http://search.fayettevillenc.com//cgi-bin/search/display-online.pl?id=37299&keywords=%def% Wednesday, July 17, 2002 Def Leppard show slated for Wal-Mart By Rebecca Logan Staff writer This is not a joke. Talk about a free Def Leppard concert at a local Wal-Mart appears to be legitimate. "Ooohh," said Kevin Fields of Fayetteville. "Where? What new Wal-Mart, and how do I get there?" The venue for the concert is the new Wal-Mart Supercenter which is slated to open Wednesday at the corner of Raeford and Gillis Hill roads. The store's manager, Missi Keith, confirmed Monday that the band would be playing a free concert at 6 p.m. on July 31. Fields, a 37-year-old fan of '80s music, said he has seen the band twice in Chapel Hill. He has been reading online about Def Leppard lately and had planned to buy the band's newest CD, "X," which is due out July 30. "That is cool, good public relations for them and a good chance for me to see them," Fields said. "That is an unusual place to be playing the day after a release, though -- Wal-Mart USA." The band's promotion company was unavailable for comment Monday afternoon, but Keith said the show is part of a promotion for “X." "We got lucky," Keith said, although she would have preferred to wait a few more weeks to allow time to recoup from the store's grand opening. Traffic control Keith said she has been working with the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office on a plan for traffic control. Def Leppard is also supposed to sign autographs. The band -- of "Love Bites" and "Pour Some Sugar on Me" fame -- has played promotional shows at Wal-Mart before. In 1999, they played at a Wal-Mart in San Antonio, to promote their "Euphoria" CD. Connie Bradham, who works at Paradise Records in Fayette- ville, said she might make the trip to see them -- perhaps as much as anything to be sure the concert actually happens. "Wal-Mart?" Bradham asked. "I guess I'll believe it more when I can actually walk in there and see that with my own eyes." Staff writer Rebecca Logan can be reached at 486-3559 or loganr@fayettevillenc.com