Unlike other rockers who made it big in the 1980s, Joe Elliott and the rest of Def Leppard appear to have remained relatively down to earth. At the time of a 1987 interview with Smash Hits, reproduced on DefLeppardUK, their album Hysteria had just come out after the band's three-year hiatus. The break was due in part because drummer Rick Allen "had his left arm torn off in a horrendous car crash" and had to create and learn to perform on a new drum set that incorporated foot pedals. While recalling their early days, Elliott joked, "these guys put up with me not being able to sing for two-and-a-half years" and voiced his displeasure with the amount of taxes they'd had to pay as a result of the success of their album Pyromania. "I think it's the working-class mentality," said Elliott. "I'm earning some money and you're not having any of it!"

The entire band were at that point living together in a house in Amsterdam as "the best friends in the world." Elliott made sure to boast that there would be no Bon Jovi without Def Leppard, announcing, "What they're doing is what we were doing three years ago. is fair enough, isn't it?" He was careful to remain grateful for his band's success, however: "We are lucky! God, I haven't forgotten working in a basement store in a pokey room with no windows in for three-and-a-half years — eight hours a day."

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