Def Leppard Atomic Mess News

Joe Elliott was interviewed by the Birmingham Mail on June 12. I've added a recording of the 5 minute interview to the Audio section.

Thirty-two years into their career, with brand new nominations at the premiere country music ceremony under their belt and a headlining slot at Download coming up, Sheffield arena rock titans Def Leppard remain part of a very select musical club.

Their songs might have ranged from the lascivious – Pour Some Sugar On Me – to the literal – Let's Get Rocked – but Joe Elliott and co are in very prestigious company when it comes to record sales across the Atlantic – they're one of just five bands to have two diamond records in the US (10 million album sales). Who are the others? Oh, no-one special. Just the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Van Halen…

Having sold more than 65 million albums worldwide and proved themselves as popular as ever having been nominated for four Country Music Television awards thanks to collaborations with Taylor Swift and Tim McGraw, the Yorkshire rockers are celebrating their remarkable career with the re-release of two classic albums, 1983's Pyromania – one of their diamond LPs – and 1992's Adrenalize, both out on June 8th.

Lewis Bazley talks to Joe Elliott about breaking America, the impact of grunge and hitting the road after 30 years.

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I've added an audio interview of Phil Collen with Chicks Who Rock from October, 2005. It is available for listening from the Audio section.

I've added a video interview of Joe and Phil with the FOX 5 station prior to the start of the 2007 Downstage Thrust Tour. The interview is available from the Video section.

There comes a time in nearly every long-established rock band when one of its members embarks on a solo project.

Four years ago, the chirpy, Hackney-born, lightening-fingered guitarist from Def Leppard decided to do just that.

It was back in his native London that Phil Collen, who now lives in sun-drenched southern California, first laid the groundwork for what has since proved to be one of the most intriguing underground bands on the noughties rock scene.

During his years with Def Leppard, Phil kept in touch with old pal Simon Luffy, a former bandmate in the glam-metal group Girl (which Phil left to join Def Leppard in 1982) and, while in London, the pair began writing new material.

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Phil Collen doesn't need a chauffeur. After finishing an interview at a Los Angeles radio station, he jumps behind the wheel of his own car, gets directions and heads onto I-405. "I love living in California," says the guitarist for the British band Def Leppard. "The weather is beautiful every single day. Sure the traffic can be spotty, but it's a small price to pay for the lifestyle."

Currently on the first leg of their U.S. tour to support their latest CD "Songs from the Sparkle Lounge," the musicians will travel to Turkey, Russia and Greece later in the year. Which is fine by Collen. Besides loving to play live, Collen is a bona-fide travel junkie who says he has enough of the tourist in him to enjoy exploring places old and new. Once Def Leppard's tour is done, Collen will hit the road again with his side project Man Raze, a three-piece alternative rock band that also includes Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook and rock bassist Simon Laffy.

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With over thirty years of chart-topping albums, sold out global tours and some of the biggest hair in heavy metal, Def Leppard have established themselves as one of the most influential bands in the world.

Barely out of their teens in 1977, the Def Leppard boys gathered a large pub following and made their name around the Sheffield area. Then, with the release of their spectacular debut record The Def Leppard E.P. in 1979, the band began touring with better-known metal bands. All of these elements, including their pin-up good looks made Def Leppard one of the leaders of the 1980s British Heavy Metal movement.

Joining the band in 1992, Vivian Campbell is technically the 'newest' member; however, after 16 years rocking the world with Def Leppard, Mr Campbell certainly has a lot of stories to tell. Sejal Davé caught up with him in Athens to find out how, after being part of the mainstream music industry for so long, and with the release of their latest album, these rockers just keep coming back for more…

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Phil Collen was recently interviewed by Ultimate Guitar. During the interview, he was asked about the writing process for Songs From The Sparkle Lounge, touring, Guitar Hero III, his guitar collection and several other topics.

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Joe Elliott was recently interviewed by Tangra Rock Radio from Bulgaria for their first show ever in that country. Amongst the questions asked during the interview are:

• Is there anything else you do in terms of producing?
• We know you're big soccer fan, but as you mentioned Mutt Lange – were you happy for him when South Africa won the Rugby World Cup?
• Do you still live in Dublin?
• At the time you met U2 and Simple Minds, were you thinking anything in the vein of, we're the rock guys, they're the softies…?

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Joe Elliott was interviewed by the UK Guardian. Below are some of the questions that were asked in the interview:

• The best holiday …
• To get around on tour …
• We gave up on the plane …

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On March 21, Joe Elliott was interviewed by 93.3 WMMR in Philadelphia.

On March 31, Phil Collen was interviewed by 95.1 WZZO in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Recordings of both interviews are available from the Audio section of the Def Leppard Archive.

MSNBC interviewed Joe Elliott about live while touring. Here are some of the questions asked:

• Have you managed to spend enough time in cities to actually figure out which ones you like the best?
• When the band isn’t touring, do you ever get away for vacation or do you just stay home and relax?
• Do you seek out musical attractions in cities?

Full text of interview…

While Joe Elliott is happy to endlessly discuss the differences between Def Leppard and Guns N' Roses, he's got no problem discussing embarrassing videos and why his band will never be Radiohead. Before Def Leppard's headlining gig Saturday at the Tweeter Center, the frontman waxed poetic about his past and present.

Herald: So what specifically makes you so different from Guns N' Roses?

Elliott: OK, I'll tell you this. For a long time the Rolling Stones had the tag of the most dangerous band in the world, but I've never heard of them going on at midnight. If they were due on at nine, they came on at nine. If you're going to be a dangerous band you don't have to do it like Axl did where you piss off as many people as you pleasure. With us it's all about the pleasure. We don't have an agenda and we don't try and court the press to make us look better than we are or worse then we are. We get on with it.

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The associated news article can be found here.

Currently on tour with no new album to promote, Def Leppard is facing the challenge of giving fans a show that isn't a carbon copy of its production during last year's "Yeah!" tour.

"We've really got to juggle things around, so we've dug deep into our back catalog and we've pulled out songs that we've never played on stage [and] songs that we haven't played on stage in maybe 10 years," lead singer Joe Elliott told LiveDaily.

"'Pour Some Sugar on Me,' 'Hysteria,' 'Animal' and 'Armageddon' are apparently obvious, but sometimes we have to go a little further than that. That's where we're going with most of our back catalog," he added.

Elliott, who hails from Sheffield, England, and lives in Dublin, Ireland, said he doesn't think too many fans will be disappointed by the shows, which feature openers Foreigner and Styx.

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I've added audio from an interview Joe Elliott did on Jim Kerr's Rock and Roll Morning Show on May 19, 2006. The interivew is posted in the Audio section of the Def Leppard Archive.