This edition contains the transcript from MTV - Europe's Head Banger's Ball that aired on May 16, 1996. Carole Benson and her daughter Sarah took on the herculean of this transcription, and worked their bodies to the bone to bring this to us. Thank you Sarah and Carole!! One warning comes from Carole and Sarah... this is a direct transcription. Therefore they typed out everything precisely as it was said. Warts and all. No clean-up was done make grammatical sense. So... slip Slang in the cd and enter into the Head Banger's Ball. ================================================================= This is a transcription of MTV Head Bangers Ball 16/5/96 entitled Talkin' Slang with Def Leppard. The interview was conducted by presenter Vanessa Warwick, in Griffith Park, LA on 12/5/96 and was interspersed with live footage of the band rehearsing at Mates Rehearsal Studio. - Carole VANESSA: .... from Sunny Los Angeles, where tonight I'm going to be talking some Slang with Def Leppard. We're joining the guys in the rehearsals for their upcoming world tour, we're going to be checking out some rehearsal performances and if you sent in a question to the band listen up, because they might be answering it direct to you! So Slang with me right now on Headbanger's Ball with Def Leppard........ (SHOT OF MATES REHEARSAL STUDIO) (SHOTS OF BAND REHEARSING) (SIGN SAYING 'CLOSED SESSION DEF LEPP PERSONNEL ONLY YES THIS MEANS YOU YA SCHMUCK') (SHOTS OF BAND REHEARSING) SLANG VIDEO VANESSA: Yes indeed, tonight HBB is talking Slang to Def Leppard. The show's coming to you from Los Angeles. We're kickin' it here in Griffith Park and first up tonight I've got Sav and Joe joining me in the sunshine in LA so er, makes a change from Dublin doesn't it which was the last time we met? So, how are you guys doin'? SAV: Yeah, great thanks. It's a little warmer than the last time we met in er, what? December of last year. Yeah, it's great, great. VANESSA: And then we were talking Vault but tonight we're talking a little bit of Slang, and we've got some viewers questions for you. And first up a lady that was featured in our last show. Carole Benson from the UK, wrote to us on the Internet and she says "Can you explain a little bit about the rehearsal process", as we are joining you here in rehearsals, "and how does that kind of build up to the World Tour, how long does it take, and what's involved?" SAV: Er, we normally take around about three weeks, to actually, to do most of the rehearsal. The first week of those three is complete chaos really. We're just setting up gear. In fact, Joe's generally not even there for that part. And it's basically just getting the gear together, and just getting balances, and working through the music without any vocals whatsoever. (SHOTS OF BAND DOING JUST THAT) And then the following two weeks we really start looking at the songs and playing through 'em. (SHOT OF SET LIST BAND ARE REHEARSING: ACTION HIT 'N' RUN, WORK IT OUT, ROCKET, HYSTERIA, ANIMAL, TURN TO DUST, LOVE BITES, TRUTH, BILLY, HEARTBREAK, SWITCH, ROCK ROCK, ROCK OF AGES, ARMAGEDDON IT, PHOTOGRAPH, SUGAR) VANESSA: And coming up with a set list and what not? SAV: Yeah, I mean, that always gets cha.., that can get changed during a tour really, so that type of thing will probably go right up to the last minute and just see how it goes. VANESSA: O.K. thank you for that. And Sarah and Susannah in Portugal have the question: 'Who came up with the album title 'Slang' and you know, why? What does it mean? JOE (looking just as hot as previously, yet somehow strangely cool in sunglasses): Phil! Phil came up with it. And don't ask me why (throaty chuckle). He just did. We all thought it sounded good. I mean, y'know, slang is the misuse of any given language and rock'n'roll generally, is totally, y'know, a misuse of any language, usually English. Y'know, 'I ain't got nobody' and all that kind of ain't this and ain't that isn't not generally what you'd say in the House Of Commons, y'know what I mean? VANESSA: But also, it's like on this album musically you're talking a new vocabulary as well, so it fits. JOE: We are. And in fairness, it's actually probably less slang than possibly some of the other stuff we've done in the past. Because things like Pour Some Sugar On Me and Armageddon It were very slang influenced, and there's like a couple of things on here, especially the title track where that's more, y'know, along the same lines. But it just seemed like