Def Leppard News - Joe Elliott Explains His Vocal Issues On The Def Leppard World Tour

Joe Elliott Explains His Vocal Issues On The Def Leppard World Tour

Wednesday, 3rd February 2016

Sunrise, FL 2016.
Screenshot by dltouristory

Def Leppard had to postpone their tour on 1st February and in this story Joe Elliott explains his vocal issues dating back to August 2015.

Joe's problems can be traced back to the 7th August 2015 show in Sturgis, SD when the band played at the Buffalo Chip Campgrounds for the Sturgis Rally. The first show back after a ten day break.

The crowd included bikers who watched the show whilst on their motorbikes. They could be heard revving up their engines between songs rather than applauding or shouting. Their fumes brought on a touch of laryngitis at the show in Sioux Falls, SD the following night. Joe was then able to recover enough to play the rest of the US dates up to mid October without any major issues.

He talked about these issues in an interview done before the last three US shows in Mid-October (published in November). Joe described his condition in various different ways including - "mycoplasma pneumonia" and "bronchial spasms".

Any issues he had (according to him) cleared up by the time the band started the next tour leg in Japan. He was then able to complete all shows in Japan, Australia, Singapore and the UK/Ireland with no issues other than struggling on certain high notes.

Joe's problems resurfaced on the morning of 20th January 2016 when he woke up with "no voice". After trying to perform at the 29th January show in Sunrise, FL the decision was taken (on doctors advice) to postpone the rest of the 10 scheduled shows in February.

Collected together below this are many of the quotes by Joe from interviews and on board the MSC Divina during the Hysteria On The High Seas cruise. The full story of Joe's issues explained by the man himself.

As mentioned in an earlier news story - Rick has now said Joe "pulled something" in his throat during the three week break over Christmas/New Year. This suggests it is "possibly" related to the issues mentioned but this will no doubt be explained in due course whenever more info is released about Joe's recovery. Possibly by Joe if he chooses to reference it during his weekly radio shows.

The band now only have one scheduled concert appearance in 2016 on 1st May in Orlando, FL at the Moonstone Music Festival. A US Summer tour is due to start in June but any tour announcement will obviously be affected by having to reschedule 12 shows and by Joe's recovery time.

Update - Vivian has now explained Joe's current vocal cord issue and said that he will recover fully in two months with rest.

The Joe Elliott Show - 15th August 2015 Quote

"Now you may recall last week I did the show from a place in South Dakota called Sturgis which is one of the biggest biker fests in the world. Fantastic crowd, revving their engines, clapping along. One of the downsides however of playing in front of so many bikes is the fact that you end up with dust and gasoline in your throat. And that's exactly what happened to me. You may have read about it on twitter and Facebook. But my voice completely blew out the following night in a place called Sioux Falls. So for the encore it was a little bit like watching Queen doing Love Of My Life or watching Rod Stewart doing You're In My Heart where he holds the mic out for the crowd and they all sing the song. They do it for fun. I did it because I had no choice. But as you can hear the voice is back. It was a just a little blip and everything is great. And that my friends is part of being in a band and part of the thrill of it all."

Sioux Falls, SD 2015.

Joe Elliott 8th August 2915 - Sioux Falls On Stage Quote

"Now I've got what they call in the business a touch of laryngitis as you can probably tell. So I'd like you all to do me a little favour for the next four minutes. I want you to join me. I want you to join the band OK because as you can see it's just you and me. I need your help OK. I need your help. Can you do it?. So we played Sturgis last night and there was like two hundred thousand million motorcycles and I think I swallowed all the gas that came out of their exhausts and it's took my top end away. But I have every faith that everybody out there can sing the bits that need to be sung what do you think?. It's dead simple. If you know it, sing it Two Steps Behind."

