http://jamesonjournals.blogspot.com/2005/04/joes-responds-to-andrews-interview.html

[Hanspeter's Note: I've added prefixes to various paragraphs to indicate who is
writing what, because it was unclear in the original writeup. Otherwise, the 
interview is exactly as posted.]

SJ = Sarah Jameson, the interviewer
AM = Andrew McNiece, owner of MelodicRock.com
JE = Joe Elliott, lead singer for Def Leppard

Joe's Responds to Andrew's Interview

Sarah,

"Hi there, sorry it took so long to respond but I had some minor problems to
deal with but thankfully I've taken care of them. I just read your interview
with Andrew and the bloke does go into great detail doesn't he?


Anyway, I've taken the liberty of picking out different points he made I'd like
to respond to. I also hope you'll send me his responses to the interview we did
and I'll respond accordingly. I haven't visited the blog so I appreciate you
sending me this via e-mail Sarah. Okay here is what I think."

1. AM: "Nope...I have had zero contact with anyone or anything Leppard related
until last year - early 2004. At the time of the X release, I did nothing but
plug the band big time and posted an amazing review of X which many though was
too positive. But I stand behind that review 100% as I still think it was an
amazing album which was criminally under promoted and given the chance, could
have yielded 3 or 4 hit singles."


"I was not aware of this review he did on X at the time. Like I've said, the
reviews he does from Tasmanian rarely make it over to our shores so how could I
possibly know this. That's beside the point. I didn't even know of this website
until recently. I have yet to see this review of X, maybe I'm missing it but I
don't have time to look for it."


2. SJ: "From what I can gather, you were sent a track listing from the band
themselves and it turns out to be false. This apparently started some
controversy between you and the band."

AM: "This is the correct bit, but nothing to do with X. It was all related to
the covers album.
Here's the story. As they always are, Leppard were being all-mysterious about
what they were working on and what their next album might be.


JE: "First of all, none of us sent him the false track listing Sarah and yes it
did start something. He's right about one thing. We like to keep this to
ourselves until everything is confirmed. It's not about being mysterious here,
it's about waiting until we know for sure what's going to be on the album. We
don't want to give the public something and then have it not be there when it
finally comes out. That would be a disappointment to say the least.

Before we recorded Pour Some Sugar on Me, it wasn't even intended to be on the
album but Mutt came in when I was playing around on the guitar and singing it
and he thought it would make for a great hit and it turns out it was. It's one
of our most well known songs. I'm glad it happened because it's a well loved
song. Now, this is a part I find very amusing to say the least."


AM: So I had feelers out to see what Leppard were up to and whether I could shed
any light on it. As it turns out I did....in February 2004 I printed a news item
stating that the next Leppard album would be an all-covers affair. This was the
first mention of such a thing anywhere.

The VERY NEXT DAY an e-mail arrives from a previously unknown person, who
includes what is apparently the track listing for the CD!"

"I would not normally print anything from a previously unused source, but to
back his claim is a link to defleppard.com and a page that also listed the
songs.

They match up and so I print the news....but more fool me, the track listing is
false and if you take the first letter from each song listed, it reads:
T.H.I.S.I.S.B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T.
How stupid am I?? And sure enough, that file disappears from the DL.com site.


JE: "First of all, I don't know who sent him the track listing but apparently
this is someone within the Leppard camp, otherwise, how would he get it?
Secondly, anyone who logs onto a computer can go to the website and get the link
to it.

Every website in any relation to us, will link back to our official website so
this source's credibility is in question because all he has to back up his claim
is a link to our website??

Come on, I mean I could say go to a website I don't like under an anonymous name
and pick out different things if I feel like this guys site is questionable
about his information.

Then under the same name report it to our webmaster and he would look into it
and see that it looks legit and he'd never know it was me. The point is, it's
not that hard to make it look official if one sets their mind to it.

Someone played a joke on him but I can reassure you it was none of us and has
nothing to do with him getting an early exclusive on the Covers album. I mean we
don't want the information getting out so why would we bother with a false track
listing?

As I covered earlier on, when I say that an album isn't actually finished yet,
it means simply that we are reworking a few songs here and there and the record
companies want testing songs to see how they'll go over as singles in both the
UK and the USA. With WaterLoo Sunset, the UK liked it better than the US as the
US didn't see it as a song that would be a big hit as far as a single went.

