Def Leppard News - JOE ELLIOTT On DEF LEPPARD's HYSTERIA/Ian Hunter And More (Audio)

Sunday, 6th August 2017

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JOE ELLIOTT On DEF LEPPARD's HYSTERIA/Ian Hunter And More (Audio)

Joe Elliott/Anneka Rice

Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott appeared on UK radio on 3rd August to promote the new Hysteria reissue and the full audio is available.

Joe appeared live on the Radio 2 Arts Show with guest host Anneka Rice on the album's 30th anniversary day.

Yes, that Anneka Rice from Treasure Hunt. Remember that show?...

Joe talked about what he would say to a younger Joe, the Hysteria album's 30th anniversary, ballads, recording techniques/influences, his favourite music, picking a song/book/TV show as his 'Buried Treasure'/Mott The Hoople/Ian Hunter/Michael Palin, the ups and downs during Hysteria.

Listen to the full 12 minute interview via the BBC iPlayer (UK Only).

Joe's part start at 9mins in and lasts until 28 mins (when Animal starts).

Visit the Tour News section. For more news on future tour plans.

The Radio 2 Arts Show - Joe Elliott Interview Quotes

What His Older Self Would Say To His Younger Self? I ask because we share a certain age.

"Absolutely we do. My older self says to my younger self. 'Do you know how lucky you are?. You're about to go through the journey of a lifetime and you're gonna love it because this is what you've always wanted to do since you were like two years old'. My relatives, I don't remember, but my relatives say when I could crawl, I crawled to the radio. You know what I mean 'cause music was in my thing, my DNA. So, you know, it's just one of those. When I was four years old there's pictures of me apparently where I was pretending to be Paul McCartney doing Love Me Do in 1963. From that moment onwards I've embraced it. I've always loved music. Always loved music."

Hysteria Album 30th Anniversary/You've just flown in

"Crazy, it's mad. I was in Dublin yeah. I live in Dublin. Well, it's 30 years and people say; 'Oh it's such a long time'. And as I've been saying all day. Yes, 30 years is a long time if you're like imprisoned for a crime you didn't do. You know what I mean. But when you're actually involved in an album that took off 30 years ago and it stayed took off. You know it's in the air permanently. It doesn't seem 30 years ago 'cause when we were prodded about this project, a year or so ago; 'You do realise you know it's the 30 anniversary'. And we're going; 'You've got to be kidding'. Really?. It's gone that quickly."

But doesn't it sound fresh?

"No to me it doesn't sound any different. I mean I'm sure there's some people out there who'll say; 'Well it doesn't quite sound like the Foo Fighters does it?'. But to me it doesn't sound any - a great song, you see, you know go back. That album came out in 1987. Go back to 1971 and I listen to things like Brown Sugar and go; 'Well that don't sound dated either'. If a song is good, a song is good. And it doesn't matter whether it's Cab Calloway in the 30's or Sinatra in the 50's or Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard in the 50's or the 60's. Or you know T. Rex, Mott in the 70's or us in the 80's. If it's a good song, it's a good song."

Love Bites/WLAHC/You did invent the power ballads

"Kinda, well we've been. I don't know whether we've been cursed with getting that comment or we've been blessed with it. But yeah maybe we did. Love Bites was a huge song for us from the Hysteria album. And much later on in life (When) Love & Hate Collide was like our only Number One really in the UK. And it was like a power ballad I suppose, but to us it's just a song you know. It's a song no differently to Let It Be or Long And Winding Road by The Beatles and they have plenty of rock songs than they did slow and fast. And we do slow and fast."

Recording Techniques/It was exciting in the 80s

"We were influenced by everything that we heard. We were so influenced by bands like The Beatles and the Stones in the 60s. Moving into the 70's it was T. Rex and Bowie. I mean things like Metal Guru, Get It On, Telegram Sam and Bowie with Starman, John I'm Only Dancing you know. Watch That Man off Aladdin Sane. I mean just genius stuff and then Killer Queen comes out by Queen and you're like this is unbelievable."

"Bohemian Rhapsody comes out mid '75 and you're like; 'Well, they've just taken it to a level that nobody's ever gone to'. I mean it really was extraordinary when Queen did that. We all take Bohemian Rhapsody for granted now, but when it came out it was a mind blowing experience and we were just the kind of people that when we heard all that stuff we took it onboard. Before we knew each other we took it onboard and when we got together it was like wow you know we have to do something similar to that."

"And with the Hysteria album being our fourth album, we'd gone through the learning process for the first three. But when we got to the fourth album it really was a case of like we have to join that club. We have to be there with the Queens and the Zeppelins and The Beatles of this world otherwise we're just gonna fall by the wayside."

Buried Treasures/His Favourite Music

"I have many of them!. Any specific era you want me to talk about?. As a kid, like I said, I was - I'm told by relatives, that literally I crawled to the rad the first time I heard music. As a kid my parents were very encouraging. Very encouraging. They did not shut me down you know which is amazing. They saw T. Rex, like, Marc Bolan and David Bowie on Top Of The Pops and they weren't like going; 'You're not watching that!'. There was none of that going off. It was amazing."

I love Mott The Hoople. This is Saturday Gigs

"Yes!."

