http://www.vh1.com/artists/news/1457046/08152002/def_leppard.jhtml Def Leppard: Let's Get X-ed. Classic pop-rockers pound it out and play to Creed. by Heather Stas What year is it again? While Def Leppard are quite literally working in the present tense with their single "Now," the song's video plays upon their status as '80s survivors by tracing the journey of a classic Lep T-shirt. The Sheffield boys are smart enough to know that there has always been a need for metal riffs and catchy choruses. And judging from their new album X, the band can still serve up both. Singer Joe Elliott and guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell spoke with VH1 about guilt-free mullets, the junkyard known as eBay, and how recording X almost turned into Barry White. VH1: The "Now" video has a great concept, with the Def Leppard T-shirt changing owners and traversing eras. Phil Collen: Getting a treatment for a video is like people giving you demo tapes. Most of the time they aren't great, but occasionally there's one that's cool." We chuckled about this one and thought it could really work! Then we met the Malloys, who had done Blink-182's videos. We said, "We don't really do the comedy thing like you do with Blink-182, but we can see where you're going to go with the video. It's goofy and funny but also nostalgic." It worked perfectly. Joe Elliott: The nostalgia is the concept. We are current. It's a perfect jigsaw. The T-shirt's old and goes all the way through to now. We're the constant in the now. With the song title, it couldn't be any better. Collen: Confused? VH1: Have you ever walked into a store and seen vintage Def Leppard T-shirts on sale? Elliott: I saw a photograph of Faith Hill wearing a classic Def Leppard T-shirt that had been cut, chopped and diamond-studded. Cheesy secondhand T-shirts are now "vintage" shirts. It's like secondhand cars. Now they call them "previously enjoyed." They have stores that charge ten times as much for a 1989 Metallica shirt than they do for a brand new one! We're so gullible. Collen: The whole eBay thing is how to sell junk. People line up to buy this crap; there's a bit of a frenzy attached to it. It could be the biggest load of crap on earth, but if you dress it up the right way, somebody's gonna die for it! Elliott: Everybody's got something somebody else wants. Somebody's got a jar, and somewhere on the other side of the world, somebody's got the lid for it. It's getting the two of them together. That's what eBay's all about. Most of the stuff on eBay is rubbish anyway. There was somebody selling autographed Joe Elliott photos and it wasn't my autograph! Yesterday, outside of a radio station, this guy came up with eight-track tapes. He said, "Will you sign this? Will you sign that?" I said, "I ain't signing them. They're gonna go up on eBay." He said, "Hey, I've got to make a living somehow!" Not off me you don't! VH1: I love the fact that while you recorded X you all lived together in Joe's house in Dublin. Elliott: The great thing about it is there's no financial clock running. There's no room service to close down. There was a pool table and a fridge. Everyone had a telly in every room. I really did make it like a hotel. You had 10 or, 20 feet to walk to bed. Our tour manager would make lunch and dinner. We didn't have to think about anything except, "Is the next chord the right chord to go to from the previous chord? Is this rhyme the best rhyme we can come up with? And does it mean what we want it to say?" Collen: We've always done this. We very rarely live with our families. When we're on tour, people think it's like the Beatles and we share the same bed. I've had someone call my room at a ridiculous time in the morning and ask, "This is Def Leppard's room, right?" Do they think we all sleep in one giant bed? But on this album we all lived together at Joe's house. Elliott: But in different rooms. VH1: What's the first song that you knew would make it on the album and set the bar for the rest of the record? Collen: "Now." We heard "Jaded," the song Aerosmith wrote with Marty Frederiksen, and thought, "Wow, this sounds cool. It sounds contemporary and energetic. But it's obviously Aerosmith. Wouldn't it be great if there was a Def Leppard version of that?" We got Marty Frederiksen and it was instant. He's a multi-talented musician with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old boy. It influenced the rest of the album. He came in and said, "It's got to have conviction. It's got to be aggressive. It's got to be like you really mean it." That affected all the other songs we did. VH1: What's "Now" about? Elliott: It's wanton lust dressed up a little less dramatically. "Now" is a perfect