Years before it became fashionable -- or, more appropriately, profitable -- to bring a band's story to the silver screen, VH1 aired a 2001 biopic on Def Leppard. However, the band's frontman is advising fans to steer clear of it, calling the made-for-TV movie "terrible."
Joe Elliott says he refuses to watch "Hysteria -- the Def Leppard Story" to this day, saying producers "slaughtered" the story of the band's rise to fame and subsequent problems that plagued its members. "The only contribution we made to that movie was giving them permission to shoot it in the first place," Elliott says. He adds filmmakers let facts take a backseat in their "gung ho" effort to "cram so much in," fudging the timeline surrounding Steve Clark's death and the accident that cost drummer Rick Allen an arm.
Despite the inaccuracies, "Hysteria -- the Def Leppard Story" attracted eight million viewers when it premiered, and another five million when it was re-shown later that evening.