http://www.gwinnettdailyonline.com/GDP/archive/articleF427B7E778764ADDA8F424E9A3ADE0EE.asp

May 2, 2003

After 20 years, Leppard still bringing 'Rock of Ages' to stages around
world Gwinnett Daily Post By Jessica Carter

Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell recently took a few minutes to share
some insight into the state of the band.

JC: Do you guys like playing festivals like Music Midtown?

VC: If you'd asked that question in the '90s I would've said it was
horrible because it was very uncool to admit to liking Def Leppard. But
that's changed. We noticed the change the last time we were on tour, '99,
2000, 2001, and we did a couple of festival shows with younger bands. 

We were fully expecting to get dissed, and it was quite the opposite. A
lot of these younger musicians are coming around saying, 'Yeah, you guys
really influenced me, you made me want to play guitar, first concert,
first album, blah, blah, blah. So in many ways it can be quite flattering.

We're very confident about what we do because we're good at what we do. We
actually are a really, really good live band. We have strong vocals for a
band of our genre, and we do it all without cheating.

So it's actually a good thing. We get to show our peers what it is we can
do, how we do our stuff.

JC: Do you find you're influenced by the bands you see?

VC: We're very influenced by the bands we play with. You could say we're
shameless plagiarists. We'll steal anything from anyone. Not exactly
steal, but we'll allow ourselves to be influenced by anyone, particularly
modern music.

JC: Do you think that's part of what's kept you successful?

VC: For this band going 20 plus years and still maintaining a career - for
that we're very, very thankful. Part of that is remaining flexible and
being able to change. Solo artists frequently reinvent themselves, but
bands tend to be like big ocean liners - you can't turn around that
quick.

JC: So are things as wild as your reputation would have us believe?

VC: God, no, are you kidding? Right now, I'm sipping a cup of lemon zinger
tea. 

Phil's eating his vegetarian food at the table. Rick's probably doing yoga
somewhere. We're so f---ing boring. I'm gonna break the mold - I'm gonna
have a beer in a little while.

People think the bus is full of hookers and lines of coke on the tables,
and that just isn't the case. But that's OK. It's no less enjoyable. It's
hard to be on tour all the time. It's work. 

When you're first starting out, you don't think about the career as much
as the moment. Def Leppard is entering its third decade - we're definitely
in it for the career.