Def Leppard's Rick Allen

Oh man, about once a year. That's about all the body can stand these days. We're really boring. But really funny - when you get the five of us in a room together, it's off the scale. Any kind of excess has fallen by the wayside and been replaced by intense humour, open-minded to the point of obscenity. It's very funny to be part of this organisation and there's always something to be thankful for and something to laugh at, and there are always people to appreciate.

Yeah, that's about it. Peppermint tea as well. I'm off the caffeine at the moment.

No, it's not. It's sad really. I've been off the caffeine for about three or four months. I go to sleep when I should be going to sleep, and I don't feel like I need coffee when I wake up. Cos that was starting to get me, too much coffee. Although at least it's not too much heroin, you know? Hahaha.

I guess addictive crutches come in many different flavours.

Absolutely. So I'm doing pretty good at the moment. Peppermint tea, nice fruit-topped croissants [gestures at coffee table full of nice fruit-topped croissants].

I don't think I ever did. But we did trash a couple of hotel rooms back in the day with fire extinguishers, which was quite fun. The dry powder ones especially. It coats everything in the room with a very fine powder, and it looks like you haven't been in the room for about 10,000 years.

Oh no no no no. No, no, no, no. No. We did get into trouble. Once we set a fire extinguisher off while someone was in the room. It just happened to be my brother. He was in there with a girl.

I'm sure.

I think we've written some really decent songs, but I think the real secret to our success is being able to stay together for 30 years. The life expectancy for most bands today is four or five minutes. It's sad, in a way; they don't get to really experience what it's like to have history.

Yeah. It's scary that people can just disappear by the wayside. But we're very blessed, we've been given the foresight to realise why we're together, and really it's the friendship.

It's a bit of both, I think. I've heard sometimes it's difficult for a real guitar player to play the game, because you're missing out so many notes. But I think a combination, when you're starting out, is good for dexterity. Then you can move on to the real thing.

Guitar Hero is way less mindless than just sitting down in front of the TV. At least there's interactivity and a sort of educational curve. I saw a YouTube video the other day of somebody on Expert level doing Nine Lives, and that was fantastic. I think if you're a fan, it's a great way to really tear these songs apart and get inside them.

Really? That's fantastic.

That's brilliant. Now that sounds more appealing to me. Then there's rhyme to the reason, and the fact it follows their history is clever. I'd love to introduce my own daughter to something like that, a Def Leppard game where she could follow the history of the band. That would be really cool.