Def Leppard Atomic Mess News

After last year's tour with Bryan Adams proved a massive success, Def Leppard are poised to repeat the experience again when the band embark on another U.S coast to coast run this summer, this time teaming up with another '80s classic act, Journey. Add to this, the group's soon to be released and long anticipated covers album Yeah!, and 2006 is looking to be another hectic year for the English lads. Midway through preparations for the upcoming tour, Joe Matera spoke to one half of the blitzing Def Leppard six-string team Phil Collen, for this exclusive interview for Ultimate-Guitar.com.

• Yeah! suffered from constant delays in its release for the past year, but now it's finally here.
• The idea for Def Leppard to do a covers album has been bandied about for many years by Joe Elliott?
• I noticed a lot of the song choices aren't necessarily the most well-known numbers from each respective artist covered?

Full text of article…

Phil and Viv will be interviewed on the Rockline Radio Show on May 3, 2006. The show airs at 11:30pm EDT/8:30pm PDT. Listeners can ask questions by calling 1-800-344-7625. The Rockline web site has more info on which stations air the show.

Vivian will be on Rockline tonight at 8:30 PM (US Pacific Time). You can find which station to hear the show at from RocklineRadio.com.

Tell me about Two Sides Of If.

You had another side-project called Clock. How is this different and will both projects co-exist?

How did you get around to the blues? Dio, Whitesnake, Def Leppard - none are blues bands…

That's where I trace the origins of my playing. You can argue that every rock guitarist owes an allegiance to Muddy Waters. I absolutely believe that's true. The first album I ever had was Live In Europe by Rory Gallagher and my first concert in Belfast was Rory. He was more the rock side of blues, but he's a blues man. I sat down with all his records and that's where I learnt my first real lead guitar licks. So, my playing is a lot more blues-based than technical. A lot of my contemporaries in the '80s played from a technical point of view. They learnt the technique, but I taught myself.

No lessons ever?

Full text of article…

How has the band been getting along with Bryan Adams and Cheap Trick?

Have you gone through Rick Neilsen's guitar collection?

Not yet, but I'm definitely interested. I'd love to see all those wacky guitars, the ones with six necks. Yeah, I want to check that out.

You joined the band in 1982, after the departure of Pete Willis. Leppard was pretty big at the time, but did you have any idea how ridiculous things were about to get?

Don't forget, we were still an opening act at that point. We'd played for years to half-empty clubs in England. No. We had no idea. It was radio and MTV that kick-started "Photograph," and it was just silly. We had no clue. That was the most exciting period, I think: at first, when you get the success on that really large scale.

Full text of article…

The Rock Of Ages DVD (coming out Nov 15th). What's it like looking back on all your videos?

Is it hard to watch them?

It's not hard, but once you've done a video it's out there for other people. So, you let it go and it represents a certain time period. Some videos hold their own better than others and fashion dictates that they sometimes go out of fashion and then come back into fashion. A while ago, I thought 'Rock Of Ages' looked ridiculous and yet last year it didn't look so bad. Some of the more bland videos that we've done just look timeless.

Except the British version of 'Sugar'…

Yeah, well - that doesn't even count. That was just stupid, but the live stuff works. Even the live High 'N Dry 'Let It Go' and 'Bringing On The Heartbreak' they are what we were and it's great.

Full text of article…

Rick Allen is best known as the drummer for the popular hard rock band Def Leppard. After a 1984 car accident severed Allen's left arm, the future looked bleak for the British quintet. But Allen returned after only a few months, helping the band produce some of the biggest hits of its career, including "Pour Some Sugar on Me," "Hysteria," and "Two Steps Behind." Currently on tour with Def Leppard, Allen also plays on Krishna Das' new album of chant, "All One." Although not a Hare Krishna himself, Allen finds spirituality in many places-Hindu mantras, the Lord's Prayer, and Shamanism, to name a few. He recently spoke to Beliefnet about his spiritual transformation after his accident and the "magical" experience of playing with Krishna Das.

Can you tell me a bit about your spirituality?

So you were spiritually transformed after the accident?

And what were you going through then?

Full text of article…

You have never been one to put yourself in the spotlight yet your name is now in lights with your new blues album Two Sides of If. Why did you decide to do the album now?

As a guitar player what was the most important thing you learned researching the blues?

Were people raising an eyebrow when they saw you come into an open blues jam?

Full text of article…

How's the Leppard tour going?

Was it hard growing up in Belfast, musically and socially?

Do you spend a lot of time on the quest for tone?

You've always been somewhat of a blues fan, too?

Full text of article…

How does the leviathan DEF LEPPARD audio machine that is hitting the US baseball arenas now compare to the gear you had back then?

