http://www.rockdetector.com/artist,2388,interviews.sm?interview=59 There has always been a healthy degree of fan camaraderie and industry bonhomie with DEF LEPPARD. Whilst the characteristically down to earth Rockers took on the world and won time and time again, the adversity of drummer Rick Allen's injury and losing guitarist Steve Clark just seemed to bring the global fan base together all the tighter. Not only were DEF LEPPARD flying the patriotic flag (remember those union jack shorts??) but they were putting Rock back on the radio and back on the charts. Even Queen Elizabeth knows the chorus to 'Pour Some Sugar On Me'. Nobody really had a bad word to say about DEF LEPPARD it seemed. The band's legacy is assured. Not only has the band fostered that rarest of commodities in today's music business - a sizable catalogue of very real hit records, but they have proven that their songs stand the test of time. Trends, fads and fashions come and go with each new generation but 'Hysteria', 'Pyromania' and 'Vault' just keep on selling, and selling, and selling… Whoever is buying them, it sure ain't the teens of the late 80s anymore, which means DEF LEPPARD are finding new fans. A second installment of hits, 'Rock Of Ages', has tapped into yet another wave of fans. In a few short month over half a million Americans have slapped their dollars on the counter and swiped their plastic to prove that Bludgeon Riffola is here to stay. Just recently though the homely bubble took a little tarnish. DEF LEPPARD decided that this juncture in their career would be a good vantage point to reflect on some roots and influences. They have always been keen to put the spotlight back onto their musical heroes of course, but this time around it was a whole album's worth. When it finally arrives the record is going to be titled 'Yeah!'. However, recent "leaks" may well have had the band screaming "No!!" Singer Joe Elliott responded sharply, stung by the criticism of not so much the concept but the misconstrued reasoning behind the band's motivation. Before we get up to speed with Joe Elliott and present events, a trip down memory lane is in order. Just recently the DEF LEPPARD movie has been on daily TV rotation, which reminded me of a non music related business trip to Sheffield when, unbeknownst to me, I inadvertently ended up standing in the very same room that the legend that DEF LEPPARD was borne - their first rehearsal room. If only walls could talk. Humble origins indeed. Right now, DEF LEPPARD - Joe Elliott, Phil Collen, Vivian Campbell, Rick Savage and Rick Allen, are trekking across the USA with BRYAN ADAMS, novelly choosing the alternate rout of baseball fields rather than arenas. I wondered if Joe's recollections of those times were good ones and if he can remember the first song the band played together in that room. "Wow ! The first song we ever really played was 'Suffragette City' by DAVID BOWIE. We had to have something to play! Pete was a big fan of Earl Slick's playing, so we did the 'David Live' version. Funny really as I went onto work with Earl on his 'Zig Zag' album." How does the leviathan DEF LEPPARD audio machine that is hitting the US baseball arenas now compare to the gear you had back then? "Sav had a home made cabinet that weighed about 200lbs and a Carlsboro amp , Pete (Willis - former guitarist) also had a Carlsboro set up too and when Steve Joined he had an orange 4x12 and a 100 watt amp. It was very impressive!" What about yourself? "I sang into some old mic inherited off the guy who sang with ATOMIC MASS! Forgive me, I don't recall his name... No wait… Paul Holland, that's his name! We had a blast in that old room!" That movie about DEF LEPPARD places a great emphasis on your visions as to what the band should be artistically. All your fans know about your teenage dreams of becoming a Rock star and designing the band logo whilst still at school. I wonder if, after all this time, DEF LEPPARD became exactly what you wanted or something a little different? "Ah, the movie ..... I wouldn't take that as the gospel according to Joe! Yes, I suppose I was pretty vocal about how we should be, but for me the band never sounded right until Phil joined." But a lot of your core fans love those first two records! "Don't get me wrong, there's some GREAT stuff on those first two albums, but they aren't really the way I heard us. I've always been a fan of melody, which was hard to achieve with riff based stuff all over those albums, but once we started working with Mutt Lange on 'Pyromania' I could sense a change of style, which, while pushing my abilities somewhat, was direction wise more where I heard us going in the first place." OK, so DEF LEPPARD grew up in the NWoBHM era, but you were always creatively a little left field of the Heavy Metal pack. Your collective love of classic British bands is well known - MOTT THE HOOPLE, SWEET, DAVID BOWIE, etc, etc. Would you think that radio listeners could recognise any of that vibe in your present day original songs? "Hopefully! Our older audience for sure. As for the younger ones, and believe me, they're out there, when 'Yeah!' finally gets released they'll hear some of those classics as ours! After all, when was the last time any of us last heard T-REX, SWEET, MOTT THE HOOPLE, etc on daytime radio?" You mentioned SWEET there. When you covered 'Action', that was a noticeable choice to cover one of the band's own compositions - not a Chinn/Chapman hit, which most of their well known hits were written by. I guess the guys in the SWEET had cause to say 'Thanks' to you for royalties on that!? "Not really. We just liked the song. Probably didn't even know it was one of their own until we had to