Thursday, 26th February 2015
Pic by dltourhistory
Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott was interviewed by VH1 Classic On Tap recently and he talked about the new studio album.
Joe talked about them meeting at the Classic Rock Awards, Queen/Brian May, Down 'n' Outz, the heavy metal tag, the 2015 studio album, Rick Allen's accident/his drumming, women at Lep shows, PSSOM, the US tour and 'Gunter Glieben Glouten Globen' intro.
As with last year's interview (which the host seemed to have forgotten about) it was spread out over about 3 hours. The same songs were also played plus the Kings Of Chaos live song from last year's Classic Rock Roll Of Honour awards.
Visit the Album News section. For more news on new music (based on band member quotes) dating back to January 2011.
VH1 Classic On Tap - Joe Elliott Interview Quotes
2015 Studio Album/Gaps Between Albums
"There's a good reason for that we were 21 years old. We weren't married, we didn't have kids, we didn't have houses. We lived in the back of a van. Of course we wanted to get straight back in the studio. They had food and heating!. We - you know times change. The world is not queueing up around the block for a new Elton John. A new Rolling Stones. A new Def Leppard. A new Iron Maiden album. If they put an album out every five years it's an event. And that's what it's all about these days."
"We haven't done an album since 2008 that's true. But in 2009 we toured and we recorded some live stuff which came out in 2011 with Mirrorball. It had three brand new songs on it. And then we toured and toured and toured and then we did the VIVA! Hysteria thing and out that out as well. So it's not like we haven't been putting stuff out. It's just been live versions of. We have been putting the work in and we've certainly been writing. We just haven't got around to doing the record because the touring has become more important than the record."
Initially Working On EP
"This is the way that the music industry has gone. You used to be able to set your watch to the way that it worked in 1972 to 1982. Then it all started to change, probably with MTV, I've no idea. But people's opinions and the way that the music industry was going were starting to change. It was OK to be in your forties. Now it's OK to be in your seventies. You know I saw this headline the other day 'Is Rock and Roll Dead, No But It's Just Very Old'. And I thought well that's fair enough at least it's still around. And it's like your Grandparents, you don't want them dead either. You know I want McCartney to do it until he can't. Same with the Stones. It would be great if some new bands were to come along to bolster up the amount of us that's gonna be still around in ten years time. It's a bit thin on the ground underneath us. But the whole thing about the music industry it's - what you say - this is why you've gotta be very careful, especially with social media - You say something on the first of February. It's out of date on the 20th."
"So late year we said yeah let's do an EP. Why because everybody's doing EPs. Everybody's telling us that the album is dead. Maybe the album is dead. We've got the energy to do three tracks. Let's go and do three tracks. So we all turned up at my studio in Dublin last February. OK let's hear everybody's ideas. They were so good we couldn't weed it down to three. It's like we came out of that month's session with 12 songs. Like whoah. I think we've got an album, OK. So then we then re-addressed our theory on what we were doing. You know because we were happy enough to go with an EP. Which is essentially what the three tracks were on the end of Mirrorball. We did Undefeated, Kings Of The World and It's All About Believin'. They were three of - I still believe they were three of the best songs we've ever written. And because we didn't rush them. We just put them on the end of the live album. And there you go we can still do it."
"That probably gave us the confidence to keep going with new music because we weren't sure if anybody cared you know."
(Not) Working With Skrillex (Phew!)
"Phil had mentioned - Phil's a huge Skrillex fan and he'd kind of said like you know. Maybe we should get him to do a remix on one of our songs. And you know I don't think he got much...change out of the rest of us to be quite honest. I think Phil's more interested in trying to get a six year old kid to like Def Leppard than I am. I think if a six year old kid likes us he likes us. But I don't wanna ram it down his throat by having to wade into his world. To kinda of oh aren't we wonderful. It's like I don't believe you know that us and Skrillex would actually really work together very well myself. But that's just my opinion you know. We didn't fall out about it. It just didn't go anywhere you know."
Steve Harris/Iron Maiden 1988 Story
"I remember back in the 80s Steve Harris from Iron Maiden came to one of our shows and we dragged him up on stage to do this - We used to encore with Travellin' Band by Creedence Clearwater Revival. And he took the bass and Sav played rhythm guitar and we got Steve Harris to get up and play this song. And when we came off he went 'I've never seen so many women in my life'. So you don't get 'em at Maiden gigs. He goes 'No, we just get men.'. We've always had women at our gigs. Always have you know. That's another comparison to Duran Duran probably. It's music that women find sexy I suppose."
- Def Leppard - VH1 Classic On Tap 2015 Show Page
- Def Leppard - Radio 2015
- Def Leppard - 2015 Album News
- Previous News - 25th February 2015