
Def Leppard...Vault: Greatest Hits 1980-1995
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Greetings...my name is Floyd Turtle. I'm confined to a wheelchair. I first met Def Leppard, in 1980, when they were on their FIRST World Tour of the HIGH AND DRY album. I couldn't get backstage in San Francisco...so I started talking to roadies who were outside, loading up the groups' equipment. One of them told me that the fellow in the silver jacket (at the top of some steps) was their manager. With pen and cassette inserts in hand, I called to him and he came down the concert steps and I asked him if I could get their autographs. He said, "wait here" and he came back in about 15 minutes, with the inserts signed by all of the band members...Joe Elliott, Richard Allen, Peter Willis and Rick Savage. I then asked the manager if I could meet them. He replied that they were busy, getting ready to board their bus to go to another venue in the San Francisco Bay Area. I asked him which (of the many) busses they would be getting on...and he pointed to a bus and gave me permission to wait by it. As soon as they rushed toward the bus, I held out my hand and shook hands with each of them. I asked Joe Elliott where they were headed next, and he said, Santa Cruz. I asked him if I could come to the concert and he said "sure" and told a girl to put my name on the guest list, plus 2...meaning a total of 3 backstage passes. The next night, I banged on the
backstage door and was let inside with two girls who came with me.
They rocked my world and after the concert, while backstage, a girl approached me with a shopping bag full of squirt guns...and asked me if I wanted one. I declined, but all of the band members took one or two guns and had a great squirt gun fight. You must remember, that back in 1980, they were playful teenagers and that was their way of cooling off, after 90 minutes of rocking hard.
Richard Allen came out to my van...but that was short-lived as some fans saw him
in my van, and he decided to go back in the concert, before he got mobbed. He did have a chance to give me his 'phone number and address in Drunfeld, England.
I called Richard Allen, in Drunfeld, 26 DEC 1984 and he told me that they were working on the Hysteria album and that he was "really tired". Six days later, we got the news that he rolled his 1984 Corvette and lost his left arm. The world was devistated. I had sent Richard a Christmas card and he got it the day
he went home from the hospital. He read it and thought about me and said to himself that 'Floyd is in a wheelchair, yet it doesn't stop him from doing what he wants'...so he decided, then-and-there that he wasn't going to give up and h a custom-made set of drums (kit) built. As we all know...Def Leppard is still rocking the world, 22 years later.
Their music is legendary. I've met AC/DC, The Pretenders, Ronnie James Dio, Ratt, Krokus, Blue Oyster Cult, Lita Ford, Twisted Sister, Judas Priest, Annie Lennox, Mahogany Rush, Pat Benatar, The Everly Brothers and countless other groups...but Def Leppard is my favorite. If I ever wrote a book about all the great groups that I've met, you can bet that the best chapter would be about these wonderful guys. They are the most down-to-earth rockers on the planet. Vault is the-best-of-their-best. Buy it...you'll love each and every song. You
can't just listen to it once. Most of their songs tend to "hit home" with each and every one of us. The song "Photograph" was written about Marilyn Monroe. I'm sure you'll enjoy this CD immensely.
Review ID: 10000000003626625

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