find out the publishing details ... or did we ??" So it wasn't a bit of musician to musician benevolence then? "I can't remember, but seeing as I can tell you b-sides from 1972 ... I MIGHT have known. I mean, I know now don't I?" You obviously spend a good portion of your life on the road. What do you take with you to remind you of home? "iPods are the best thing ever! I almost have my entire CD collection on mine, so that saves taking a bunch on the road and hoping you don't lose them!" What British culinary delights do you have to take with you? "We get stuff sent out all the time, 'MOTD' (That's 'Match of the Day' for you non Soccer fans…), mags etc …, always have a case of Heinz baked beans on board, other than that , you can buy almost everything anywhere nowadays. PG Tips tea bags in the U.S., who would have thought? It really is a global village…" So you can afford to fly in Heinz baked beans. You are obviously all fortunate enough to be comfortably well off for the rest of your lives now. Is the drive to make music still as strong with you all as it has always been? "Yep, big rich twatty Rock stars! Compared to some rappers who've been "on the scene" 15 minutes, we're minnows… but I won't be back in the factory any time soon! As for the music, it's ALWAYS been the focal point. We were never into it for the money. We wouldn't have spent three years recording a very expensive record, 'Hysteria' if we were! When I saw Marc Bolan and David Bowie on 'Top of the Pops' I didn't shout " Wow! I want to be him for the money" It was for the glory of it and a way out of dreary old day job land. That wasn't for me, the music gave me a motivation." And related - who in the band would you say is the keenest to get things done? Joe is diplomatic. "All of us. Depending on what it is. If I never soundcheck again, it couldn't happen too soon, but we all play a roll at getting things done. You have to. There's music and there's business. I've said it often before, singing is the least thing I do in this band!" I'd like to pick up on some of the later DEF LEPPARD albums. For example, 'Slang'. This album was released during strange times in the music business. Many fans find it your most engaging work to date with a lot of 'dark' songs. Personally, there are tracks on 'Slang' which rank very highly on my particular favourites list. Looking back, how do you feel about the album now? "Viv doesn't like it all that much these days , after all it was his first with us and he wanted the Lepp thing a bit more. Happily for him it's back so you move on. I have some great memories of the recording and writing sessions, for the rest of us it was very liberating, but like all our albums, some of it works and some of it doesn't. Trust me, there's stuff on 'Hysteria' I'd do over … I love the title track, 'Pearl of Euphoria' is nearly brilliant and 'All I Want Is Everything' was the first song I think I really felt good to have written. It all fell into place at the right time." Which leads us onto 2002's 'X'. I don't think I saw this question being asked but, with your track record for writing hugely successful songs, why did the band decide to work with outside songwriters at that point? The reason I ask is twofold, firstly because why would a band that can write million sellers need songwriting input and secondly because I think the 'X' songs you did write were actually much stronger. "Well, it wasn't a conscience decision to do that, it just worked out that Phil was hanging out in Los Angeles with Andreas Carlsson, you know, just coffee, bite to eat, shootin' the shit, that sorta thing, when Andreas said "we should write a song together". Something we all say from time to time but very rarely do. Anyway, it didn't happen but Andreas did call us about six months later and told us he had a song, 'Unbelievable', that he thought sounded like us! So, long story short, he sent a copy over, we played it, liked it, recorded it!" How about 'Long Long Way To Go', because LIONEL RICHIE also had a stab at that too didn't he? "Same thing with 'Long Long Way To Go'. We like to think we can tell a good song from a so-so song whether it be Rock, Pop, Blues, Rap, whatever... Again, for no reason other than curiosity, it was sent to us and we really dug it, so we recorded it. Apparently so did Lionel Ritchie! Let's not forget here that we DID write the other eleven songs on 'X'!" Talking of songwriting. When do the best song ideas come to you? Are you one of those people who has a brainwave in the middle of the night or sitting on the loo? "All of the above and more. Inspiration is an untappable commodity. It comes when it comes, then other times it has nothing to do with inspiration. If one of the guys decides to give me a finished backing track to write lyrics for, then it's just plain old sit down and ponder till something hits you! Sometimes you have pieces written already that instantly fit with something, sometimes you don't. Inspiration or perspiration, you need them both!" The new "Covers" album 'Yeah!'