the perfect title really. It's kind of loose and funky and streetwise, that kind of thing. VANESSA: O.K. Well there you go Sarah and Susannah in Portugal. That's going out for you and er right now we're going to check out Def Leppard on video. And er we're going to look back to the Vault Greatest Hits album which kind of closed the chapter and opened another one for Slang. And we're going to check out the hit single 'When Love And Hate Collide'. (WHEN LOVE AND HATE COLLIDE VIDEO) VANESSA: And Sav and Joe still with me, and moving on to another Internet question from Sue Smith and she says, and I think this is a good question, 'How much of a challenge was it to change musical direction at this point in your career, without Mutt Lange?' SAV: It's. We didn't look at it as a challenge at all really. I mean it's something that we've been wanting to do for a good few years. It would have been a lot harder in actual fact to just make the same old records that we've been making for the last eight years, y'know. Because we didn't really want to do that any more and it was just such an obvious thing within the group to record in a different way and because of that actually produce something that sounds a little different, y'know. And so it was , it was very natural for us to do it this way because we've been wanting to do it for years y'know. VANESSA: O.K. Well, following on from that, this a little observation on my part: the album does have such a different vibe, feel, to your previous albums. Kind of less sing-a-long and get on the dance floor and more stay in and light some candles and some incense. Now where does that vibe come from? (Sav giggles) JOE: Haight Ashbury. Who knows! Again, it's just logical progression for us. y'know, we could be, y'know, we can pretend for the rest of our lives to carry this, like, mantle of want to be like the champions of 'adolescent rock' forever but it gets stupider the more you get, y'know, the older you get and sooner or later you've got to realise that it's just an internal thing to move on and do something else. We made a trilogy of big production albums and y'know they do tend to go in threes and after we'd finished the Adrenalize album, off we went on tour and half way through the tour we just, it just became a very natural thing this for us to..... we're going to make a different kind of record and we were all thinking along those lines as we finished the tour. So as every body went off to do their own thing for a few months we were writing songs that weren't coming from where we'd been. Y'know something like, well I need to do another Sugar, or we'll need to do another this that and the other. Everybody writing in their own direction and we just pulled all the best ideas when we actually got together in Spain. It works, and it worked perfectly for us really. I can see what you mean about it, y'know. I think that Slang might get a few people on the dance floor but things like Pearl of Euphoria..... VANESSA: Generally, overall JOE: 'Where Does Love Go When It Dies', Turn To Dust. Things like that. They are definitely going to be, like sit down on the old big fluffy cushion and get the incense out that's for sure. VANESSA: O.K. Well we're going to talk more about the looser production and whatnot after this short break. So we're going to check out a little bit of Def Leppard live in rehearsals. (LIVE REHEARSAL OF WORK IT OUT) VANESSA: Some more info for you now coming atcha from Joe, also to say Hi to Rick for the first time. Nice to have you back on the HBB Rick. How are you? RICK: Really good thanks. VANESSA: Good, you look great, you're looking well. So, a question on the Internet, from, now this came from Alexa Reynolds from Oregon in the USA. I don't know if she can actually see the show but she would like to know who came up with, who did the artwork for Slang and who came up with the concept? JOE: It's a company from Vermont in America called, erm, JDK and they er normally do a lot of adverts for, like, skateboard magazines and like surfing. It's kind of real, kind of youth culture stuff and we just fancied a change and they seemed very vibrant and now. And so it's like we changed the tack with the music and we wanted to change the tack of the sleeve as well. And the whole, the sleeve, has a kind of an Indian-ish kind of flavour to it too that probably and I think that it's probably because we were coming up with the sleeve just as we were kinda working on Turn To