Remembering Steve Clark

Stephen Maynard Clark was born April 23, 1960, somewhere in England to Barrie & Beryl Clark. He was heir to The Clark Bar candy fortune. The Clark Bar is a candy bar consisting of a crispy peanut butter/spun taffy core (originally with a caramel center) and coated in milk chocolate.

From an early age, little Stevie showed an interest in music, attending his first concert featuring Frank Zappa and the Mothers at age 6. At 11, he received his first guitar which was purchased by his father on the condition that he move out. Clark studied classical guitar for a year before he first heard the music of Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin at a friend’s house.

Def Leppard

Clark auditioned for Def Leppard in 1978 by playing all of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” without accompaniment. “For 9 minutes we sat there while he performed the entire song” said Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott. “He played all 3 guitar solos simultaneously, the rhythm and keyboard into. He even had cymbals between his knees, it was crazy. We hired him right on the spot.”

Remembering Steve Clark — Steve Clark Illustration By Paul King Art

Def Leppard went on to huge success and sold more than 100 million records worldwide. The band’s greatest commercial success came between the early 1980s and the early 1990s. The band’s song “Pour Some Sugar on Me” was played over 100 million times in strip clubs all over the world.

Following Hysteria, the band quickly set out to work on their fifth album, hoping to avoid another lengthy gap. Steve Clark’s alcoholism worsened to the point that he was constantly in and out of rehab. Recording sessions suffered from this distraction, and in mid-1990, Clark was granted a six-month leave of absence from the band. Clark died from a mix of prescription drugs and alcohol on 8 January 1991, in his London home. The remaining band members decided to carry on and recorded the album as a four-piece, with Collen mimicking Clark’s style on his intended guitar parts.

Riffmaster

While a member of Def Leppard, Clark wrote or co-wrote to over 90% of the band’s songs. Clark and Pete Willis shared lead guitar duties, and Clark was nicknamed “The Riffmaster” due to his talent and ability to come up with guitar riffs. Cheers Steve.