OK, so DEF LEPPARD grew up in the NWoBHM era, but you were always creatively a little left field of the Heavy Metal pack. Your collective love of classic British bands is well known - MOTT THE HOOPLE, SWEET, DAVID BOWIE, etc, etc. Would you think that radio listeners could recognise any of that vibe in your present day original songs?

You obviously spend a good portion of your life on the road. What do you take with you to remind you of home?

Full text of article…

Only five rock bands in the world have sold over 10 million copies of two original albums in the U.S. - The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Van Halen and … Def Leppard.

Does it surprise you that people still think of Def Leppard as the band with the one-armed drummer (Rick Allen's left arm was severed after a 1984 car accident)?

You've been called a hair metal and a heavy metal band, but you've got a huge female following. What's up with that?

Have you ever considered pulling a Led Zeppelin and refusing to play one of your mega hits, like "Pour Some Sugar On Me" or "Hysteria?"

Full text of article…

Now, over the years, especially with some of the things you have to do with the electronics that allow you to play your snare with your foot, etc.., I've always noticed that you have an incredible bass foot. Your right foot in "Answer To The Master" bounces to the tune of what a lot of drummers have to use two bass drums to accomplish. I've always been curious, especially since your heroes, Bryan Downey, Ian Paice, and Keith Moon were all double-kick players…why did you never play double bass drums?

Let's talk about the Raven Drum Foundation. It's a non-profit organization that you started with your wife that travels around and helps people. Fans of the band are familiar with this organization, but for those who don't know what it is, let's give them the skinny.

And you've proven that by just doing what you've done. You've influenced so many people just by continuing to do what you do, both physically and mentally. I remember everything about that day when they announced your accident. It was my senior year of high school and I remember it like it was yesterday. Just the fact that you kept on going was a huge inspiration to me. I don't think you ever even thought for a minute that it was going to affect you playing drums with the band. I mean you never gave up, bro.

Full text of article…

Be honest: which of the songs on the compilation are you sick to death of?

I have to [answer that] two ways. In rehearsals, quite a lot of them. In front of an audience? None of them. I can't justify not doing any of these songs until I hear about Pete Townshend saying he won't do "My Generation" for an encore. That's why 60,000 people go ape when the Stones play "Satisfaction." The songs are part of their legacy, and you fall back in love with them over the years. The most frustrating thing for musicians who want to play stuff from the new album is when everyone goes out to buy a beer. 'Why don't you stay!' you wonder. "Because I don't f*cking know that song!"

You've been at this for more than 25 years; how does one age gracefully in rock?

You don't. You're not supposed to, are ya? If you don't physically age gracefully, it's a bit sad. I think Steven Tyler can get away anything, because he still looks like he did in '73. Especially from row Z backwards in an arena. As long as the Stones keep their hair and don't get fat they'll get away with the wrinkles.

Full text of article…

I want to focus on your new band at the very beginning of this interview. I get a ton of emails from a ton of bands I have never heard of asking us for coverage. I got a message about a band called Man-Raze. I had never heard of this band and I didn't even know they existed. At first I started to delete it. But for some reason I clicked on the link and I saw your name. I checked out the MP3s and I loved them. I usually know what is going on in the classic rock scene but I didn't even know this was happening. You must have kept this pretty secret.

We kind of did. We just got together and we just started recording. It was great - especially the rehearsing part. It just worked. Now we are ready. We have 12 songs that are in different stages of mixing.

Where did the name of the band come from?

At first we were going to call it Fay Raze - you know the girl from the King Kong movies. Simon wasn't into it and he was right as it was a bit limp. We kept the raze and called it Man-Raze. Man Ray was a photographer from New York. He died and was buried in France. It fit us really well. He was very surrealist.

Full text of article…

In this final interview, Joe Elliott responds to some of the points that Andrew McNiece brought up with his original talk with this same interviewer. Joe Elliott had previously spoken to the interviewer as well before seeing Andrew McNiece's responses.

• I was not aware of this review he did on X at the time. Like I've said, the reviews he does from Tasmanian rarely make it over to our shores so how could I possibly know this. That's beside the point. I didn't even know of this website until recently. I have yet to see this review of X, maybe I'm missing it but I don't have time to look for it.
• First of all, I don't know who sent him the track listing but apparently this is someone within the Leppard camp, otherwise, how would he get it? Secondly, anyone who logs onto a computer can go to the website and get the link to it.
• He is just trying to get to the bottom of this whole mess and although he might have an idea of who it might be, he's not going to flat out accuse them without proof, which is why he asked for details.

Full text of article…