This is going the same way with the Covers CD. We are testing the waters by
giving different sources a listen to some of the songs to see if they think it
will be a good choice to put out as a single.

Someone had obviously put their ear to the wall, got a good earful of what they
THOUGHT would be on the album, went running with it, and thereby sent it to
Andrew and he printed it up as being gospel and later had to retract it because
it turned out to be false.

I can assure you Sarah that it's not our style nor intention to give out false
information for the sake of revenge purposes because someone got an exclusive
tip on what we were up to. Perhaps this is a good lesson for this person who
sent it to him as being, never jump the gun if you don't know it's loaded.

As for it disappearing from the site, I can see why because we don't want our
fans getting false information and it was pulled and I wrote a letter about the
current album and future albums. It wasn't pulled because we were trying to hide
anything. You've seen my diaries, I'm honest about everything where the music is
concerned. It's a part of us and in a matter of speaking, it's like a lover that
we take the time to make love to, caress and they blush under our touch,
bringing fourth satisfaction.

Now, this next part, I have to speak up about because it's indicating that we
had a plant that set him up for getting the scoop on our next album and that was
not true. We have better things to do than to go back and fourth playing these
little games with Andrew. Also, I need to speak up about the next part where he
states,


AM: Shortly after I get an e-mail from Def Leppard's webmaster asking for
details of the e-mail I was sent and promising to get to the bottom of who it
was and how they got access to the server.

It was quite a lengthy e-mail and admitted he knew who was behind it and among
the comments was this quote: "I have to agree with you, it IS unfair payback.
So, if you want to help me out here, I will promise that, as soon as the band's
next album is finished and I have an advance copy of it, I will share some of it
with you for review purposes."


JE: "He is just trying to get to the bottom of this whole mess and although he
might have an idea of who it might be, he's not going to flat out accuse them
without proof, which is why he asked for details. I don't know if this person
got access to our server or if it is actually who we think it might be but in
any case, we don't want to pursue it without proof.

This is what I don't understand about Andrew's reluctance to reveal this person
who sent him the CD. It obviously ended up hurting both of us where this is
concerned by the person who set him up with the false track listing and if it
was one of us, it came back to bite us in the ass big time and we've gained
absolutely nothing.

If it was someone else and they thought it would be funny to set this up, then
he got us both and all of us are complete suckers for buying into it. Either
way, we've both been screwed wouldn't you agree Sarah?

We're not the police and we're not interested in pursuing this matter legally,
all we want are answers to why this has come to be a full blown blizzard and ask
the person who sent him the CD why because we have no idea how this false track
listing came about. If we were behind it, how would that make us look in the
public eye, like complete bum's that's what and we're not interested in these
games.

The person that sent him the CD isn't the culprit as much as the person who sent
him the false track listing. That's the key here. Here's the next point I find
interesting from Andrew.


AM: Much later I got an e-mail from someone I had maybe had 2 or 3 e-mails from
previously over a 5 year period. Nothing to do with anything just contact
e-mails. I had no idea of their Def Leppard connection and perhaps there wasn't
a connection when I originally had contact with them. At any regard, it was a
year or two since I had heard from this person and I get an e-mail out of the
blue asking if I'd like a copy of the CD.

I couldn't believe it, but I always had in the back of my mind that I'd like to
correct my previous screw up and post the correct track listing at some point. I
thought by hearing the CD (if it was indeed the CD) I could verify the contents
and report accordingly.

Only after further correspondence did I hear the comment from the source that
they hated what had happened to me with the false track listing incident and
thought the band treated me unfairly."


JE: Again, this person e mails him asking him if he would like a copy of the CD
and had e mailed him previously 2 or 3 times before? This seems very strange to
me because it almost feels like this person is just waiting to pounce on
anything related to what we're doing and maybe even setting the scene to somehow
play us both for complete jerks and guess what? It worked.

I'm not saying this person is the same person that sent him the false track
listing and it probably isn't but it just seems weird that he gets e-mails from
this person before and then out of the blue gets one that asks him if he wants
an advanced copy, thinking WE set him up with the false track listing. If it
isn't the same person then the person that did send him the track listing is the
one that set Andrew up to look like a fool and us as well being we're the one's
who are sought out as the culprit. Then says..