Dust and it all just seemed to tie in together. VANESSA: Excellent, good and now Katja from Zweikow in Germany, I'll give this one to Rick. She wants to know was this album more of a band effort and could you explain a little bit the song writing process for the album. RICK: It was a lot more of a band process. I think on Adrenalize we were a little bit sort of going through the motions. We were a little bit, well, we were very worried about Steve's situation. And I think that with the addition of Vivian I think the whole way of recording with Slang was so much more of a team effort and I think for us it's a complete success now simply because we, y'know, we made it the way that we did and er song writing, a lot of it was actually started in everybody's various home studios and then when we arrived in Spain everybody sort of played their ideas and, erm, we picked out what we liked, what we didn't like and then sort of pieced it together and Leppardized it as we say. VANESSA: Excellent! And for you Rick also just a little aside here. You actually have played an acoustic drum kit for the first time in a long while, haven't you? RICK: Erm, since we did the first and second albums it became a lot more convenient, especially after I lost my arm, to use electronic drums especially with the sounds that we were using throughout the 80's and, erm, y'know again like Joe was saying, changing tack a little bit with the music it just seemed like the right time to, er, go for a different sound , something that was a little more earthy and I was starting to miss the physical (SHOTS OF RICK REHEARSING) aspect of playing drums on records anyway so the whole idea of playing acoustic drums really just set the tone and that's why it sounds the way it does really. VANESSA: Great, thanks for that..... VANESSA: Joe and Rick kicking it here with me, and more viewers questions on the way right now. And Lee Durran wrote in and he would like to know will the presentation of the new live set reflect the more relaxed approach on the Slang album? RICK: I think it will be a more relaxed approach, especially when we get rehearsals into shape but, but er the whole production thing will be a lot more basic as well and, er, I think it puts the emphasis back on the band again as opposed to this, y'know, huge thing that was getting bigger than the band (laughs) JOE: Yeah, no more 'Ooh look at that lovely drum riser', it's more like 'Ooh listen to that lovely drum sound'. VANESSA: Yes JOE: That's what it is, y'know. And I think the word relaxed is a bit strange cos it's not like as if we're going to go out there on stools and rocking chairs. RICK: (looking at Joe mutters something like - I can!) JOE: Well you can, cos you're playing the drums. You can sit in a rocking chair if you like. But I mean, it's going to be kick-ass and all that stuff like a Rock band should be. But it's just like, instead of having banks and banks and banks of toys. It's just going to be the band, a few lights and a lot of Marshalls basically. VANESSA: Excellent O.K. And also this is actually also a question from me to Joe. It seems to me you experimented a lot more with your voice on this album. You kind of seem to challenge yourself a lot more. Have you been taking vocal training? JOE: Well, erm, I've been doing that for a long time now anyway, but just the whole approach to the record, it was just more a case of using what I've got more to the y'know, effect of the song. Some of the songs just warranted a different approach and it was horses for courses. If I had to scream like a barking dog like I've done in the past then I did, but on a lot more of the songs the emphasis was much more on singing rather than screaming the way that I've done in the past. The way that say Johno does in AC/DC, that kind of thing. I wanted to avoid that this time cos I think that it dates it a little bit and with things like Work It Out I got to use my, like, er,..... VANESSA: Your lower... JOE: My Iggy Pop voice (he says it really deep) RICK: I thought it was something to do with those Testosterone pills you've been taking! JOE: Yeah well, it's those too, but erm you, you wake up in the morning with a deep throat... VAN: EXCUSE ME! Rick holds his head laughing, JOE(laughing): Deep VOICE. You tend to use it to your advantage , y'know, and that's what it was like, working to your strengths, y'know and I can still do the high stuff like you heard in rehearsals. It's still there... (ROCK