. When those demos were leaked was that a wake up call for you in terms of security of your material? "First of all, they weren't demos, they were/are working versions of the songs. I had my say as to how finished they were when that guy from Tasmania went public with his "review" .... I tell you, wouldn't want to let him think I lose sleep over what he did, because I don't! But to do what he did was just plain wrong. Wherever he got the disc from wasn't from the five of us, but having said that, we are obliged to let management, record company, etc hear what we're up to." So you were more upset by the fact that trust was broken rather than the music leaked? "It's never been a problem before because it never happened before! I know certain journo's heard 'Hysteria' or 'Pyromania' ages before they were finished or released, but they at least had the dignity to play the game and wait for the finished thing to review, but not this scumbag! Now apparently it can be bought in a market in London, and no doubt elsewhere. So I say go ahead! Buy it! I'm sure when we release 'Yeah!' people will be able to decide for themselves if it was the finished thing or not. They'll probably have a bit of fun comparing. The BOB DYLAN bootlegs were out unofficially for years, never did him any harm!" I remember Phil Collins of GENESIS famously saying he took his tapes home after every recording session. "You can't keep working material under lock and key, even U2 lost a rough of their last one during a photo shoot, probably got them the press they wanted and more." What do you guys do to make sure there are no leaks before the intended date? "We record in my house! That stuff never leaves, but unfortunately, with mp3s flying around the world at the speed of light it only takes one person you thought you could trust to start the chain and whoosh! - it's everywhere. Compare that to the days of hissy tapes, you'll find you can't." On the 'Yeah!' record are there songs you felt needed to be treated 'faithfully' and any songs that might sound completely different to expected? "Absolutely. Some of them are so close in intention if nothing else, that they're almost forgeries! Example, wait till you hear Viv's solo on THIN LIZZY's 'Don't Believe A Word'! If anybody ever heard Phil's CYBERNAUTS solo on 'Moonage Daydream' they'll know what I mean. Others, we messed with, like DAVID ESSEX's 'Rock On', or THE KINKS 'Waterloo Sunset', which you might have heard, differs from THE KINKS version somewhat. We treated them all on a song by song basis, basically having fun, either doing them and being able to giggle at how similar they were or changing them and saying "wait till they get a load of this!" Most people in studios behind closed doors behave this way, you know!" Were there any songs that you all loved but felt would be too sacrosanct to even attempt a cover version? "Not really. It's well documented that my favourite song of all time is 'All The Young Dudes' by MOTT THE HOOPLE, which obviously, If there was ever going to be a song I couldn't go near, it would be that one … but Me and Phil did that one with the CYBERNAUTS already! Which you could argue is a shame, as we couldn't justify doing it again, but you can't change the past, and I love the CYBERNAUTS version. So we chose to cover Bowie with 'Drive In Saturday' and MOTT THE HOOPLE with 'Golden Age Of Rock n' Roll, both equally good choices in my opinion, but I'm such a fan you could argue I'm a bit biased!" You've apparently had quite a few delays of late. Fortunate as it happens with the new compilation selling so well. What's a realistic schedule after the 'Yeah!' record to be hearing a DEF LEPPARD album of brand new material? "Good question! With possibly a better answer than you'd expect. We've delayed the release of 'Yeah!' for two reasons. 1) to set it up better & to enable us to tour it more places for longer. 2) go give us some much needed time off the road to prepare the next "written" DEF LEPPARD CD." So are you already starting to think about that next record? "Give me some slack here! A wild guess would have me saying we'll have a bunch of the next album written and recorded by the time we start touring 'Yeah!', so there won't be such a big gap between them, just hopefully a natural one. After all you can be over exposed!" Being a nosey parker now.. When you get your royalty statements do you first check the end figure or do you read through the reams to find out where your music is being played? How many pages are your statements? "Jesus! what are you? A journo or a taxman in training! I don't need to read royalty statements to see where we're getting played, record companies have departments that pass that info on at regular intervals. Most artists get paid about twice a year, so the statements will be for us or indeed anybody, 1 or 2 pages I guess. Jeez, enough with the bizz, man, ... let's Rock!" OK, so we've discussed the music and rewards. What about recreation. Alice Cooper plays golf, Ross Halfin collects toy soldiers, Pete Way collects model trains...What does Joe Elliott do outside of music? "Watch soccer - lots of soccer. Produce RICKY WARWICK, whoops, that's not outside music - sorry! Get drunk with RICKY WARWICK… Watch Movies, lots of movies and TV stuff like 'The Shield', 'The Sopranos', that kinda thing ... Keep my wife in shoes! But, truth be known, when I'm not making music, I'm listening to it." Would DEF LEPPARD fans be surprised at what you listen to? "Mostly old favourites, because when you make music there comes a time where you have to accept you don't have time to listen to every new thing that comes out! So, I listen to what I can new release wise, but mostly I listen to what got me in to it in the first place, MOTT THE HOOPLE, DAVID BOWIE, ROLLING STONES, THE BEATLES, QUEEN, THE KINKS early ELTON JOHN and the odd obscurity, for some at least, like BE BOP DELUXE, JOBTIATH and TOM WAITS." . Finally, what's the most surprising DEF LEPPARD item you've discovered on Ebay? "Nothing too weird, the Steve Clark memorial coin was a bit odd and a surprise though!" DEF LEPPARD are presently in a baseball stadium near you… And here's a fact for you. If you're Canadian, statistically you are more likely to own a DEF LEPPARD album than not. A sobering thought indeed. Credit/s: Garry Sharpe-Young Copyright: © 2001-2005 Musicdetector Websites