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Lay it bare
By MATT GLEASON World Entertainment Writer
5/30/2003

Wild, rock-star craziness hasn't drained Def Leppard of the will to rock

Joe Elliot, Def Leppard's lead singer, doesn't mind that millions of
people know about some his wildest indescretions.

"There's always rumors and it's always good to confirm or deny them -- but
we had nothing to deny. We don't lie to people," Elliot said. He was
referring to VH-1's "Behind the Music" series, which exposed some of the
pop-metal band's rock-star excesses.

"Yes, there were women under the stage. What am I going to do? I was young
and single. What do you want?"

Sometimes, being a rock star is too much for him, especially when it
infringes on his personal life.

"The thing about this industry is that I don't have a personal life to a
point," he said. "I'm going to have people shoving cameras in my face when
I walk out of a nightclub at 4 a.m. They try to take pictures of me when
I'm eating, shaving and shampooing. That's what the paparazzi do -- may
they all burn in hell. But what can you do?"

When someone tells him he's a celebrity, Elliot tells them "No, I'm a
working musician. There's a big (expletive) difference. I'm not looking
for your camera. A celebrity will jump in front of your lens. Me, I just
want a quiet drink. I want the cameras out of my face."

But he admitted that his time on stage is worth sacrificing a bit of
privacy.

"There's got to be something wrong with me because I'm prepared to let 22
hours of my day be a piece of (expletive) because I'm so into the two
hours that aren't," he said. "Just as soon as the house lights go down,
people start cheering and I run on stage, I realize 'This is me, this is
what I do.' "

Throughout the '80s, Def Leppard scored a bevy of hits, ranging from "Rock
of Ages" in 1983 to "Pour Some Sugar on Me" in 1987.

At the height of its success, the band's members had more money than they
knew what to do with. But, Elliot said, money was never the motivation.

"It's always just been about us wanting to be a big band and trying to be
up there with all the Elvises of the world -- the Who and the Beatles,"
Elliot said. "Consequently, the song is king was beaten into us at an
early age."

Following the success of "Pyromania," Rick Allen, the band's drummer, lost
his left arm in a New Year's Eve car crash. Allen amazed his doctors and
his fans by adapting to life with only one arm, relearning how to play the
drums with only his right hand and returning to the band full-time.

Tragedy struck again during the recording of Def Leppard's album 
"Hysteria,"when guitarist Steve Clark died from an overdose of drugs and
alcohol.

Then band's success dwindled away in the early '90s, when hair-sprayed
rock stars in tight, ripped jeans were replaced by grunge rockers clad in
baggy cargo pants and plaid shirts.

"I think if you go into a cloud, you're going to come out of it," he said.
"We went into a big cloud called grunge and, luckily, at the other end of
the cloud there were bands like Sugar Ray that were doing happy music
instead of minor-key, morbid stuff.

"All of the sudden, it was OK to smile and have major-key songs again,
which suits our kind of music."

Def Leppard's latest album -- "X" -- has yielded two hit singles "Now" and
"Four Letter World," and ticket sales are up 30 percent since its last
tour.

Elliot attributed the resurgence in part to the "VH-1 factor," which
increased radio play and the band's musical reliability.

"We're always as good as we say we are," he said.

When Def Leppard plays the Convention Center Sunday, Elliot will welcome
his long-time friend and Tulsan Alan Woodward backstage. Then, he'll head
out on stage try to rock the socks right off of his fan's feet.

"All we've ever wanted people to do was come to our gigs and leave going
'Wow, that's the best gig I've seen in a year,' " he said. "Every gig we
ever do is like the last one we'll ever play."
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Def Leppard
When: 7:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Tulsa Convention Center, Seventh Street and Houston Avenue
Admission: $44, available at Carson Attractions, carsonattractions.com or
by calling 584-2000


Copyright © 2003 , World Publishing Co. All rights reserved.