OF AGES REHEARSAL CLIP) VANESSA: Joining us now it's Phil. And Joe's still here and, erm, more questions for you guys about the record. Phil, was the looser production on the album one of the most important statements about Slang? PHIL: Well it wasn't necessarily something that was a priority but didn't have to be loose. We just didn't want to have to do it the same way as we had in the past, y'know. I think we've got so sick of recording separately, and doing everything under a microscope, it was a kind of reaction against that really. So, I mean that wasn't the criteria to be loose, but it was a lot of fun. I mean, a lot of the guitar's stuff were like one-takes. And, we didn't spend the time actually getting the sounds or anything. It was......all the effort went into the songs and stuff, as opposed to the production. VANESSA: And of course you recorded in a house in Marbella, and really set up the studio there which must have been a much more kind of relaxed vibe than stuck in a concrete box somewhere. JOE: Yeah, damn right, yeah. Y'know we could actually turn up there, Phil'd put the coffee on, cos I notoriously make really bad coffee. But he'd make the coffee, grab a cheese sandwich and if we weren't ready to start we'd go and sit outside, round the pool, with a view similar to this, but instead of it being like a mountain of city it was just, like, ocean and it was so much more, y'know, vibey than being in, as Phil said, like a dungeon. I mean, studios notoriously have no windows so it's like being in a box, y'know, so you can't tell if t'suns gone down or whether it's still up, or what. You can actually see the sun go down which is a good yardstick. It's, like, dinnertime! VANESSA: Excellent! Very inspiring as well, I think, was it? JOE: Yeah. VANESSA: But in that environment it must have been a bit like being on holiday in a way. Did you find that that brought you, kind of, closer together as a band? PHIL: Totally! No grown-ups, just, like, a bunch of idiots like us. VANESSA: Lads! PHIL: Yeah, but it was, it was really like going on a school vacation or something. Y'know, and a great view, see North Africa on a clear day, actually pretty much every day. And it was, it was inspiring. We's actually kicking ourselves that we never done it before, but, erm, I'm glad we did do all that, I'm glad we spent a long time. Y'know, we learnt so much from Mutt and making records the way we used to that it allowed us to do that and get this new enthusiasm that we haven't had since, I actually can't, erm, remember. It was actually like being in a garage band. VANESSA: That's fantastic. That is great. Well, thank you. VANESSA: Moving back over to Phil and Joe and, erm, a question here for you Phil. Do you think that the new language of Slang will be understood by younger and older fans equally? PHIL: LANGUAGE?! What do you mean? VANESSA: Vocabulary. PHIL: Er, yeah, why not? VANESSA: Because it's been quite a radical departure for you. PHIL: Yeah, but y'know we accept it. It's kind of, yeah, we're fine with it so I'm sure everyone else is going to be. Yeah, absolutely. VANESSA: Good. And talking of fans, a question from Denece Gerlach of Texas USA coming in over the Internet, and she would like to know; why do you suppose that Def Leppard fans are so dedicated to you? Her theory is, that it's because she feels that you give so much back to the fans. JOE: Well, erm, he's better at doing that than I am. I get this reputation for, like, he never talks to anybody usually, but, I mean, I do. I don't know, I must give off some really bad aura. But Phil sits around the hotel for like hours and hours talking to people, about all sorts of stuff. But we do give a lot back. We've always put the effort in. That's the thing with the band collectively, we're not lazy. It's a job and you've got to do it right and we put all the effort in and literally every second we're awake we're doing something for this band. PHIL: We've only had one break in the last eleven years and that's the end of Adrenalize tour and that's when we took six months off. JOE: Yeah, and what happened? PHIL: Yeah, really. JOE: Six WEEKS into it we started writing for the new album. Cos you start getting itchy fingers and itchy pens and itchy brains and things. PHIL: We get slagged: 'Oh how come you take so long doing an album' it's cos we want it to be right, y'know. We have a pride in it and that's important to us y'know. If we didn't feel that way, I