December 06, 2002 Leppard's spots By Spencer Patterson LAS VEGAS SUN Who: Def Leppard. When: 7:30 p.m. tonight. Where: Mandalay Bay Events Center. Tickets: $35, $45. Information: 632-7580. WEEKEND EDITION: Dec. 8, 2002 Do you take sugar? One lump or two? Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliott will pose those familiar questions -- lyrics from his band's 1987 mega-hit "Pour Some Sugar on Me" -- tonight at 7:30 at Mandalay Bay Events Center. On Tuesday we asked the 43-year-old Elliott some questions of our own during a telephone interview from his home in Dublin, Ireland. The cordial hard-rock veteran chatted about hair metal, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Leppard's legendary hard-partying reputation. Las Vegas Sun: It sounds like you guys made a concerted effort to include radio-friendly singles on your latest album, "X." Do you envision it taking off the way "Pyromania" and "Hysteria" did in the 1980s? Joe Elliott: If one (single) goes, it's like a domino effect, really. Eight months after "Hysteria" came out, the album took off. Sun: "X" has been hailed as Leppard's most personal album. JE: I think (1996's) "Slang" was. With this one, it might appear that way, because it's all about human emotion, but it's not necessarily about our human emotion. It's not the love album that it was touted to be in chat r ooms when it first came out. It's the love, hate, greed, envy and you name whichever human emotion you want album. Sun: Your vocals sound more natural on this album, with less work in the upper register. Was that by design or has your voice changed over the years? JE: I was trying to get rid of all that high-register stuff when we were doing "Hysteria." There's more to me than screaming. It's (AC/DC's) Brian Johnson-like if you just do that. I got pushed that way a little bit becau se it's exciting in the higher register. But I think (Mick) Jagger's proved that you can still write great rock songs and you don't have to be screaming like (Slaughter's) Mark Slaughter or somebody. Sun: Does coming down an octave also help preserve your voice? JE: Of course. There's very few people that can stay up there all the time. (David) Bowie's come down very low in recent years and Robert Plant doesn't really go for the high notes that much anymore. There are only two si ngers that I'm aware of that still have the pipes that they had when they first came out: Sammy Hagar and Steven Tyler. Sun: What do you think of Mariah Carey covering "Bringin' on the Heartbreak" on her latest album? JE: I think she's done a very good job. It's faithful to the arrangement, but not done like a rock song. Some astonishing vocal gymnastics toward the end that make Minnie Riperton sound like Tom Waits. Sun: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is creeping closer to the bands of the '80s. Do you expect to get that call someday? JE: I don't expect it, but at the same time I'll be insulted if we don't. But bands like us don't get that call. That's just the way it is. We're the bastard offspring. We have no credibility in the eyes of the people who pick that kind of stuff. It seems to me it's a clique, your Neil Youngs and your (Bruce) Springsteens. You're not going to get Joe Elliott and Jon Bon Jovi in there. There's too much "Spinal Tap" attached to bands like us. It's all perception, and we're aware of that. Sun: It sounds like it bothers you getting lumped in with the '80s hair metal bands. JE: I have the fullest sympathy for Robert Plant when he keeps saying that Zeppelin aren't a heavy-metal band. I totally agree with him, and neither are we. I'm not slagging metal off. I'm just saying that we aren't it. H ow can we be heavy metal with stuff like "Love Bites" and "Two Steps Behind?" We're a rock band. Sun: What were your thoughts on Def Leppard's VH1 "Behind the Music" episode and the accompanying made-for-TV movie on the band? JE: The "Behind the Music" is from the horse's mouth, so it's true. The movie was flattering, not necessarily accurate. It covered the big things -- (drummer) Rick (Allen) losing his arm and (guitarist) Steve (Clark's) ul timate demise. But my parents never had a dog, and my dad had a lot more hair than the actor who played him (laughs). Sun: Does it offend you when people refer to Leppard as "that band with the one-armed drummer?" JE: It's obviously very hard, like talking to somebody with a strawberry birthmark. There's a person behind that thing, but you try not staring at it. But it doesn't bother me one iota. If you don't want to be talking about things that happened in your career, don't get a career, because those are the things that are gonna come up. Sun: What's life like on the road now that the band is clean and sober? JE: (Guitarist) Phil (Collen) and Rick are pretty strict vegans, and Phil hasn't had a drink in 18 years. The rest of us are pretty mild, but we were always pretty mild. The reputation got way out of hand. We had a few crazy moments in the '80s, on the "Hysteria" tour, but what might have been two or three nights gets talked about as though it were happening every night. Sun: Like hordes of groupies waiting for the band beneath the stage? JE: Yeah, that happened like twice in 22 years. There wasn't a mud shark every night on the Led Zeppelin tour. We've always put the music first, which is why I think it always annoyed us to be lumped in with those other bands. Because it seemed to me that all they wanted to do was grow their hair, buy some hairspray, move into some sleazehole on Sunset Boulevard and play The Roxy. We wanted to play Madison Square Garden. And we want people to remember us for our songs, not our trousers. All contents copyright 2002 Las Vegas SUN, Inc.