Monday, 23rd March 2015
Pic by dltourhistory
Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell was recently interviewed by Kathy Kennedy of AM680 CJOB radio and the full audio is available.
Vivian talked about being in a rock band, how he started out in music, joining DIO/Whitesnake/Def Leppard, his health issues and the upcoming show in Winnipeg.
Listen to the full 11 minute interview below.
Visit the 2015 Tour News section. For more news on future tour plans.
Kathy Kennedy - Vivian Campbell Interview Quotes
Replacing Steve Clark In 1992
"I'd say it was a lot more complicated, a lot more difficult for the other guys in the band because Clarkie was an original founding member of the band. They'd never played with anyone else. Where as me, I had been in and out of a couple of bands. I'd been with Sweet Savage. I'd been with DIO. I'd been with Whitesnake at that stage. So I was kind of used to going in to situations and making it work. So I actually found it pretty easy you know from that point of view."
"It was a weird kind of thing because Leppard really, really are a tight knit band. And you know if Steve was still alive he'd still be very much part of Def Leppard. You know when I joined the band and when they took me in. It wasn't something that - it wasn't a decision that they took lightly or one that I took lightly."
"I was kind of burnt out on bands because I'd been hired and fired twice with DIO and with Whitesnake and I was concentrating on doing a record on my own. I sing you know and I just wanted to do a solo record and I was working with co writers and I had a record deal. And then you know I got approached by Joe to join Leppard after Steve passed. You know both parties had to think long and hard about it and it actually took a period of about two months. Where we went through what was essentially a courtship you know because it's almost like a marriage. We had to get to know each other. Both parties had to know."
"Joe knew me personally so he knew that I'd be great for the band. I knew I'd be good for the band but I didn't want to enter another situation that was gonna be tentative. You know I wanted something that was an equitable situation in every away and Def Leppard has turned out to be that. It's really - it's kind of like being in a gang being in Def Leppard. We all kind of look out for each other. We still share a dressing room which I think probably you know to any other professional musician of our generation that speaks buckets about how close we are as a band."
Winnipeg Show/2015 Tour
"We're very fortunate we have a lot of genuine hit songs and we're kind of beholden to them. You know every time we do a show I think at least you know 70, 80, 90 percent of the audience comes to see us expecting to hear the really big hits. So we're always gonna play Sugar, we're always gonna play Photograph and Rock Of Ages, Hysteria, Animal, that kind of stuff, Rocket."
"But we try and mix it up you know doing some stuff from the High 'n' Dry record. Some of the more direct rock stuff. We always try and include something that's a deeper album cut. This tour we're talking about doing Paper Sun from the Euphoria record which we haven't played in a long time. So we have those certain songs that are more deeper cuts, more guitar centric and we have certain things that are more visual. You know more production highlights of the show. But we always try and give a good show and we lead with the songs but we always try and make it as much of a visual spectacle as we can too."
- Interview Source - soundcloud.com
- Def Leppard - News At Noon 2015 Show Page
- Def Leppard - 2015 Tour News
- Previous News - 20th March 2015