10 Hard Rock Musicians That Died Too Soon

In terms of the grand tale of hard rock, Def Leppard occupies a bit of a weird position. While some fans love them for getting them into the genre to begin with, other seasoned metalheads saw the band's pop-centric direction as a betrayal of their hard rock roots. Regardless of how you felt about them, no one could deny the guitar chops of the band's wild man Steve Clark.

When most of the metal community was focused on lightning-fast melodic runs, Clark's real strong suit was always in coming up with off-the-wall guitar riffs that would get ingrained in your psyche like on "Wasted" and "Gods of War." Though his playing pushed Def Leppard forward across each album, his troubled past ended up catching up with him.

Not on good terms with his own family, Clark often found refuge in drugs, which led to many tragic episodes, like being found in a gutter with a blood-alcohol level of double the amount that killed Led Zeppelin's John Bonham. Though the band tried every recovery center they could find, Clark was found dead in his home in 1991, having passed away in his sleep. Def Leppard may sound a lot different these days without Clark, but his spirit is still present whenever the band takes to the stage.