Steve Clark joined up with Def Leppard in 1978 after being recruited by original guitarist and founding member Pete Willis. Clark and Willis shared lead guitar duties until Willis left the group due to his drinking problems.

Clark was very influential during his years with the group and contributed very significantly to the band. Has has been credited as having a major role in the creation of the group’s material at the time.

A new book by Clark’s former girlfriend, Lorelei Shellist, herself no stranger to the glare of the spotlight with her background as a runway model and actress, sheds new light on the struggles that Clark dealt with that may have contributed to his untimely death in 1991.

Shellist recently revealed news of the new book by way of the New York Post’s “Page Six,” and talked about “living on the other side of glamour.”

She goes on to say,  “Nobody talks about the lonely side of it, traveling from city to city living out of a suitcase. I believe [Clark] had serious manic-depressive disorders and OCD.”

What Shellist says about some of Clark’s habits provides further evidence that he probably contributed greatly when it came to writing music for Def Leppard. In another quote, she says: “He was a brilliant musician and songwriter, but he would wake up in the middle of the night and write. He could never get a good night’s sleep . . . he was haunted."

Clark’s death at the age of 30 in 1991 was ruled an accidental overdose that resulted from a night of heavy drinking mixed with the consumption of anti-depressants and pain killers. Clark was on a leave of absence from the group at the time of his death, to provide him with some time to deal with his drinking problems.

Lorelei Shellist’s new book, Runway Runaway, is scheduled for release on November 25th and can be ordered on the website that has been set up to promote the book. There is also a book tour in the plans for Shellist that is scheduled to begin sometime this fall.