http://www.gibson.com/backstage/200608/viviancampbell.htm

Word for Word with Vivian Campbell

From pioneering British metal band Sweet Savage to Dio and Whitesnake to Def 
Leppard today, Vivian Campbell rode rock 'n' roll from the violent streets of 
Belfast to L.A.'s Sunset Strip. Now, with YEAH!, Def Leppard's joyful tribute 
to their early influences, he comes full circle back to the golden age of the 
glam rock that first inspired him. The album is a rollicking collection that 
includes songs by T. Rex, Sweet, and the Faces, but according to Campbell, the 
band had another reason for putting it out. "We wanted to address the 
misconception that Def Leppard are a metal band," he says. "We certainly have a 
lot of bombast—big crunchy guitars and big drums, everything louder than 
everything else. But if you strip that all away, there's pop songs under it."

"I was just really into music"

Growing up, music was very much a solace. Belfast wasn't a great place to grow 
up at that time. That was the height of the Troubles. But I was just really 
into music. Once I got into guitar playing, I was just totally focused on it 
and I gravitated toward anything that had a guitar solo in it or a guitar riff. 
I just loved the sound of a crunchy, hairy guitar. I was never a great record 
collector. But fortunately, I had friends who were. I remember skipping off 
school so many days and going to friends' houses to listen to different albums 
and different players. But I was always more of a player. I was just more 
interested in playing the instrument.

"We were very nervous and drank lots of coffee"

Oh, Sweet Savage, now we were metal. We were totally into it. I formed them 
when I was 16, and very early on we started writing our own music and playing 
out as often as possible. We really were a speed metal band, indirectly, 
because we were very nervous and drank lots of coffee. And if we rehearsed a 
song at 80 beats per minute, we probably played it at 100. Our drummer was the 
most nervous of all, and I was just a young guitarist who overplayed 
everything, trying to get all my licks in.

"It was a great time to be a guitar player"

In Sweet Savage, we were very aware of the British metal movement, but we 
really felt isolated being in Belfast. You're not part of the UK mainland, but 
you are exposed to the same media and radio and television. We were very aware 
of Def Leppard, and we were very inspired by Def Leppard—not just on a musical 
level, but also because they attained the success they did, getting "Getcha 
Rocks Off" out as a first single and getting it to John Peel to get played on 
Radio 1. And we were all the same age, and they didn't come from London, they 
didn't come from the big city. We were inspired by that, and it was an exciting 
time. It was a great time to be a guitar player. It was hard rock and heavy 
metal and that's the genre that glorifies the guitar, more than any other. I 
was as guilty as anyone of trying to put too many notes into a part. Although 
not succeeding very well. It took me many years to realize I'm not a technical 
guitar player. That's not my forte. But try telling me that when I was 16 or 17.

"I didn't realize it was the glory days"

I look back now and go, "Geez, that music was really, really big." Metal ruled 
the world in the early- and mid-80s, but I didn't realize it was the glory 
days. It was just that I was there and I was a part of it. I was spinning from 
the whole thing. I went from being in Belfast to being in L.A.! It was massive 
culture shock, hanging out at the Rainbow on the Sunset Strip on a Friday night 
and all these women hanging around. It was very distracting. From a musical and 
guitar playing point of view, what I remember most about coming to L.A. is that 
I genuinely thought I was a good guitar player until I landed in Los Angeles 
and then it was a massive blow to my confidence. GIT [Guitar Institute of 
Technology] was going on. Everywhere I turned I was meeting other musicians. It 
wasn't like in Belfast, where I knew maybe three other guys who played guitar. 
You come to LA and everybody is either an actor or a musician. And every 
musician was a guitar player and every one of them had these monster chops! 
Sweep arpeggios, alternate picking, it was mind blowing to me. It was very 
disturbing. I couldn't understand why Ronnie Dio had flown all the way to 
Europe and picked me as a guitar player, when he had all these technically 
gifted guitar players on his doorstep in L.A. But it turned out that is exactly 
why, because Ronnie didn't want that kind of guitar player, because they were 
everywhere. But I really wanted to play like that! And I was really frustrated 
that I couldn't. I spent most of the 80s spinning my wheels as a guitar player, 
just being really frustrated that I couldn't play like Paul Gilbert or Yngwie 
Malmsteen. I really wanted to do that, but it was too late by then. I was 
entirely self-taught. I learned all my bad habits early on, and spent several 
years reinforcing them. But now I am very much at peace with the kind of guitar 
player I am and I accept it. I still have a bit of envy for guitar players who 
can do that, but you are who you are.

