Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen has elaborated on the family emergency that caused him to fly home to California just four shows into his band's co-headlining tour with Journey.
Trixter guitarist Steve Brown subbed for Collen while he rushed to be at his wife Helen L. Simmons' side during what proved to be a harrowing birth.
"...[There] was real bad complications," Collen told Rock Talk with Mitch Lafon. "She actually died and they brought her back to life, and internal bleeding and just craziness. This isn't common knowledge, but it is now. So I was actually on tour, and when this happened, I obviously had to go to California."
By the time Collen returned to his band, drummer Rick Allen announced in an interview that everyone in the family was doing well, including the new addition.
"He's got a beautiful son, so everything went really well," Allen said at the time.
Collen added that Helen and their son, Jackson, are both "doing great."
He went on to thank Brown for allowing the show to go on without him. Collen says his substitute Brown, who filled in for Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell on a tour a few years ago, happened to be coming to see the band on tour. So it couldn't have worked out better.
"I said, 'Can you step in for me?'" Collen recalled asking Brown before leaving. "Everyone was cool. They said, 'Go.' I went, and everything was fine. Everything is great now."
Def Leppard is on a co-headlining tour this summer with Journey until October. Get all the tour dates here.
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