Def Leppard Atomic Mess News

Def Leppard picks up its "X" tour with a 37-city North American swing including a stop Wednesday at Huntington's Big Sandy Superstore Arena. Guitarist Campbell spoke in a phone interview from the suburbs of Detroit about the tour and life playing with the video generation's first hard rock icons.

• Your video for "Rainbow in the Dark" with Dio shared airtime with Def Leppard in the early days of MTV. Did you have any relationship with the band back then?
• What's the difference between touring with Dio and Whitesnake as opposed to Def Leppard?
• Are you doing any writing with the group on the road?

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Rick Allen and Phil Collen joined an AOL chat to discuss the album Euphoria. Below are some of the questions asked:

• Do you have any say in what becomes a single or is it all the record company, and have you ever disagreed with their choices?
• "Euphoria" is good, but we really prefer the artistic synergism of "Slang". Are there any plans for something similar in the future?
• I was wondering how you prepare yourselves to go out on the road?
• Rick, will there be a chance for the fans to hear any of the side projects you did in LA with Mark Mason?

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• So how has the response been to Euphoria?
• So what is behind the title, Euphoria?
• What about this tour that you are on right now? How does it compare to a full-production tour?
• So can you tell me what your favorite song to play is — off of any of the albums?
• What do you think of the musical climate now as opposed to when Hysteria was released?

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With a new album in the can, genial guitarist Phil Collen talks guitars, dispels a few myths and explains that legendarily exhaustive recording technique

As Phil Collen breezes into the foyer of the plush London hotel in which we're awaiting his arrival, it's hard to believe that this unassuming Londoner has sold the best part of 40 million albums since he joined Def Leppard a full two decades ago.

Certainly in the running for the Brian May Nicest Man In Rock(tm) award, Collen is aware of another Queen parallel, that of being continually derided by the media without the level of success ever being seriously compromised.

"Adrenalize went triple platinum and was at the top of the US charts for five weeks, but we got really slagged off for it." He grins. "Y'know, it came out at the height of the grunge thing so we got a battering for that."

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Added an audio capture of the April 23, 2003 RockLine Interview to the Audio section. Thanks to Mark Senff for the recording.

Do you guys like playing festivals like Music Midtown?

If you'd asked that question in the '90s I would've said it was horrible because it was very uncool to admit to liking Def Leppard. But that's changed. We noticed the change the last time we were on tour, '99, 2000, 2001, and we did a couple of festival shows with younger bands.

Do you find you're influenced by the bands you see?

We're very influenced by the bands we play with. You could say we're shameless plagiarists. We'll steal anything from anyone. Not exactly steal, but we'll allow ourselves to be influenced by anyone, particularly modern music.

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When the 2003 Music Midtown lineup was unveiled at a recent press conference, an amazing thing happened. Superstar acts like Bob Dylan, Sheryl Crow and Tony Bennett received polite applause or indifferent mumbling, but when Def Leppard was announced, a Tabernacle full of jaded journalists and music industry parasites actually roared their approval.

The melodic metal band, originally from Sheffield, England, had massive success in the mid- to late '80s despite death, dismemberment and personnel changes. Yet Def Leppard never broke up and a recent documentary on VH-1 helped usher in renewed interest in the band. For half a decade, their radio and video hits were inescapable, including the pop anthems "Hysteria," "Pour Some Sugar On Me," and "Photograph."

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"X" retains the classic harmonies of Def Leppard, but has a more subdued, less glossy feel. I was surprised that you opened with an acoustic guitar track instead of the usual bombast. What was the attitude going into this record?

Are you doing anything different on the second leg as far as production or setlists are concerned?

Have you always changed your setlist every night, or is that a recent approach?

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Classic Rock Revisited recently caught up with Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen to discuss the band's latest release X.

Jeb: Def Leppard is back on tour!

Rick: We started back in November in Japan, then we did a few shows in the
States before Christmas and then went to Europe. Myself, Phil and Vivian
all live over here, so this is home for us.

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For rock fans of a certain age, Def Leppard needs no introduction. Mere mention of one of music's most famously misspelled bands brings a flood of memories from yesteryear: singer Joe Elliott's Union Jack tank top on MTV, the innovative pairing of manly guitars with choirboy harmonies, pop-metal anthems such as "Rock of Ages," "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Bringin' on the Heartbreak." The lads from Sheffield, England, made it big in the early '80s, only to nearly lose their drummer, Rick Allen, in a car accident that left him with one arm. The band reached new heights with 1987's "Hysteria," which sold more than 10 million copies; then, in 1991, guitarist Steve Clark died of a drug and alcohol overdose. Elliott, Allen, guitarist PHIL COLLEN and bassist Rick Savage stuck together, later adding guitarist Vivian Campbell to the lineup. With a string of albums, including 1996's underrated "Slang," Def Leppard keeps a-rollin'. Collen was rollin' through Ohio on the band's tour bus when he chatted by phone with Journal Sentinel pop music critic Gemma Tarlach.

