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DEF LEPPARD - X-tra Sugar This Time, Please
By Martin Popoff 

"I'm in the hills of Malibu. My closest neighbor is a
coyote (laughs). It's pretty remote but it's nice. I
like being up here. I'm far enough from so-called
civilization to feel like I get some privacy, but not
too far away where I can't go into town, just check
out what's going on, for shows or concerts or
whatever."

Ah yes, to be a rock star. That is the fate of Def
Leppard drummer Rick Allen, who is getting set to tour
the band's shockingly poppy new album X, a record that
has tongues wagging as to the lack of teeth this time
'round.

The burning question went something like this
(although the answer didn't burn quite as much as I
would have liked): Looking at this new album, are
there closet metalheads in the camp that wanted it to
be heavier, or did you all agree to this direction
immediately?

"I think songs like Cry and Scar hearken back to
almost things like Pyromania or some of the heavier
songs on Hysteria," deftly side-steps Rick. "So, I
think there are always going to be people in the camp
that want to go that way because some of our roots are
firmly in rock. But I guess a lot of us spent a lot of
time listening to Queen, so that as a vocal element,
always kind of smooth things out somewhat."

"I think X sounds more like sort of a classic Def
Leppard record, with somewhat of a contemporary sort
of sound to it," answers Rick, when asked to contrast
the album with Euphoria, which went gold in the U.S.
"It's really the record we've been wanting to make for
a long time. And I think the only way we really knew
how was to do what we know how to do best. And just
all the different producers that we brought in, it
gave it more of a commercial sort of appeal. I loved
working with Marti Frederiksen. He really set the tone
for the whole record. Fortunately and unfortunately
he's a great drummer, so he really kind of put me
through my paces. He really wanted to do all the
drums, for the three songs we did with him, using
acoustics, which was great for me, because I never
really put my acoustic drums down. That's where I
first learned and it's really in my DNA. So just the
idea that we went in there and put down all the drum
parts and then we went back and did all the cymbal
parts and then welded the two things together which
was very interesting for me. It was a challenge, but
ultimately, just the energy that you feel and hear
with the rhythm section was a really good thing. I
love the song Now, just because of its energy. It
conjures up a lot of what Def Leppard is about. It's
not necessarily the most commercial song on the album,
but I think in terms of the sound of it, it really
conjures up what we're all about. And the other song
that I just love, and I think most people would
probably agree with me, is a song called Long Long Way
To Go, which is just a beautifully written love song."


On the subject of his drumming, I asked Rick that,
given the loss of his left arm in a car accident in
the mid-'80s, if that has resulted in greater than
normal independence in his legs.

"Yeah, I can do that to a certain degree," answers
Rick. "Obviously, it's a constant learning curve. I'm
learning new things about what I can do, sort of,
every time I sit behind the drum kit. But things kind
of developed on their own, whether that's sort of a
natural progression whenever you lose the use of a
limb, or in my case, you actually lose a limb. I think
there's sort of a natural element that allows you to
do that. Your brain kind of rewires you in a certain
way. So there are things that I couldn't necessarily
do before. Maybe I didn't even think about doing them
before. But somehow my brain sort of rewired to the
degree where I have enough independence from each
limb, where I could really play things that I couldn't
play before."

Have you done anything technology-wise to pump up your
kit in the last five years?

"Other than new samplers... actually there are a
couple of things. Jerry, the guy who works with me, he
developed some pedals, because we could never really
find pedals that were reliable enough. So he went out
to the hardware store one day, came back one day with
a bunch of angle iron, and put these things together,
and they work better than anything I've used. So I
guess he just had a sense of what I needed and how I
play and made them right. And then Randy Hargis at
Akai, he's been great. Every time there's new
equipment that's available, he's really forthcoming,
'Try this out, try that out,' so now I'm using the new
Z8 samplers by Akai. I think really it's more of a
sound quality thing. If anything, we've tried to
simplify the electronics as much as we can. I mean,
really, it's as basic as we can get it."

"Originally the plan was North America first,"
explains Allen on the band's tour plans. "Things have
changed somewhat. I know we're going to be in Japan in
November and I would like to think that January would
be a good bet for America. For now, it's really just
promotional things; we've got a show in Pennsylvania
and a show in Boston and another show in New York. I
leave here on the 17th of this month and then we
rehearse 18th, 19th, and then we have the shows just
after that."

Any one-off recordings or perhaps placement of any the
X songs on soundtracks?

"Actually, it just so happens that myself, Phil and
Viv, we're going in to meet with the film and TV
department today, at our label. We were very fortunate
to meet up with some really good people when we had
the release party here, and they said any time you
guys want to come in and discuss other places we can
put the songs, then please do. So I took the
opportunity to call up and we're going to go in and
meet them today. That'll be fun."

It's surprising that still, after 22 years, there has
not been a Def Leppard live album. If Allen's comments
are a true indication of the band's machinations,
don't hold your breath. "There are so many recordings
out there, so many bootlegs," muses Rick. "There are
500 or more downloads you can get online these days.
We never... I don't know, we were never really big
live album fans. There's something that's kind of lost
a little bit in the translation. I think if somebody
is there at the concert, and they really want a live
tape of that particular show, then, to them, it's
probably different because they can take in the whole
spectacle. But to listen to a live album cold, I don't
know, there's an X factor; it misses something. No,
nobody really ever made major noises about a live
album. And like I say, we did the Don Valley thing,
which was in our hometown, and I guess if you get
that, you can turn the TV off and leave the sound on
kind of thing (laughs). And that's pretty much as we
sound live; that was pretty much as it is."

And in terms of gathering up the wealth of cool
unreleased material still out there, will we perhaps
see another Retroactive-type release some day? "I'm
sure we're due for one, and Joe, he's always... you
know, he collects everything. So I'm sure there's
stuff that I don't even know about, or that I've
forgotten about, that will surface at some point. But
like I say, I think we're probably due for a
Retroactive now just to clear out the vault."

Box set perhaps? "I think for 25 years, 25 years of
Def Leppard, we'll probably end up doing something of
that nature; that would be really cool."