By the time Leppard began work on High ’N’ Dry, the gang’s shared sense of injustice was also growing. “Too big for our boots?” Elliott asks rhetorically, the edge still in his voice 30 years later.

Following the release of their 1980 debut LP On Through the Night, the British hard rock group Def Leppard was gradually building their following that continued with their sophomore record, 1981's ...