Q. Are you sick to death of playing "Rock of Ages" or what?

Q. If you had to sum up Def Leppard with one song, which one would it be?

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"Rock Rock (Till You Drop)" isn't just one of Def Leppard's biggest hits. It's practically a credo for the long-running hard rockband.

Def Leppard was one of commercial rock's most successful acts during the 1980s, through such monster-sized hit albums as "Pyromania" and "Hysteria." Yet the group also endured some mighty tragedies, including the loss of drummer Rick Allen's left arm following a car accident and the alcohol-related death of guitarist Steve Clark.

Still, Def Leppard has soldiered on. Though the band didn't match its super-duper album sales from the 1980s, in the succeeding decade a greatest hits collection ("Vault") and 1992's "Adrenalize" bothwent multi-platinum, while 1999's "Euphoria" went gold.

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What would you do if you were the drummer for one of the most popular metal bands of the '80s? If you were Def Leppard's Rick Allen, you'd go the rock-star asshole route, abusing substances, driving fast and taking chances. Now, what would you do if, two years after recording a masterful and historic heavy metal album that sold over 10 million copies worldwide, you were road-raging down a rural English road on New Year's Eve and lost your arm in a horrible car accident? If you were Rick Allen, you'd re-assess your life, become a nice guy, keep rocking, find serenity, start a non-profit (www.ravendrumfoundation.org), and kick back and listen to the sound of one hand clapping.

The Wave: Do journalists always ask you questions about your missing arm, or are they too chicken?

Rick Allen: Normally I'm pretty forthcoming. I usually talk about it anyway.

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Do you take sugar? One lump or two?

Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliott will pose those familiar questions — lyrics from his band's 1987 mega-hit "Pour Some Sugar on Me" — tonight at 7:30 at Mandalay Bay Events Center.

On Tuesday we asked the 43-year-old Elliott some questions of our own during a telephone interview from his home in Dublin, Ireland. The cordial hard-rock veteran chatted about hair metal, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Leppard's legendary hard-partying reputation.

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There has been much discussion on the noticeboards concerning the release of 'X', Def Leppard's tenth studio album. While many long-time fans have been bemoaning the lack of power to be heard on the album, others have leapt to their defence proclaiming that it's the quality of the songs that is important, not how heavy they are.

Paul Flanaghan caught up with the guys just prior to the UK Top of the Pops appearance and began by asking Joe if it was their intention to make a more commercial album, working with the likes of Andreas Calrsson Per Aldeheim and Marti Fredrickson.

Joe: Yeah it was. We discussed it, say about a month before the last tour finished, about getting multi producers in. We were even thinking of using five or six different people and making it like a 'Now That's What I Call Music' album, where it's all different you know. That was never going to pan out because it was really too far fetched. We got it down to three different teams: ourselves, Pete Woodroffe, Andreas and Per, and er Marti as well….of course we wanted to work with Marti after we all kind of enthusiastically grasped the Aerosmith thing 'Just Push Play.' And what he did with 'Jaded' was great, he made Aerosmith sound like they were about 23 years old. We thought, somebody said to us 'You guys are starting to get,' - excuse the pun - 'a bit jaded'. We thought we would mix it up a bit ourselves, and throw a bit more ingredients into the pie, just to jazz it up a little bit, that's why we did it.

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Def Leppard have just released their tenth studio album, entitled "X", easily their best since the ground breaking "Hysteria" album. While the music on "X" is instantly recognisable as Def Leppard, it represents a fresh approach with new directions, resulting in an album with great crossover appeal. Roland Oei met up with vocalist Joe Elliott and guitarist Phil Collen on their recent promotional tour to find out more about the record that will undoubtedly put the band back at the top of the rock world.

How did you get interested in music?

PC: It was my cousin. My cousin was two years older than me. I was in London - I was born here. He just got these American bootlegs and this weird shit that no one had ever heard of in England. My cousin ended up messing himself up 'cos he got into acid very young. I bypassed that bit and I got into the music. He got me into it, actually. At 14 I saw my first gig, which was Deep Purple or something at Brixton. That was it. But it was my cousin Dave that actually really got me into it.

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