Joe Elliott - 9th August Facebook Quote

"Hey Sioux Falls, South Dakota! Last nite as I'm sure you noticed, my voice completely went out, a combination of swallowing tons of dust & gasoline fumes in Sturgis the nite before & a persistent cough I've had for a week or so ... But the crowd was just amazing ! .. On my side, you knew the effort was there, but the throat was gone .. you took over & sang YOUR hearts out!! I felt awful but you got me through it .. & I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart !! ... Until next time .....Joe"

Belfast Telegraph - 11th November 2015 Interview Quotes - (conducted before 14th October)

"We've three American shows left, then we've a three-week break and then we're off to Japan before the British and Irish tour. Sometimes the road is tough. I've had a bronchial spasm for about nine weeks."

"It's when you've got a cough and all the doctors can't figure out why you have it. It's one of those random things, I just cough for no reason, but luckily I've managed to avoid it onstage. It was brought on, I believe, by the dust and gas emissions from when we played this biker festival."

"They literally line up their bikes and rev their engines while you play and when you’ve got 30,000 doing it you can imagine the kind of air you’re breathing in. It can’t be good for you. That, coupled with the fact the kind of singing I do is hardly gentle, so your throat gets a battering every night. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and get on with the show."

All Access - 27th November 2015 Joe Elliott Interview Quote

"The 73 date tour of Canada, the USA and Europe that we just did has gone. And we move on. I was suffering a little bit. I had just discovered only two weeks ago that the whole summer tour from about the end of July, I believe it was, I've been suffering from mycoplasma pneumonia. Which is not a great thing when you're a singer. You know you can probably get away with it if you're playing the bass or playing the guitar and not singing or something. But it was a little tricky to negotiate all that kind of stuff going off in your throat. Luckily I think it's cleared up which is great. Which gives me a much better run at what we're about to do."

Joe Elliott Hysteria Cruise - 22nd January 2016 Onstage Quote

"Anyway listen I don't like to make excuses but about two days ago [20th January] I woke up with no voice. Decided half of you lot have already left so you're on your way here. You don't cancel. You just don't. You take a risk. Hope it comes back. Still hoping. But if you lot sing instead of me it'll actually sound pretty good."

MSC Divina 2016.

Joe Elliott Hysteria Cruise - 23rd January 2016 Intro Speech Quotes

"Good evening. We have good news and we have bad news. Good news is we are not sinking. The bad news is, as anybody will maybe testify, that was in for the Question and Answer acoustic performance yesterday. I've got an immense, really bad case of laryngitis and I cannot possibly sing this evening."

"I've done everything I've spent seven hours warming up trying to get something to work. But it just doesn't work. And I just don't think it's worth coming out here and making a complete fool of myself. I know that some of you wouldn't mind but really it's not a good idea. Not with YouTube. But the show will go on."

Sunrise, FL 2016.

Sunrise, FL 29th January - Joe Elliott Onstage Quote

"By way of an explanation if you like. As you can probably tell. I got really sick a couple of days ago. And the voice has fucked off. So do me a favour. Tonight be me. Will you guys be me tonight?. I will do my utmost to sing you along but it's fucked up man. It's gone and - we won't cancel - too many people here. Um we don't cancel. We've got stories to tell. They're just gonna be a little different tonight than they normally are."

Sunrise, FL 29th January - Joe Elliott Pre Rock Of Ages Quote

"Thank you. I can't believe you stayed. Thank you very much for all your understanding. They say it's only rock and roll but it means more to me than that and I can only thank ya for hanging in there. We'll be back. We'll do it again. We'll do it better. Adversity's nothing new to this band. As you are well aware. Between illness and this gentleman at the back here. Stand up Rick Allen. Now we didn't wanna deny you guys these next couple of songs but there's no fucking way on earth I'm gonna be able to sing them on my own. So I'm gonna bring up a friend of ours that we've known since 1987. From Tesla please welcome Jeff Keith. He knows these songs as well as I do and tonight this is your big moment baby."

Sunrise, FL 29th January - Joe Elliott End Of Show Quote

"I'm overwhelmed. Thank you very much. Well that was different. We will be back and I will be better. I promise you that. Once again thanks everyone."