http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/entertainment/music/s_124746.html

Friday, March 21, 2003

Def Leppard continues to chip away at its heavy-metal label

Event Details 

Def Leppard
7 p.m. today
Petersen Events Center, University of Pittsburgh campus, Oakland
$35 in advance; $45 at door
(412) 323-1919
Web Links 

By Regis Behe
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, March 21, 2003 

Put it this way: If the Bee Gees are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
doesn't Def Leppard deserve its day in the Cleveland sun?

Def Leppard? Those Sheffield rockers whose music has sometimes been 
overshadowed by a swarm of unfortunate incidents, notably the death of
guitarist Steve Clark because of alcohol abuse and a horrific car accident
that cost drummer Rick Allen an arm? The band with the big hair and
heavenly harmonies that seemed to be at odds with the heavy-metal mantra?

Ah, there's the rub, lead singer Joe Elliott says. Def Leppard never was
really heavy metal, despite the legions of followers it spawned in the
wake of the albums "Pyromania" and "Hysteria."

"In a different world, we tried to be the Beach Boys," Elliott says during
a phone interview. "We always wanted to be AC/DC meets Queen."

Def Leppard will play the Petersen Events Center on the campus of the
University of Pittsburgh tonight.

The application of the power of AC/DC's "Back in Black" to the massive
vocals of Queen's "Night at the Opera" and "Sheer Heart Attack" - which
differed from Styx and REO Speedwagon because Elliott says that music
lacked a certain part of the male anatomy - became a hit-making formula.
"Hysteria" yielded the singles "Love Bites," "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and
"Armageddon It," and has sold 16 million units since it was released in
1987.

Critics were reserved at best about the music, and Elliott admits the band
was somewhat taken aback by how Def Leppard came to be perceived.

"'Hysteria,' became, by the virtue of the fact it had seven hit singles, a
pop album," he says. "And ever since, being a rock band, we went out of
our way to avoid that happening again. We tried to create more of an
album-track factor, like in (Led) Zeppelin, where you look at 'Kashmir'
and stuff like that."

Once branded, however, it's hard for any band to break into new territory.
In the same way that the Bee Gees became the face of disco, Def Leppard
became the standard-bearer of heavy metal, its formula widely imitated (by
Dokken, Europe and just about every other so-called '80s hair band) but
never duplicated.

Inspired by Ian Hunter and T. Rex, Def Leppard succeeded because the band
tried to incorporate, not mimic, its influences.

"Bob Dylan didn't become Tom Jones because he didn't have his voice, and
Tom Jones didn't become Bob Dylan because he can't write like Bob Dylan,"
Elliott says. "You create your own image and your own sound. We were just
fortunate, like Queen I suppose, although they were a four-piece and we're
a five-piece. But we could all contribute, musically, vocally, lyrically,
ideas-wise, everything from the band to the T-shirt design to the album
covers. We did it all, and everything we've done we've planned out
ourselves."

When grunge appeared via the flannel-clad presence of the Nirvana/Pearl
Jam nexus in 1991, however, metal bands everywhere became more out of
vogue than a french fry vendor in front of the White House. 

But instead of trying to adjust to the times, Def Leppard stayed its own
course. They're still a threat to sell out arenas anywhere - Elliott jokes
that he's sometimes surprised when more people don't come out to see the
band - and still making solid albums, as evidenced by "X," released last
year.

But it's never been a case of the band resting on its laurels.

Elliott says: "We'll be in Pittsburgh - what is it, the 21st? - and then
be somewhere else the 22nd. So people in Pittsburgh might not hear of us
again for three years, and they may think, 'They've gone away, they're
laying on a beach. But we're not. We'll be touring until the end of the
year, and then we'll make a new album, which is a lot of work, and then
we'll start all over again."

In 2001, the group was reintroduced to a new generation via "Hysteria: The
Def Leppard Story." Produced by VH1, Elliott acknowledges the movie's
impact in raising the band's profile.

Of course, he adds, there was a pretty good story to tell.

"If you've got the career, then people like VH1 want to talk about it,
they want to do things with it," he says. "If you're the Flock of
Seagulls, there's no point."

Regis Behe can be reached at rbehe@tribweb.com or (412)320-7990.

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