The guitarist for the band, which will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March, is a longtime resident of south Orange County.
The line of maybe 300 fans stretched a walkway where security guards barked orders to keep moving as soon as you got your autograph and a photo, but Phil Collen, guitarist for the hard rock band Def Leppard, seemed intent to give everyone at least a quick moment of his time.
They’re the reason, after all, that his band was voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year, said Collen, a longtime resident of Laguna Hills, standing next to a Jackson Guitars display of the new Phil Collen signature model at NAMM on Saturday.
“It’s a really good feeling,” Collen said of the band’s entrance into the hall some 39 years after its debut with the 1980 album “On Through The Night.” “But you know, the way they do the show is sort an electoral college kind of thing now.
“In recent years they started letting fans vote on a band they wanted to see get in, and we got more votes than any band before had,” Collen said. “We really do owe it all to them.”
With albums such as “Pyromania,” “Hysteria” and “Adrenalize,” and singles like “Photograph,” “Rock Of Ages,” “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” and “Love Bites,” the band soared to the top in the ’80s.
