It all started out as a project when a young bassist named Rick Savage and guitarist Pete Willis used to skip most of their classes and smoke when they hid in alleys and had nothing to do. They realized they were about to repeat their freshman year in high school for the SECOND TIME, so they set out on doing what they do best at--playing loud, cliche heavy rock music.. Savage also had hung out with Tony Kenning since both loved Lead Seplin and other great classics from the past.They had copyright issues to name the band Def Leppard and Deaf Leopard.So they combined the to names to avoid being sued.