title. "I've got to have somebody right now. Not tomorrow, not next week. Right now." It's relationship stuff. Most of the lyrics on the album touch on human emotion. Vivian Campbell: This was the love album. We had to curtail it, actually. We were getting a little too Barry White. Elliott: It was getting too lovey-dovey, so we had to write some hate in there as well. It's love and hate and jealousy and envy. Anything that people can go, "Yep. I've been there and done that myself, or seen that in somebody else's life." With "Now," it's two people needing to get together as soon as possible. VH1: When you record are you thinking about how it will come over live? Collen: No. We cross that bridge when we get to it. We did this gig in New York last night and everybody's was singing along, so you could be doing whatever you want. You could be dancing naked ... playing upside down. The song's important. Everything else is just dressing. Elliott: I'd like to see you upside down and naked at the next gig! Ladies and gentlemen, the upside down and naked Mr. Phil Collen! VH1: I heard that Creed were at the show. It's very rare that you hear of a band like Creed going to a show, but it shows how you've inspired so many bands today. Elliott: It's coming 'round. There was a time when we inspired people like Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder to not be like us, although we weren't really part of the hair band phenomenon. Collen: There was a lot of bands that came after us that had us going, "We don't want to be associated with these people!" We always felt that we had a bit of substance. Def Leppard wasn't all based on image. Most artists that have a huge hit, you get many copies and it dilutes the original. Even Nirvana. You had all these bands copying them. That in itself is a contradiction in terms - "copying Nirvana." Because they were about not being copied. They were about a backlash. Then you had all these bands copying them and that dilutes the sound. Same with Alanis Morissette and Britney Spears. Elliott: But you come through the '90s having been the antichrist, and all of a sudden System of a Down are on VH1's Ultimate Albums praising Pyromania. I don't hear us influencing what they do, but if they picked up guitars as ten-year-old kids because of Pyromania, that's great. You have to go through a decade of struggling. If you can come through the other side, you're okay. It's amazing how Madonna's never gone away, but even U2 had a little struggle after Pop. You've got to just stick in, grab hold of the tree and don't let go when the wind blows. VH1: You've survived the '80s with integrity. Collen: I think so. Our angle and motivation was different. We were really proud of the music we put out. We had more to do with Duran Duran than Iron Maiden. We were trying to cross rock music with pop music and make it palatable for a large audience. It wasn't about, "Listen to how fast I can play guitar." Elliott: It's down to perception as well. I find a lot of it is ignorance. Two years ago, they took the absolute piss out of everybody from Billy Ray Cyrus on down because they wore mullets. Bono had a mullet! What's the difference? Nobody ever goes on about U2 being an '80s band. They put their first record out within about eight weeks of us putting our first record out. They're still there and still doing it. That's what we've been fighting for all our lives. Don't lump us in with Warrant, Ratt, and Poison. We have as much in common with Dolly Parton as we do with the '80s hair bands. We make records: period. That's why we're still doing it and not playing bowling alleys. Well ... we might play one. But only by choice. VH1: What plans are there for the next single? Any favorite tracks you have in mind? Elliott: They've already stickered the album with "Long Long Way to Go," so my money's on it being the second single! People who have heard X are coming up and going, "I can hear five singles on this record." I haven't heard people say that since Hysteria. There are a lot of songs that suit different moods. That's our market. We've cornered that little thing. We're really big fans of AC/DC's Back in Black, but we can't make a record like that. Everything's got to be different. Queen is a great example of a band that did that. Bits of "Tie Your Mother Down" or "Bohemian Rhapsody" are in our DNA. Our albums reflect that. We've got an orchestra on a couple of tracks. We've got a good vocal blend and we're not embarrassed to use it. I don't think there's anything wrong with a bunch of guys who can actually sing. There was for a while. It was not cool to be able to play your instrument or sing in tune. Thank God that's gone and it's coming back round again!