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Def Leppard's ode to empty calories, 'Pour Some Sugar On Me', is a monster riff and strippers' favourite. Guitarist Phil Collen talks about the track he describes as a bit 'oo-er missus!' and reveals his all-time favourite guitar riffs
Interview: Ed Mitchell

One lump or two?

TG: How did 'Pour Some Sugar On Me' come about?

"[Def Leppard frontman] Joe Elliot was sitting in a corridor playing acoustic guitar and singing 'pour some sugar on me', and our producer Mutt Lange was like 'what's that?'. 10 days later we had the whole thing written and recorded. It was the last song we recorded for the 'Hysteria' album [1987]."

TG: The song actually has two monster riffs, the intro and the verse...

"Yeah. Mutt came in with this country thing that became the intro riff. He played it with his fingers. I can't really do that so I picked it. I used a metal pick and it sounded different. Then we needed the rest of the verse so I came up with that big rock riff."

TG: Bet you can't remember what gear you used to record the song?

"I can actually! The whole album was pretty much done on a Tom Scholz Rockman, the little headphone amp. We ran a cable from the headphone socket to the mixing desk. The intro riff was played on my silver and black crackle Jackson. I did two tracks with that and then over-dubbed with a Fender Telecaster. The rest of the song was played on 'Felix', my black 1978 Fender Strat that was fitted with a humbucker from my original Ibanez Destroyer."

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