59 Forres Rd, Sheffield
The house that Sav grew up in.



Rick "Sav" Savage (born Richard Savage, 2 December 1960, in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, where he attended Tapton School) is the bassist and one of the founders of the English rock band, Def Leppard. He is affectionately called "Sav" so that there will not be any confusion between him and another Rick in the band -- drummer Rick Allen.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Personal life 3 Equipment 4 See also

Biography

When he was very young, Savage learned to play guitar along with his older brother, playing to songs like Rod Stewart's "Maggie May" and Don McLean's "American Pie". During those years, he also pursued a career as a professional football player with Sheffield United, despite his devotion to rivals Sheffield Wednesday When it came time to decide, Savage chose music and formed a band with a few schoolmates including Tony Kenning and eventually Pete Willis. The young band was called 'Atomic Mass' and they mostly played Queen, Slade, Deep Purple and other popular covers of the time.
At one point, it was decided that Willis was the better guitar player so Savage picked up the bass guitar. The band was also looking for a singer around that time, when they met Joe Elliott. After auditioning him, the band regrouped and changed their name to Def Leppard.
Savage contracted Bell's Palsy in the 1990s, causing his facial muscles to weaken, and become partly paralyzed. He has recovered remarkably well, but effects of the disease linger.
From an interview by Gordon Shearer on DefLeppard.com:
Shearer: "What about when you developed your Bell's Palsy? Did that change the way you dealt with things? Lots of gossip, lots of comments. I could imagine going from the position that you were in -- from ultimate rock sex god to...."
Savage: "It was hard to come to terms with and to understand why. I found it was easy to get into the 'why me?' syndrome. Partly because of the disability. It was more not being able to eat properly, or not being able to sleep without putting a patch on your eye because your eye wouldn't close, and things like that. The effect that it has on your everyday life was the hardest thing. In comparison, it was a very minor debilitating disease. It keeps you humble seeing what Rick Allen went through and how he had to deal with things. So, I would rather have not got the disease, but I did and you make the best of what you got".

Personal life

Savage currently lives in Sheffield with wife Paige and their two sons, Tyler and Scott, and Paige's daughter Jordan, from a previous relationship.
When he is not touring, Savage likes to spend time with the children, watch Sheffield Wednesday, and play golf.


Equipment
Savage currently uses and endorses Washburn XB920 (4-string) and XB925 (5-string) bass guitars. He formerly used Hamer 4 & 5-string bass guitars for over 17 years, starting with their Gibson Explorer-inspired "Blitz" model during the High 'n' Dry and "Pyromania" albums from 1982-1985 and Hamer's modernistic take on the shape, the "Scarab" model of whih he mainly used a white model during the "Hysteria" recording sessions and tour (although Savage continued to use a black-colored "Blitz" downtuned DADG for the hit single "Pour Some Sugar On Me" which can be seen on their "In The Round, In Your Face" live video and DVD) from 1985-1989. At the release of Adrenalize he used an array of Chaparral Max 5-string models in various colours including a black & white "Granite" finish, one with a variation of the Adrenalize album artwork custom painted on it, and a black-painted model from 1990-1999. Savage switched endorsements in the middle of the promotion cycle for the Euphoria album in 1999, and has played Washburn basses ever since, with a custom XB925 painted with the Union Jack given to him by Washburn in 1999 his main instrument since.[1]

See also

• Def Leppard

Words from the worlds greatest bass player:

We hear your next album is a mixture of Hysteria and Pyromania. What's it called?" What's the best concert you ever attended? "Queensryche at the SFX in Dublin. It's a hall that holds about 1000 people. It was on the Empire tour, 1990. The sound was amazing, it was like a huge stereo in a big hall." What's your all-time favorite TV show?"An English program called Lovejoy. He's an art dealer, a shady character." What's your specialty in the kitchen? "I make a mean prawn dish. Prawns à la Savage: prawns, onions, garlic, tomatoes, and anything else lying around the fridge that's edible--spices or vegetables. I change it every time." On What TV Show would you like to be a guest? "An English program, Match of the Day." What's always in your refrigerator?"Water." That was the worst thing that ever happened to you on stage? "The most painful thing was falling off the stage in Sydney, Australia on the last song of the set, 'Sugar.' I was bruised all over. I don't know how the guitar survived, much less me." Can you tell us about your first car? "Volkswagen Gold, 1985, white with a white soft top. It was pretty cool looking. It was the car I passed my driving test in so it will always remain in my heart." I've never been able to ... "Break 80 on a golf course." People who knew me in high school thought I was ... "Flash" What turns you on? "Women turn me on." What's your favorite childhood memory? "Playing soccer at school." What was the best pickup line you ever used? "Only people who really know me will believe this, but I never had one. I never chatted a girl up in my life. I'm a little bit shy. I've always been introduced to someone, or it just happens. I've never been one for making a move on somebody. I think people can see right through that." I'm better than anyone else when it comes to ... "Washing my hair." What's your ultimate sexual fantasy? "I think fantasies should be kept to oneself, not shared. Or at least choose who I wish to share it with." What three words describe you best? "Warm, affectionate, and cuddly." What was the worst time in your life? "After the Hysteria tour through the making ofAdrenalize." What was the worst advice you ever got? "Signing schoolboy forms for Sheffield United Football Club." The Name Game: Rockers' Best Aliases "Chris P. Bacon." What's your favorite holiday? "It would have to be Christmas. It's the one time a year I get to spend with family." What's the best revenge you ever had? "Revenge is a bit of a negative emotion, but living is the best revenge." What famous people would you invite to a dinner party? "Jimi Hendrix." What's the most embarrassing album in your collection? "I've got a few. The first one that springs to mind is Pieces of Eight by Styx. I don't mean it as an offense, I loved the group, but now I'm a bit embarrassed to admit I ever did." What was your worst airplane experience? "Trying to get to a gig in Austin, TX after playing Shreveport, LA. We had to make a connection in Dallas and the weather was so bad no flights were taking off so we chartered a plane. It was bouncing around." Do you have any regrets not choosing a soccer career? "I don't really have regrets, but I often think, I wonder what would've happened, maybe, if..... But I've had such a great life within the music that it's more of a curiousity factor, what would have happened IF. I have no regrets whatsoever. At least I'm still able to play guitar - now I'm struggling to kick a ball, with the way my ankles are and my knees and whatever. I definitely made the right decision!" "We're a pretty level-headed group. Most people think that it is wild parties and girls, girls, girls every night. We only wish." - 1984 Rick Savage on the ladies: fans and groupies "I'd find myself leading girls on when I didn't realize I was doing it. I try to distingush between proupies and a genuine fan that just wants to get to know you better. But sometimes I'd really fuck up. I'd think I was on to a fan that just wanted to talk. Then I'd find out she's trying to ring me up in the next city and writing letters. If you have no worries and no responsibilities, having all those girls around is brilliant. And it's still brilliant if you have responsibilities and you can keep them. But it becomes difficult if you start doubting the responsibilities. That's when you can spoil it." (from Animal Instinct) Rick Savage on Why he bought an apartment in America "It means that when I come to America I got a place where I can throw my bags instead of checking into a hotel or staying at a girlfriends place." Rick Savage on "On Through The Night" "This was our first, recorded in 1979 and released in 1980. Star struck teens at Ringo Starr's home recording studio in the South of England. Motorbikes in the swimming pool, Vodka bottles for days. The most fun any band ever had doing any record in any studio ... which is why we never listen to it anymore." More Savage: "All I ever wanted to do was play soccer." *** "I started out in a band called Atomic Mass. We played a lot of old Thin Lizzy and T. Rex tunes in clubs. We fired our vocalist one day and hired Joe in his place. That's when things started to happen. We got Steve [Clark] and Rick [Allen] to join up and Def Leppard was born." *** "We used to have two [album] name columns [for Hysteria]. There wasn't much in the 'serious' column. Animal instincts is the only one I can remember. Then there was the 'joke' column. Most of the titles in that one were takeoffs on Pyromania, like Paranoia. One of those was Hysteria. As I remember it, Rick came up with that one. He meant it as a joke, but it caught us all in a serious moment and, for some reason, it stuck. [Peter] Mensch liked it, Joe aid, 'Well, it's alright,' and I said, 'I don't mind.' So it stuck. Nobody objected to it, anyway." (from Animal Instinct) *** "Our fans are the best in the world. We know if we ask them to stand and cheer, they