What An Insult To Pete Willis

I agree with this fellow. If any of you were real fans, you prolly should've read Animal Instinct: The Def Leppard Story, and found out that he was cool with it. I'll quote different sections:

"But there was another problem that required a much more drastic solution. Pete Willis was still drinking heavily and the resulting actions were jeopardizing the completion of the album. When the band was recording the background handclaps of Rock of Ages, Pete was so out of it that his hands kept missing each other. Pete was not Def Leppard's only problem drinker. During the Pyromania sessions, Steve had taken some time off to see a psychiatrist about his drinking. But Pete's tippling had brought an unhappiness and frustation that created friction within the group. As Cliff Bunrstein explains,"Steve is a real gentle person. And if he's got problems, he's quick to admit them. He doesn't blame the world for them. With Pete, it was 'this sucks, that sucks, everything sucks.'He would externalize his problems, say they were caused by something else and make everybody miserable."

Okay, now in just that quote, it points several things out.

1) Steve Clark is misportrayed in the movie.
2) Pete Willis is misportrayed as well.
3) That Pete was making the band uncomfortable.

Another section:

"The last straw was when Pete came into the studio to record his solo for Stagefright. He was, in Mutt's words, "pissed as a skunk, I could smell it when he walked in. But he was trying to not act like he was drunk. I thought it was funny at first. When he tried to play his solo, I said 'Okay, Pete, here we go.' and it was just plink-dah-plink-da-da-plink. He'd try it again - same vibe. HE could hardly hit the string right. Finally, for his sake more than mine, I finally chewed him out. I told him, 'Go home and don't even show your face in the studio again until you really know your stuff.'"

This shows that Mutt was getting fed up with him as well.

Another quote:

""He was nice about it," Pete says of Joe's phone call."He said,'I'm really sorry, Pete, I didn't want to have to be the one to tell you this, but I got the job anyway.' After that, I knew what was coming. I said I wanted to come down and talk about it. I didn't want to change their minds as much as ask them why - although deep down I knew why."

Point here: Pete accepted the fact that the band could not continue with him and his problem. And he did not raise a ruckus about it. The movie misportays that.


I hope this helps anyone who reads it, b/c honestly I think Pete was a good guitar player, although my opinion is Steve was better. But the movie misportrays both of them, and to an extent the making of Pyromania mostly b/c of the fact that Phil didn't help write Photograph at all. But whatever. It's a movie that helps people see more into Def Leppard.