don't think we could get out there and front it, y'know. It'd be bogus, y'know. You've got to be proud of what you do. VANESSA: Absolutely. PHIL: And that's how we feel about it. The whole band has operated that way. We've always tried to make every element of it better, whether it's alive show or the record y'know. VANESSA: I think people can tell if it's actually coming from the heart. PHIL: Yes, I thinks so. You hear......I don't want to actually name anyone but, there's so many bands who go through the motions and we feel we don't do that, y'know. We try and progress all the time and just keep growing and we really think we've that now, with the new album. VANESSA: Definitely. I think you definitely have. O.K. Lots of questions about Rory, your son. Rory, come on. Quickly! VANESSA TO CAMERAMAN: Can you just turn round there? SHOT OF RORY WHO WON'T FACE THE CAMERA PHIL: Rory! VANESSA: That's little Rory over there. That's Phil's son. Wave to us Rory! (RORY RUNS AROUND BUT REFUSES TO COME TO THEM) Oh no! He's a bit camera-shy. O.K. JOE: He's the assistant tour manager now! VANESSA: He's assistant tour manager and directing this video shoot. Bye Rory! O.K. Er, we're going to check out a track from Retroactive album. Def Leppard with Action........ (ACTION VIDEO) VANESSA: Hi, welcome back to Headbanger's Ball, kickin' it here in sunny Los Angeles, talkin' some Slang with Def Leppard. And Joe and Viv are with me now. And first question to Joe, actually, erm ,talking about the lyrics, Now it seems to me that there's quite a lot of soul searching on the lyrics on Slang. Could you kind of, which do you think is the darkest track, and which do you think is the kind of, more light hearted lyrics? JOE: Erm. Well, the most lighthearted one would be Slang itself. Erm, I think that's about the only song on the album that's kind of got a foot in the old sound. It's just three minutes worth of pop music really. And it's kind of, it's basically about phone sex (SMILING). VANESSA: Yes, I know. I was going to say. Is that something you indulge in? JOE: It's disguised a little bit. Occasionally, I suppose. A little bit, yeah, but not the 976 numbers, no. Just the girlfriend. But, er, the darkest one? Hmmmmmmm (looks at Viv) Pearl of Euphoria, maybe, I'd say probably that'd probably be the thing that's.....that and Deliver Me. Deliver Me is kind of a bit pissed off thing, Yeah. VANESSA: So you were looking kind of inwards, rather than outwards on those darker songs? JOE: On Pearl of Euphoria definitely. On Deliver Me you just put yourself into character. It's kind of, you've got to be a bit of a Robert De Niro. Y'know, it's not necessarily about me, or anyone I know, but it could be. It's just one of those... It's generic to a point but it's like, Yeah, I've been there and done that, but not necessarily written about one specific incident. VANESSA: Right, right, O.K. Thank you. And we'll take a viewers question next. And, er, it's from Jan Lauper in Germany and he says that you used a lot of unusual instruments on Slang and how are you going to recreate these songs live? VIV: We're Not! We're going to busk it. Erm, well we didn't use too many unusual instruments on... Where Does Love Go When It Dies. It's almost a completely acoustic track and Phil played Mandolin, I played Dulcimer, which is an American folk instrument. Y'know, obviously if we do do that track live, which we're not planning to at the minute, we're not going to whip out these instruments, because that's not really what we're about. Y'know it's still a guitar band. Erm. Turn To Dust has a Indian orchestra on it and basically all we've done is, we've just had to play the parts, the orchestra parts on guitar. I mean, that's where they came from originally. Phil scored them on the electric guitar and then you can be, y'know, you can just get out of the habit of playing.. 