Def Leppard: We made a record no-one had before
Def Leppard: We made a record no-one had before
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Friday, 05, Jun 2009 12:04
The inthenews.co.uk interview with Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott continues.
The next album, Hysteria, came about in much different circumstances - after Rick's car crash was there ever a point when you thought about getting a new drummer?
No, not at all. If he couldn't play drums anymore, he'd have been the first to tell us, as he's too proud to play badly. So once we realised it wasn't the morphine talking and he'd worked out a way of doing it, we just let him get on with it! We had enough work to do in the studio, we didn't need Rick to be playing drums, so we left him alone to re-apply his skills and teach his brain to forget about the arm, which doesn't happen overnight.
Are there benefits to having a one-armed drummer?
He's actually a better drummer now! He plays more to the song than the ego. If a drummer can do a complicated fill he will. But if he can't, you can prove to yourself you don't need it. People always joke about Ringo [Starr] being a s**t drummer - he wasn't, he was a simple drummer! (laughs) So was Charlie Watts. We encourage Rick to do simple fills. We're not trying to write Emerson Lake and Palmer! (laughs)
Adrenalize is also being released and then came out at an interesting time too - the LA riots were going on and grunge was beginning to take off - do you remember it having an affect on your sales or fans?
Not at all. Adrenalize was exactly what everybody expected - we'd nailed America twice and this time beat Springsteen to number one and had five weeks at the top - only about a dozen artists ever managed that in the 90s, really.
So the sales weren't noticeably affected?
No, grunge didn't really take root until late 92, early 93. It was like the rise of punk - in 1979, after the Sex Pistols had released their album and the Clash were heading to world domination, the biggest-selling record was Breakfast in America by Supertramp! (laughs) We were flying around the States in a private plane with an album that sold seven million copies - grunge was happening, and we were replying "So??" It didn't hurt us until 96. We need to go somewhere else with our sound and if anything, grunge gave us a kick.
Was going back to basics with Slang a risk in 1996?
We were looking at each other saying: "We are all aware that this is commercial suicide, right? Yep, we are? Ok. " But we were all really happy with that, we weren't doing it for the money - we didn't need it - we were doing it for the right reasons. We were trying not to be us, but another side of us. Every band does it, Kiss did it with The Elder, but that was actually a rubbish record!
You made a return to the 'traditional' Def Leppard sound on Euphoria in 1999 though.
We realised it had been seven years since we'd made what people would class as a 'Def Leppard' record - that's longer than a lot of bands are together!
And you guys have been together for over 30 years. This year you've got the 40 cities tour with Poison and Cheap Trick - after so long in the band can it be gruelling or is it still just great to be on the road?
We can do 40 dates for breakfast! What gets gruelling is doing the same thing year-in, year-out. At every venue, those tours can feel like you were only there a week ago. But what's great about these big tour is being on the road with different people - last year, it was Billy Idol and Joan Jett, the year before was Styx, Foreigner and REO Speedwagon, the year before was Journey and before that we were doing baseball stadiums with Bryan Adams. That keeps it fresh for the time you're not on stage - you get to drink coffee with different rock stars!
You're also playing Download this year - Will there be any big surprises in their set this year? What can the Download crowd look forward to?
We're not going to pretend that the re-releases are brand new and we've got to promote them, but we're not going to ignore them either! We are going to do exactly what every band should do at a festival - if you're going to be onstage in front of that many people, you try and indulge yourselves too much by playing your new album. Because they don't want to f*****g hear it! (laughs) Look at the back of a Rolling Stones bootleg and then you'll get your set-list; every 30 minutes they play a new song. But I'm really not sure exactly what we'll play at Download because it's one of 60 gigs we're playing. What we choose to do for the one-off UK show we haven't yet decided.
It's different depending on where you're playing?
Yeah. We don't play When Love and Hate Collide in America, because nobody cares, but if we don't play it in England, we can't get out of the building! Animal's a much bigger song in England than it is in the US - in fairness, Pour Some Sugar On Me is much bigger over there. We're a very territorial band. We change it around and it's fun for us, because we're not doing the same thing every night.
Photograph is an example of that and it's a song that propelled you to fame in the US but is known here by people who bought Pyromania a few years later. But you're nominated for two Country Music Television awards for your performance of the song with Taylor Swift -how did the collaboration come about, and is it bizarre to be nominated at a country music ceremony?
I hear you! (laughs) But we relish and welcome it - we weren't getting any awards from the rock fraternity, I'll take them from anywhere! It's current - if we get a nomination from Metal Hammer, it'll be an outstanding contribution prize, but this is for current work we did at the end of last year. We actually got two nominations for the Nine Lives song with Tim McGraw from Songs from the Sparkle Lounge as well, so we're up for four awards!
Performing Taylor Swift's Picture to Burn and Def Leppard classic When Love and Hate Collide alongside the country star:
How did those collaborations happen?
We were very flattered for the attention Taylor and Tim gave us and we thought it would be great to do it because most people don't ask and they were begging us to work with them! It changes the dynamic and takes the boredom factor out of things. But if Lemmy asked me to do something with him next week, I'd do it. I can go from Taylor Swift and Tim McGraw to Lemmy or Slipknot! After 32 years of being in the same band, I love these guys to death and we love working together, but it's good to go on holiday!
Lewis Bazley
Click here for the inthenews.co.uk review of the Pyromania and Adrenalize deluxe editions
Def Leppard play the UK and Eire in June 2009. Dates as follows :
Friday 12th June 2009 O2 Arena, Dublin, Eire - Headline www.theo2.ie
Sunday 14th June 2009 Download Festival, UK - Headline www.downloadfestival.co.uk
Click here for part one of the inthenews.co.uk interview with Def Leppard's Joe Elliot