will. If we ask them to clap along they will. I guess you could call it a love affair - we love our fans and they love us." *** "When we started this band, we always concentrated on the songs. If we had five good songs together, we wouldn't just slap four more 'okay' ones together just so we could go out and play. That's why we spent so much time in that spoon factory in Sheffield before we went out to play. We did that first gig only because Steve was so pissed off and threatening to quit if we didn't go and play a gig. But there was always that feeling there - that we have to do it right. Or we don't do it at all." (from Animal Instinct) *** "We're not the type of band that will jump around the dressing room after the show--we ain't got the energy. We sit down and talk very quietly and after twenty minutes everything's back to normal." *** Rick Savage on why he wears the glove on his right hand "It's a golf glove with the fingers cut out. It protects against the blisters." Sav explains that he's been getting blisters at the base of his hand since he started playing a five-string. *** "We can't spell deadline, never mind meet one." *** "There was never a question of folding up or Rick not being able to do it - it never came up. Through Rick's attitude, we knew that he would pull through." *** "Being in a band is all about compromise. When everybody can compromise and still feel they're going in the right direction, then you have a happy band." *** "At first all we wanted to do was be successful on our home town." *** "We're doing what we want to do. Basically it's just down to the fact that we're all posers. We all want to go out on stage, pose, wear dinky white boots, tight trousers and have all the girls looking at our bollocks. That's us. We like showing off, we're arrogant bastards, it's just like ... over the top." *** "We were not into punk. We were all heavy rock fans before we formed this band." *** "We expect better things for the future now that Phil Collen is in the group." - 1983 *** "A good one was the album [Adrenalize] title. I wanted to call the album Dementia. I like the idea of having a trilogy of albums ending with 'ia'. Phil thought it was cool but wondered if it was a little contrived, like we were running out of good ia-sounding words. Joe hated it with a passion. After two and a half hours of discussion, he was so pissed off that we were still talking about this one word that he just turned around and said, 'Well, as far as I'm concerned, you might as well call the album BOB!!'" (from Rolling Stone Magazine) *** "I was having a rare weekend back in Sheffield at my local pub and somebody asked me what we were going to call the new album. I said I wasn't sure yet. Somebody turned around and said, "Why don't you call it Halley's Comet? It comes around about as often.' In fact, Halley's Comet has already been out and we are still recording." - December, 1986 *** Rick Savage on Sav on whether or he'll ever sing lead "Probably not, not on a fully-fledged Def Leppard song. I've done songs, which have gone out to other artists or whatever, with me singing on, but they're just demos. There is a song called CANDY IN YOUR HANDS, which I think nearly became a Def Leppard B-side. It's got me playing on it and singing, cause no one else performed on the track. So, not in a Def Leppard sense, but we always release "rare" songs, so there's always a chance." *** Rick Savage on How he met and proposed to Dara "At a nightclub in Dublin through a mutal friend. Nothing came out of it. Three weeks later I called her at home and asked her to go for a drink sometime. She didn't believe it was me talking to her. Our first conversation wasn't that great, so she thought someone was having a laugh with her. I said, 'You can call this number and check it out,' and finally she believed me. It went slowly at first... We liked each other very much. But I'm not a very romatic person. I said, 'If things are really going well in six months, let's think about getting married,' we were still together seven months later so we said, 'Let's do it.'" *** Rick Savage on On what he likes to do in his spare time "I love watching sports programmes, specifically soccer. Then less so, probably golf. And I like playing golf, as well... If the weather is good, which is not very often in Dublin! And generally, I like reading magazines and books. So that basically takes most of my time up." *** Rick Savage on modern songwriting influences "It's funny, cause influences can come from any angle. It could be a line in a book, it could be a song..... I've never really thought about it, if I can only get influences from rock music. Cause, the rock angle of it, is inherently in me - that will come out, regardless of what kind of song I'm trying to write. So consequently, I never really think about it.... I'm a great one for listening to the radio, especially when I'm in the car. I'd much rather listen to the radio than to put on a CD. So basically, I just get influences and ideas from anywhere. If anything, rock would be the last thing I'd let myself be influenced by like that, because I know that the rock influence comes out naturally anyways, so rock is probably one of the least examples that I would actually chose from.

From Metal Edge Magazine October 1992 (interview by Gerri Miller)

G: So your first gig in four weeks is the Concert For Life At Wembley Stadium.

Sav: "72,000 people and half million on TV. If you're going to come back, why not come back big? It's a great occasion for a worthwhile cause, and also an appropriate tribute. It's nice being part of a tribute to someone who meant so much to me personally. I don't know if Def Leppard would have existed or if I would have been doing what i'm doing had Queen not existed. It's very possible that Def Leppard might not have been a band had Queen not existed."


And that's Savage Passion