By STEVE MASCORD
DEF Leppard stars Joe Elliott and Phil Collen have revealed they still suffer from “anxiety dreams” ahead of major tours – while Rick Allen often needs a hug before shows.
The Sheffield megastars are currently selling out stadiums across Europe while on the road with Motley Crue but that doesn’t stop 63-year-old Elliott and 65-year-old Collen fearing no-one will show up.
“Me and Phil have specifically discussed this,” Elliott told a recent London launch for the band’s coffee table book, Definitely.
“For 20, 30 years before a tour starts – especially when we used to spend three or four years off the road – we would have anxiety dreams.
“And they were always: you get on stage and there’s nobody out there.
“And you’d start the song and you didn’t know how it went. Those few people that were in, started to leave.
“Luckily they were just dreams.”
Collen added: “The worst one is: you’re on stage, you’re seeing the audience in front of you, you’ve got no instruments.
“That’s the new one. Or the other one where you forget all the songs. You’re on stage and you’re like ‘shit’! You’ve forgotten everything. You’ve forgotten all the words, which still come back sometimes.”
Drummer Allen, 59, referencing his car accident which resulted in the loss of an arm, added: “My head must be a bit difference.
“Maybe it’s because of going through trauma but sometimes the thought of going on stage, it terrifies me.
“But then there’s a few people on the crew that will come up and give me a hug and that really helps.”
Elliott then asked Allen: “Is this a dream or is it real?”
Allen replied: “No, this isn’t an anxiety dream. It’s real.
“Then I’ll thank all the people who supported me, which is nice. I think I’m trying to distract myself from what I’m about to do.
“The interesting thing is when I get up on stage and I count to four – that’s where the band comes in – when I get to that point I forget everything I was thinking about right before I was about to go on stage.
“I just go into this wonderful zone. Normally it’s a wonderful show and it only feels like it lasted about 10 minutes.”
Def Leppard will be in Australia in November.
