Before joining
Def Leppard in 1978, Clark played cover songs with his band Electric Chicken in Sheffield. Around that time, he met
Pete Willis (Def Leppard's original guitarist and founder) at a technical college. Willis spotted Clark reading a guitar book and asked if he played. He then invited Clark to come and audition for his band, as they were looking to add a second guitarist. Clark never showed up, but when Willis and singer
Joe Elliott bumped into Clark again at a
Judas Priest concert, Willis re-issued his invitation. Clark finally came down to their rehearsal room and joined Def Leppard in January 1978. According to Elliott in
Behind the Music, Clark auditioned for Def Leppard by playing all of
Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" without accompaniment. While a member of Def Leppard, Clark wrote or co-wrote almost all of the band's songs. Toward the end of the
Pyromania recording sessions in 1982, Pete Willis was asked to leave the band, and guitarist
Phil Collen was recruited to replace him. Clark and Collen developed the trademark dual-guitar sound of Def Leppard. The fact that they came from entirely different musical backgrounds also contributed to their unique guitar partnership. Clark was a classically trained musician who knew the rules of music and could read and write music and understood the theory and science of the art, as well as studying/being influenced by
Jimmy Page and
Led Zeppelin; whereas Collen, like Willis, was self-taught and developed his fast, alternate-picking technique from studying
Al Di Meola and listening to jazz players. Clark once said, "I do read and write and I know the rules of music which is great in a two-guitar band because we're so different in our approach to playing. Phil will play something if it sounds right, whereas I look at things and say: 'it's wrong to play that note; it's not musically correct'." Clark primarily played
Gibson Guitars during his career and signed an endorsement with
Gibson in 1987. Gibson made some custom-specification guitars for Clark. He was occasionally seen playing other guitars, including a
Fender Stratocaster for the song and video "Love Bites". Clark would also use Fenders in the studio occasionally, due to their unique sound. Although his name appears on many songwriting credits for Def Leppard's 1992 album,
Adrenalize, he did not contribute much to the recording of the album. In the liner notes of the
Adrenalize deluxe edition, Joe Elliott claims that a few riffs Clark had demoed were used in a couple of places on the album. His only other contribution was an occasional approval of what the rest of the band was working on, referring to it as "cool". The song "White Lightning" described the effects of Clark's alcohol and drug addictions. However, the deluxe rerelease of
Adrenalize features a demo of the song "
Tonight", which Clark performed in, having been recorded in 1988, intended to be a B-side for
Hysteria. Clark was involved in the recording of the demo for the band's 1995 single "
When Love & Hate Collide", just days before his 1991 death. The song at the time was reminiscent of the
Hysteria and
Adrenalize sound as opposed to the newer sound of the next album
Slang. The demo of this song contains the final solo Clark ever performed. A demo of Clark's solo was found for the song "
Stand Up (Kick Love into Motion)" but was never integrated into any official material.
Tesla, who opened for Def Leppard on the
Hysteria tour, recorded a tribute to Clark entitled "Song & Emotion (To Our Friend, Steve 'Steamin' Clark)" for their album
Psychotic Supper. In 2007, Clark was ranked No. 11 on ''
Classic Rock Magazine's'' "100 Wildest Guitar Heroes". In 2019, he was posthumously inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Def Leppard. ==Personal life==