Let's Get X-ed
What year is it again? While Def Leppard are quite literally working in the present tense with their single "Now," the song's video plays upon their status as '80s survivors by tracing the journey of a classic Lep T-shirt. The Sheffield boys are smart enough to know that there has always been a need for metal riffs and catchy choruses. And judging from their new album X, the band can still serve up both. Singer Joe Elliott and guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell spoke with VH1 about guilt-free mullets, the junkyard known as eBay, and how recording X almost turned into Barry White.
VH1: The "Now" video has a great concept, with the Def Leppard T-shirt changing owners and traversing eras.
Phil Collen: Getting a treatment for a video is like people giving you demo tapes. Most of the time they aren't great, but occasionally there's one that's cool." We chuckled about this one and thought it could really work! Then we met the Malloys, who had done Blink-182's videos. We said, "We don't really do the comedy thing like you do with Blink-182, but we can see where you're going to go with the video. It's goofy and funny but also nostalgic." It worked perfectly.