http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2002/Dec-06-Fri-2002/weekly/20081049.html

NIGHT BEAT: Doug Elfman

Def Leppard members manage to still get along

In the mid-1980s, my mom managed a local rock band in Atlanta that 
opened for a few national acts who hogged the stage. INXS, say, 
would give Mom's band, like, six feet of space to open. But there 
was one band that gave its opening acts plenty of room to stretch 
out on, and then acted nicely backstage. That band was Def Leppard.

I was never a big Def Leppard fan. But it seems amazing to me that 
any band can stick around for 22 years, and Def Leppard did that, 
despite the drummer losing an arm, and another member dying of an 
overdose, and all that other VH1 "Behind the Music" drama.

Also, the British singer, Joe Elliott, was nice to me on the phone, 
while he promoted the band's Sunday show at the Mandalay Bay Events 
Center. I reached him in Japan. It was midnight there and, like, 7 
a.m. here.

I asked him if he was surrounded by post-concert groupies? Nope. 
Just a bunch of male buddies, he said. Where were the women?

"They're all downstairs in the lobby," Elliott said. "You'd be 
surprised" at Def Leppard's less glamorous after-show life these 
days, he said.

"Right now, it's just saki and beer," he said.

I don't care much for Def Leppard peer Guns 'N' Roses, so I baited 
him. Did he hear that Guns singer Axl Rose wouldn't let ex-Guns 
guitarist Slash enter last year's Guns show in Las Vegas? Yep.

"I found that all just a little childish and hard to deal with," 
Elliott said. "After 22 years, we can still share a room. We still 
dress together. When we play together, we hang out."

What did he think of the VH1 rockumentary on Def Leppard?

"Pretty accurate," he said. "Because it's coming out of our mouths."

Does Elliott mind that a ton of strangers know a lot of personal 
dirt about the band? No. It's a small price to pay for fame and 
fortune.

"Who'd hate to be Tommy Lee and Pamela (Anderson)? Or Kurt (Cobain) 
and Courtney (Love)? Or Sid (Vicious) and Nancy (Spungen)?" he 
said. "If you can't deal with that side of it, you should never get 
into it. Everybody wants to get into your pants. Metaphorically."

Besides, celebrities don't get knocked around much for their bad 
behavior, he said.

"If you're a celebrity, unless it's pedophilia or murdering, you get away
with it, because people want to know about it."

On tour, Def Leppard has been playing four of six new songs. They 
exhibit Def Leppard's rock signature, he said. The band has stepped 
into new territory through the years, adding loops or electronic 
sounds. But Elliott said his group has mostly mixed things up with 
ballads, mid-tempo singles and fast runners, without straying too 
far from the band's sound.

"If we had done a grunge song, we would have got shot," Elliott 
said.

What does Elliott want new songs to do? Keep fans interested in 
concert, he said.

"You don't want to write a beer song, when you play it and people go to
buy a beer," Elliott said.

Def Leppard also has taken a page from the Rolling Stones' latest 
tour and changed its set lists around from show to show.

"Sometimes we drop 'Feelin' ' and add 'Too Late,' " Elliott 
said. "You can't please everybody, so you have to please yourself."

Def Leppard does normally play "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Rock of 
Ages." The band's not totally daft.

What's it like, playing the same songs over and over for two 
decades? It's fine in concert, but terrible in practice, he said.

"I'm sure if you asked Pete Townsend about 'My Generation,' I'm sure he'd
say he'd rather hang himself than play it in rehearsal. But when you play
in concert, adrenalin pumps in."

Showtime for Sunday's show is 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $35-$45 at the 
box office, 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South, and through Ticketmaster. To
charge by phone, call 632-7580.