Richard Savage

Rick Savage is an English musician best known for being the bass guitarist and one of the founding members of the English rock band Def Leppard. Savage have performed on every album.

As a bassist, you should be the perfect bridge between the rhythm and the colour”

When he grew up he learned to play guitar along with his older brother. He also pursued a career as a professional football player. Savage ultimately chose music and formed a band with a few schoolmates including Tony Kenning and Pete Willis. As Atomic Mass they mostly played Queen, Slade, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix, and other popular covers of the time.

At one point, they decided that Willis was the better guitar player so Savage picked up the bass guitar. They recruited Joe Elliott as frontman,
and later picked up guitarist Steve Clark and changed their name to Def Leppard.

Savage uses plectrums, and has never really been a fingerstyle guitarist.

I’m a terrible player with my fingers and I always play with a pick. I love to have consistency within the sound no matter where you are on the fretboard."

On the stage, he owns the spotlight:

Some of the stuff we do is very simple on paper. The melody doesn’t move. I might be playing an A note for 16 or 24 bars, so I’ll be waving at the crowd with my free hand, just gesturing to people. It’s a bit more showman-like, because I would get awfully bored doing it stood by the hi-hat. I’ve got to have fun!

As a result, I’m a very aggressive player. I hold the plectrum in such a way that it almost scratches the string. It’s not a clean pluck, more like a scrape, so when you play eighth notes, you get the bottom-end and a sheen on top – almost like a bass keyboard. It’s a little more rounded and bigger.”