(Anneka - "Ohhhh..") "Ohhh, Indeed. Ian Hunter really knows how to write a farewell song doesn't he."

Ohhh. So that is actually your first choice

"Yes, yeah. Well buried treasure because I didn't wanna pick something obvious like All the Young Dudes because that's not a buried treasure. It gets played all the time. It's a wonderful song. David Bowie wrote it for Mott The Hoople and then they took off on their own and they had wonderful hits with things like All The Way From Memphis, Roll Away The Stone, Golden Age Of Rock 'n' Roll. And then this is one of those songs. It was the last single that they released and it wasn't a hit. And I couldn't believe, what's wrong with you?. Why are you not buying it?."

How is that not a hit though?. We were swaying in the studio, we've had a whole disco thing going on

"It's such a great song. The lyric is a story. The lyric is a superb story of their career and you'd think that all Mott fans around Britain, just if they bought it, it would've gone Top 20 but it didn't even sell you know. So it totally is a buried treasure. Just a genius song. Great song."

We salute you for reminding us about that and actually it leads us into your second buried treasure. Slight obsession with Ian Hunter

"Yes there would be. I mean in fairness there was a bit of a theme going on here. And it's hard to avoid because the guy is such an influence in my life you know. I mean I know him, he was at my wedding. I've got to know him over the years. I first met him by breaking into his dressing room at the Doncaster Gaumont in 1977."

I love Mott The Hoople. This is Saurday Gigs

"When I was just a 16 year old kid and asking him to sign all my CDs. Sorry, vinyl at the time. But yeah my second choice is Diary Of A Rock 'n' Roll Star which is Ian Hunter's. It's not an autobiography. It's just literally a diary of a tour that Mott The Hoople did in 1972 of America. And it's, if you're in a band, it's an essential read. If you're not in a band, it's an essential read because it shows you what we go through. It shows you the ups and downs of a band that were on the up. You know they were still opening for people. They were still travelling in coach. It was you know and they way he describes the whole touring thing. It sexes it up so brilliantly. At the same time it keeps it real. it's a phenomenal little book."

Hysteria's Ups And Downs

"We pulled this record together called Hysteria and we put it out you know. And I think in fairness when you, all the stories that we read as kids in the NME and Sounds and Disc and Melody Maker. Of all the band and any hardships that they went through. We'd look at them and go; 'Well OK they managed to get through it all so I'm sure we will too'. We were just schooled on other people's situations and we embraced them and we did what we could and when we came to have our own problems we dealt with them as best we could and things like the Diary Of A Rock 'n' Roll Star by Ian Hunter is just a fantastic read and really just plays out how it is if you're in a band and if you can't deal with this, don't be in a band."

Two great recommendations. Can you top it with a TV show?

"Yeah I can. So I decided instead of going for some like Mott The Hoople or Ian Hunter. I'm going for Michael Palin's Ripping Yarns. It was an offshoot of, once Monty Python had kind of run its course. There was, of course there was Fawlty Towers by John Cleese which was an amazing thing. There was Rutland Weekend TV by um... Who did Rutland Weekend?. What was his name?. The other guy out of Monty Python... anyway, it doesn't matter. But then there was, there was the guy from Sheffield who did Ripping Yarns and it was. He did this one show, Michael Palin did this thing with Terry Jones called Golden Gordon and it based on a fictiious Yorkshire soccer team in probably the 1930s or 40s called Barnestoneworth United. And it is one of the funniest shows I have ever seen. I can watch it every day and find something new in it that I didn't see before. Hilarious, hilarious stuff."

Oh god Joe. This is honestly three brilliant suggestions. I'm very grateful for them

"Eric Idle! that was the guy I was thinking of. I couldn't think of Eric Idle's name. My bad. I just watched the entire series of Rutland Weekend TV and he was you know it was the offspring. Everybody has bis offshoots of Monty Python and Michael Palin's was phenomenal. There was a great one called Tomkinson's Schooldays, but the one that he did for the football which was called Golden Gordon, that's what it was called, just stunningly funny. Absolutely brilliant. Take it to my grave. I will watch it in my coffin."

Thank you and tomorrow back to your big day tomorrow the 30th anniversary multi-format release of the album Hysteria

"Yeah it was actually born today. The actual re-release is tomorrow but the album is 30 years old today and I can't believe it you know 'cause it's gone so fast. It's not like I was locked away and all of a sudden 30 years have gone. We've worked very hard. We've never stopped working but all of a sudden there's this; 'It's the 30th anniversary'. And where did that come from?."

We're going to love you and thank you for coming in from Dublin and to leave we're gonna play another Def Leppard classic from that album Animal

"My pleasure. Thank you so much. Thank you."

So Joe thank you so much

"My pleasure. Thank you."

Thank you so much for coming in and where are you going now?

"I'm going home."

Back to Ireland? Thanks for coming in, thanks for those suggestions. Great buried treasure!

"Yeah. Well not tonight but tomorrow. Thank you."

Did that really happen last night? Joe Elliot @DefLeppard and all things #Hysteria30. #ArtsShow @BBCRadio2 pic.twitter.com/K3iO1VeCua
— Anneka Rice (@AnnekaRice) 4 August 2017