AM: "I don't consider putting my credibility on the line as being a good prank.
And I don't think I was being unreasonable in trying to discover what the band
was up to at the time. Like I said, most artists appreciate the publicity and
the fact some one is still interested in reporting on them.


JE: Now, if we were behind the false track listing, we'd be putting our
credibility on the line as well and in the eyes of our fans, we'd look like real
creeps because we're not above playing childish games. That and we have nothing
better to do with our time than to harass a music critic that posted a review
about our album that was not supposed to have been leaked in the first place and
he didn't find the album to his liking.

Not everyone likes cover's and that's fine but then not everyone likes what a
band writes as an original song. There's nothing wrong with wanting to find out
what we're up to, that's not the issue, the issue is how our album got leaked,
who's behind it and who sent him false track listing that set us both up.

This is where it is getting interesting here Sarah, I can tell you I've read
this e mail several times and trying to piece together what could possibly be
the underlying reason for this maze of multiple lines of deception. Here's the
next part I like."

AM: At roughly the same time this is all going down, Joe is featured in Classic
Rock Magazine in the UK (the largest rock magazine in the UK) and is talking
about how the covers CD is in the can and the interviewer talks about how the
magazine got a preview of the tracks. That also makes his comments that the CD
wasn't finished a little strange, as why would you play an unfinished album to a
highly influential magazine such as that?"


JE: "Again, we're testing the waters. Anything can happen and in our camp,
anything usually does. Sure, we have everything down for the most part but I'd
like to keep things under wraps as much as possible so that we won't have to eat
our words because we suddenly decide that this isn't going to work or even our
label comes to us and says "No, we don't want that on the CD." This is the
reason WaterLoo Sunset is not on the US release and No Matter What is.

The label feels the US will more likely find No Matter What a hit single where
as WaterLoo Sunset is not as well known as it seems to be in the UK and the
label seems to think that this song is going to be huge.

On this next part, Andrew says that he has no personal friendship with the
source that sent him the CD and that is most likely true but again, it goes back
to the credibility of his source. If he's a reliable source that has nothing to
hide, why not ask us if he can send him the CD for review instead of hiding
behind an unknown e-mail address and not putting his name into the e-mail even
to Andrew.

Also, where is his proof that one of us sent him the false track listing? I
don't see any so that just proves even more that this person isn't as connected
as Andrew likes to think or knows and if he is, he's got his information all
wrong. We're not the one's that sent it and we have nothing to gain by doing so.


SJ: "Does this person work very closely with the band? In the sense that they
are like a roadie or closer like a guitar tech or someone like that."

AM: "No. I'll give you that much."


JE: This part is puzzling but I can honestly say that I do know that Andrew's
right there. If it were, we'd know about it so it must be further outside the
Leppard circle. The person behind the false track listing is who we really want
but we do want to talk to the person that sent him the CD. We can get everything
straightened out but we're not going to dwell on this because we have a tour to
do but if we do find out, then the leak will be promptly taken care of . All we
care about is clearing the air. I think we'll all feel better when we do and it
will improve our image in the eyes of the fans and even Andrew's fans.


SJ: "Do you or do you not have a source in the Leppard camp that gives you the
inside scoop?"

AM: "Nope...I have numerous and plentiful industry sources that I trust and that
often deliver good exclusives, but never anyone in the Leppard camp. I had news
of the Leppard and Bryan Adams tour some months back from a trusted industry
source, but just couldn't be bothered pursuing another advance Leppard story."


JE: This sort of puts a different light on things doesn't it Sarah but even if
he doesn't have anyone personally that is inside our camp, he does have a source
that gives him the inside scoop. If he didn't, he'd have never known about the
album, at least not until someone else got the exclusive and he wouldn't have
been sent the CD by someone who thought we set him up with the fake listing.

Again, there's nothing to be gained by doing that because it makes us look bad
as well as him. We're not vindictive and we're more than happy to give someone a
track listing and an advanced CD when we feel it's ready for the final cut. We
love the fact that we're still in the public eye, even in a negative review
because not everyone can be pleased with what we do.

All we can hope for is that they will love it and if they don't, it will either
grow on them or we'll do better next time. Praise is not deserved without the
criticism because that's what gives you the determination to rework it and try
to see where you went wrong.

Thank you Sarah for spending so much time on this. It's been a true pleasure in
talking to you these past few days and I look forward to Andrew's responses when
you send them my way. I hope to see you at a show. Take care.

~J~