Published Thursday
December 19, 2002

Def Leppard reinvents itself for broader audience

BY CHRISTINE LAUE
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When the members of Def Leppard wanted chart-topping singles for their new
album, they turned to the hit-makers for teen pop acts 'N Sync, Britney
Spears and Backstreet Boys.

That didn't mean the band was trading its hard-rock edge for bubble-gum
pop, however. "X," the band's aptly titled 10th studio album, instead has
the '80s rockers' signature sound along with fresh hooks as undeniable as
those of today's teen sensations.

But is that a smart move at a time when pop-music listeners might be
tiring - and even rebelling against - teen pop?

"We don't feel bad or ashamed about that because there's a lot of 
similarities in what Backstreet Boys do and what Def Leppard does - very
heavy vocals, very poppy melodies, very tongue-in-cheek lyrics, a bombast
to the production, very polished, very produced," said guitarist Vivian
Campbell.

Enlisting those pop writers doesn't mean Def Leppard sounds like the teen
artists - rather, the move was meant to give the band a fresh perspective,
Campbell said from his Los Angeles home the night before the band left for
its first U.S. tour in support of "X." The tour makes a stop at Council
Bluffs' Mid-America Center for a Friday concert.

Def Leppard, a hard-rock band that found crossover success in the 1980s
with hits such as "Animal," "Hysteria" and "Pour Some Sugar on Me,"
realized it might need a fresh perspective. Using its idol band,
Aerosmith, as a model, the band enlisted Marti Frederiksen, the Aerosmith
collaborator on "Jaded," a Top 40 single that helped Aerosmith defy the
youth-dominated charts in 2001.

"That's why it always takes us so long to record an album - we're always
trying to reinvent the wheel every time we make an album," Campbell said.

"X" debuted last summer at No. 11 on Billboard's Top 200 chart,
illustrating the band's staying power. But radio has changed immensely
since the band saw its '80s hits, and "X" singles haven't kept the album
near that position. Despite Def Leppard's efforts to sound fresh, it has
been a hard sell to radio, which is more fragmented today, with classic
rock, alternative rock and numerous other genres, Campbell said.

The single "Now" was released to rock radio in August and saw moderate
success, and "Four Letter Word" is getting some rock play now. The band
thinks its best chance for a hit might be the timeless power ballad - one
of the easiest ways for harder bands to get through to a mainstream
audience. So in February the band will release the single "Long Long Way
to Go."

The band has always disliked being labeled strictly a heavy-metal band and
hopes this album reaffirms the crossover appeal of 1987's super successful
"Hysteria." That album produced six straight Top 20 hits in the U.S. and
gave Def Leppard a constant presence on the charts for two years.

"The one thing that Def Leppard is not and never has been is a heavy-metal
band," Campbell said. "We always felt that we had a lot more to offer than
just the rock world."

Despite labels, numbers prove that the band has appealed to more than just
the rock world. The band's greatest-hits collection, "Vault," has remained
in the Top 20 of the Billboard Top 200/Top Catalog Albums chart since its
release almost seven years ago, consistently selling more than 5,000
copies weekly.

With that much popularity, it seems Def Leppard could tour just playing
the classics.

"We could rely on the nostalgia set, and it would be very easy to do. But
we made a collective decision to not do that," Campbell said. "We really
want to reach a new audience and continue to grow our fan base."

Old fans won't be disappointed, though. They can expect to see a more
relaxed, more spontaneous set of older songs - in other words, no more
rigid set lists. Vocalist Joe Elliott was inspired after seeing a Rolling
Stones concert in which the rockers showed their mastery of spontaneity,
Campbell said.

"We're hoping to represent songs from every album of the band's career. At
the same time, we're performing songs off the new album," he said. "People
want to hear 'Photograph,' 'Pour Some Sugar on Me,' 'Let's Get Rocked.'
It's a bit of a balancing act. You have to appease people by playing your
greatest hits, but you're also promoting a new album. . . . It's a fun
tour this time."

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What: Def Leppard
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday
Where: Mid-America Center, One Arena Way, Council Bluffs
How much: $35 Information: 422-1212

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