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Def Leppard Tour History Fan Archive.
Vivian Campbell Focuses On Writing/Singing In Def Leppard

Saturday, 9th April 2016





Vivian Campbell 2016.
Screenshot by dltourhistory

Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell was interviewed last month by Focus On Metal and mentioned his role in the band.

Vivian talked about his first guitar, returning to heavy guitar playing, playing guitar/singing in Def Leppard, Thin Lizzy, Last In Line's history, the Heavy Crown album, songwriting, the new Def Leppard album, Starmaker, buying the Heavy crown album at a store, his time in DIO, Shadow King and the 2016 Def Leppard tour.

Vivian once again says he feels he had very little to do with the new album and talks about his role in the band.

This interview was conducted one week after the Last In Line album came out in late February.

Listen to/Download the 1 hour 15min podcast below. Vivian's interview is 30 minutes long.

Vivian's part starts at 4:32mins in and lasts until 34 mins.

Visit the Album News section. For more news on new music (based on band member quotes) dating back to January 2011.

Focus On Metal - Vivian Campbell Interview Quotes

Guitar Playing In Def Leppard

"Guitar was always my first love and first focus and it's something that I actually find really easy to do. But in Leppard for the last 24 years. It's not that challenging, the guitars parts you know. I'm not the only guitar player in the band. I mean Phil has been with the band ten years longer than I have. Phil's been with Def Leppard 34 years. So he obviously plays the majority of the solos because the majority of the songs that we still play in Def Leppard to this day pre date my involvement. I mean they're all the classic songs from the 80s before I was with the band."

"So Phil played those solos on the records. So he absolutely is entitled to play them live you know. It would be ridiculous for him not to. So you know I don't get to play a lot of guitar in Def Leppard but I get to sing a hell of lot. So I've really been more focused on being a writer and a singer for the last 24 years."

"But doing that brief tour with Lizzy in 2011 really reconnected me to my first love you know. Because here I was on stage with Scott Gorham and Brian Downey and playing Black Rose and Emerald and Jailbreak and you know Don't Believe A Word. All these great songs. Great riffs and great solos. It totally just transported me back to being 16 again in my bedroom. Just trying to really learn how to play guitar."

Current Def Leppard Studio Album

"And this was all done around the same time that I was working on the new Def Leppard record. But no, I didn't have any ideas for this (Last In Line) that I brought across to Def Leppard. Leppard's a very, very different kind of thing."

"And to be honest and just talking about that subject I actually had very little to do with this new Def Leppard record. Which is very ironic because I genuinely honestly hand on heart believe it's the best record the band has made in the 24 years I've been with Leppard. But the one I've had the least to do with. So I think the universe is trying to tell me something. You know that I should butt out of their business and just let them write the songs you know."

The two songs you co-wrote, the last two are probably the best on the album

"Well thank you. That's very charitable of you to say so actually. But it is all around it's a great Def Leppard record. Nut Leppard's a very different thing. I mean Leppard's a very diverse band. You know Last In Line does one thing. Just hard rock. Straight up hard rock. Whereas with Leppard it's not that simple. You know there's a couple of rock songs and then we gotta divert into this genre and then into that one."

"It's a very multi-faceted creative process making a Def Leppard record. You know making a Last In Line record is easy peasy my comparison."

2016 Def Leppard Summer Tour

"Yeah I'm going out with Leppard again in May and then we do have a summer tour that's gonna be announced soon. Starting in late June. So it'll run right the way through October. So I'll be busy with Leppard for a big chunk of the year.

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