1/4 notes and such and use a few effects, so basically you just try and reproduce it for a live situation. I mean, you can never really go out and recreate what is on a Def Leppard record anyway. So.... (SHOTS OF LIVE REHEARSAL - TRUTH) VANESSA: And now we're going to see another Def Leppard video, now. And what year are we going back to: JOE: 1987, I think. VANESSA: 1987. Absolutely. Here we go, classic title track of that killer album, Hysteria. (HYSTERIA VIDEO) VANESSA: (SURROUNDED BY ALL 5 BAND MEMBERS)O.K. From 1987 we're going to , vroof, fast forward to 1996 and talk about the Slang world tour. And I believe you guys are going to be out on the road for something like 2 years. So are you looking forward to getting back on tour? ( Phil says something, the rest start laughing) SAV: Well I don't know, I don't know if it's going to be 2 years. I mean, we can only plan so much and I think we've got about the first six months planned and then after that we'll see what's happening. And hopefully it'll be 2 years, but you never know, it all depends on whether people want to see us and people buying the record and things like that. VANESSA: Oh, O.K. And so what's itinerary the you've got so far. PHIL: We start in South East Asia on the 28th, in Thailand. We end in Japan on the 22nd. And then we come to the States for the Summer. We get over to Europe, probably September, no, October/November. And then, erm, that's as far as we know really. And there's probably South Africa, South America and stuff like that afterwards. And if anyone wants to see us there we'll go there as well. VANESSA: Excellent. And what can we expect set list wise? I know it's early days yet, in terms of rehearsals, but how much stuff are you going to be playing? JOE: Ah, we're still doing the David Bowie thing right now. Cutting it up and throwing it in the air and rearranging it, and seeing which ones... VANESSA: I heard that story. JOE: But, er, we've rehearsed about 4 or 5 new ones so far and, y'know, it's got to the stage now where we can actually do them or not do them. Y'know, rehearse it a couple of days in sound check and stick it in if we want to. So we're not going to be as rigid on this tour as in the past. With all the technology we had with all the lasers and all, it was so difficult and programmed in such a way as if you did the songs in a different order to how you'd done them the night before, it was hell to the people operating it to change things round. Because we're going out so stripped down, it's more like it's kind of, not so much like, but if we could.... VANESSA: You're trying to say it's more fluid. JOE: Yeah, we could actually turn round and say lets do these another way round tonight and it won't be a problem. PHIL: We did that the other night, actually. We done this fraternity thing for the radio live thing. And then when we finished the set that we'd done, and it was like, what shall we do, and we were all standing there talking and there was all these kids and they started shouting out requests. So we just done 'em. We literally done 'em. And it's the first time we've really been able to do that and it was very cool. VANESSA: Great. And just to finish then. What's the greatest challenge than about this upcoming World Tour? VIV: Erm, staying healthy. VANESSA: Yeah. VIV: I suppose. VANESSA: That's a good one. VIV: It's hard. I mean it's a lot of work. And it's actually very very physical. So drink lots of water, and eat your carrot sticks. I've been bringing carrot sticks to rehearsal every day and handing them out to the guys, so y'know, and just avoiding the fact that they're all gay, so you have sort of got to watch yourself in the shower. I mean, I'm not homophobic or nothing, but y'know. JOE: YES you are. VIV: No I'm not. I just want the world to know. (Points at Joe) VANESSA: There's going to be big fight now. Just say Au Revoir, a message to the fans in Europe. JOE: My bottom is really hot. Cos this pavement is boiling, and I'm sat on it. My butt is boiling, so there you go! I've got... RICK: Gig Butt. JOE: Yeah, not quite gig butt. It's more like, just interview butt. That's what it is. But we will (waves) see you guys on tour in October/November. So stay tuned for details. I'm sure Vanessa will tell you all about it. VANESSA: OF course. O.K. Well, All that remains is for me to say a huge thank you to Def Leppard for spending some time with us and hanging out here in LA. It's been great to talk to you guys, lots of luck with Slang! It's out on Monday isn't it? It's out this past Monday, so you can go out and buy it right now. O.K. That's it. Next week we've got a White Zombie special for you and for tonight you are welcome to stay around for Into The Pit and, erm, we've got the new video from Cannibal Corpse for you, 'Devoured by Vermin'. PHIL: We can't wait. JOE (puts his thumbs up): Right! VIV: Maybe something like Crowded House? VANESSA: No Viv! VIV: Damn Vanessa: All right, we're signing off from LA. From Def Leppard and myself See Ya. BAND: See Ya (LIVE REHEARSAL - PHOTOGRAPH) CREDITS