“The great thing about art is it’s subjective, so you can talk to the teacher and go, ‘Look, I don’t want to do this bowl of fruit. Can I do a rock poster?”” Joe said during an episode of All Things Considered.
He added, “I spent the whole term just making up posters for bands that I’d like to see or wish I’ve seen. Eventually, I just started making names up because I got bored, and one of them just happened to be Def Leppard.”
While the name started out as Deaf Leopard, Joe’s bandmates weren’t happy to be named after an animal with a hearing impairment. Def Leppard’s original drummer Tony Kenning was the one who suggested they mix up the spelling.
Joe added, “Tony just drew a line through the A and stuck a line down the O so we could still see the original spelling, but he had graffiti on top. It wasn’t until maybe a month later when somebody wrote it out again that we noticed, ‘Well, it looks like Led Zeppelin,’ but at the time, we all went, ‘We’d rather look like them than The Flying Lizards, so stick with it.’ Silly name, really, but look at racehorses—I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that doesn’t have a silly name.
After uncovering the story of the name’s origin, fans flocked to X to share their thoughts. “I could understand not wanting to use the name Deaf Leopard. Great name modification!” one person wrote.
Another suggested, “Think how different your future would have been had that teacher said: “Keep drawing fruit! Fruit, fruit, and more fruit!””
“The perfect, and coolest band name ever,” someone else posted while a fourth fan commented, “Very cool. Thanks for letting us know that bit of your band’s story. Rock on!” Another simply said, “Love it! Simple.
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