing an “unusual” video game with the band, and working on some iPhone applications. Want some Def Leppard? Yeah, there’ll be an app for that. Aerosmith already has a video game, so that’s nothing ground-breaking. And iPhone apps? Well, there’s one of those for everything.
The cartoon, however, is something that those of us who STILL remember all the lyrics to “Pour Some Sugar on Me” really, really want to see.