Editing Joe Elliott (section)

== Early life and Def Leppard ==
Joseph Thomas Elliott was born in [[Sheffield]] to Joseph William Elliott (1930–2011) and Cynthia Gibson. He was educated at [[King Edward VII School, Sheffield|King Edward VII School]]. Elliott met [[Pete Willis]] (a member of a local band called [[List of Def Leppard band members|Atomic Mass]]) in November 1977 after missing a bus. Upon finding out that they were both musicians, Willis invited Elliott to meet the rest of the Atomic Mass members. The band spent hours talking and listening to records in Elliott's bedroom. Elliott tried out as a guitarist and, though the band had not heard Elliott sing, they were impressed by "his attitude and his ideas about being in a band" and he became the band's vocalist instead. The other members also took Elliott's suggestion to change their name to "Deaf Leopard." Elliott had invented the name for a band in his youth. Bandmate Tony Kenning suggested they change the band name to "[[Def Leppard]]" to distinguish them from contemporary punk bands like [[The Flying Lizards]] and [[the Boomtown Rats]]. The band claims that any apparent similarity of the name [[Led Zeppelin]] to Def Leppard was unintentional.<ref>Fricke, David. 1987. Animal Instinct: The Def Leppard Story. Zomba Books, London. {{ISBN|0-946391-55-6}}.</ref>