"I knew it would be different"

Joining Def Leppard wasn't a decision that I made lightly and it wasn't a 
decision that the band made lightly. To be honest, I was through with bands. I 
had had such a bad run of luck with Dio and Whitesnake. I got fired from both 
those bands, and then I had a band called Riverdogs that fell apart. I thought, 
what's the point? And then came the opportunity to join Leppard. I could tell 
just by watching Def Leppard, and having followed their career for so many 
years, that it would not be like Dio or Whitesnake, where it is a singer's 
band. I knew it would be different. And time has proven that. It has been 14 
years since I joined the band and there's no sign of them firing me yet, so I 
think I'm alright. I also didn't feel pressure. People think there was a lot of 
pressure walking in and replacing Steve [Steve Clark, Def Leppard's talented 
and troubled lead guitarist, died of an overdose on January 8. 1991]. I didn't 
feel that. I'm sure the other guys in the band probably felt it. But because I 
had played in these other high profile bands, I didn't feel like I had to prove 
who I was. If I had come in as a total unknown, it would have been different. 
But the band made me feel very, very welcome. And I was very aware of the 
music, because I had been a lifelong Def Leppard fan. It was a great 
opportunity to be part of a band and a family, and we were more kindred spirits 
musically. A lot of people in the metal world seem to take offense when I say I 
don't like heavy metal. My first exposure to most people was as the guitar 
player in Dio, so most people assume that that was the kind of music I lived 
and breathed for. And I appreciate the energy of that music, and I enjoyed the 
challenge of it from a guitar player's point of view. But it wasn't the kind of 
music I was listening to. So it was great to be in Def Leppard and be on the 
same page musically with the other guys in the band. We all came of age 
watching Top of the Pops and listening to John Peel on the radio.

"It is just such a rock 'n' roll instrument"

T. Rex was the first one to turn me on. I remember Marc Bolan and his Les Paul. 
To me, Bolan was synonymous with a Les Paul, and with long hair! I was also 
really influenced at that time by Gary Moore and Brian Robertson and Scott 
Gorham, the guitar players for Thin Lizzy. They were all Les Paul cats. At one 
stage in my life, I could play the Thin Lizzy Live and Dangerous album note for 
note. So I bought that Les Paul when I was 14. The serial number is 72987537. 
It's the only serial number of a guitar that I have ever memorized. It just 
meant so much to me because I had to work like fucker for many, many, many 
months to get that guitar. I wanted a gold Les Paul Standard, but this being 
Ireland in the 70s, it wasn't like you could walk into Guitar Center and get 
what you wanted. I had to order the guitar and I had to wait for about six 
months. And everyday on the way back from school, I'd stop in to the music 
shop. I walked in one day and the guy said, "Good news and bad news: The good 
news is we got a Les Paul. The bad news is that it's not a gold standard, it is 
a wine red Deluxe." So being an impatient teenager, I took it. First thing I 
did—showing my Rory Gallagher influences, I hate guitars that are shiny and 
new—so I took sandpaper to it and I rubbed all the shine out of the finish. I 
eventually painted it a matte black. That was the guitar I used on the Holy 
Diver album and tour with Dio. So that was my first Les Paul. To me the Les 
Paul is synonymous to why I got into music in the first place. I go back to 
Bolan, and back to my earliest influences. They were all Les Paul guys. It is 
just such a rock 'n' roll instrument. You can't go wrong.