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Def Leppard
By Lyndsey Parler

From one of the most successful yet accursed rock bands in history comes a
story of resilience, determination, and survival.  Phil Collen and Vivian
Campbell explain how over 25 years of rock has added up to X.

"I think it was unfair, not having been with Def Leppard in the '80s, that
they were lumped in with bands that they had nothing to do with. Poison,
Cinderella - some of those bands had decent songs, but Def Leppard had
great songs! Def Leppard was breaking ground musically," declares
guitarist Vivian Campbell as he reclines on a sofa at the San Fernando
Valley's Mates Studio - the same studio, it so happens, where he first
jammed with Leppard 10 years ago. "I think the only thing Def Leppard was
guilty of in the '80s was having a bunch of bad hairdos. And perhaps some
bad fashion mistakes. But who in the '80s wasn't guilty of that?"

Campbell and his fellow Lep guitarist, Phil Collen - both quite sensibly
dressed and coiffed today - are at Mates rehearsing a new number, "Now,"
the first single from Def Leppard's latest long-player, X (as in the Roman
numeral 10, this being their 10th album). As per their usual work ethic,
they've been at it all afternoon. (When Campbell first joined the band,
they rehearsed six days a week, 12 hours a day, for more than two months.)
They're happy now to take a well-earned break to sit and chat with Guitar
One, even if their vocal cords are ragged from hours of practicing Lep's
trademark resonant harmonies.

"A lot of those hair bands had very nice harmonies, but ours are belted
out, sung with a different kind of conviction," rasps Collen between
soothing sips of bottled water. "We owe more of our vocal style to the Sex
Pistols than those bands - it's shouting in tune, if you will. We once
toured with Europe, who were great musicians, and we were listening to
them warming up, going, "Man, can you hear that? They're so much better
than us!' So we went out there and screamed our balls off, and they came
back and said to us, "Your voices are so rock 'n' roll! We could never do
that!' It was a nice compliment, but we realized then that what we were
doing was different."