Thursday, 10th March 2016
Screenshot by dltouristory
Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott has been interviewed by Detroit radio and gave an update and insight into his vocal condition.
Joe talked about his health/vocal issues, the Hysteria On The High Seas cruise, Vivian's health/treatment, Phil's health/fitness, the 90s grunge scene, band longevity, the new studio album, Slipknot, Joe Perry/Joey Ramone and the 2008 Stanley Cup incident.
Joe explains his vocal issues and the recovery after the 1st February tour postponement.
Listen to the full 20 minute interview via the radio link below.
Visit the Tour News section. For more news on future tour plans.
Meltdown/Radio Chatter - Joe Elliott Interview Quotes
His Vocal Issues/Recovery
"I'm good. My health is - it's a funny thing you know. My voice went but there's nothing wrong with me per se you know. It's like a sports injury as opposed to being sick. Take your favourite quarterback and give him a torn rotator cuff. He's not gonna play next week. He's not gonna play the week after. He might not play for a couple of months but he'll be back. He'll be fine."
"And that's what it is with me. As you can hear, I'm talking. I'm walking and I'm having to explain it in kind of layman's terms a lot to people because they're going shouldn't you like be shutting up and saying nothing. It's like well it's not that kind of injury. I've got a haemorrhaged vocal cord through coughing. Through coughing. I got sick over Christmas and I coughed and coughed and coughed and I just did immense damage to my throat that just wouldn't - you know it takes two seconds to break you leg and four months for it to heal."
"The same thing with a voice you know. My talking voice is fine. My singing voice not so much. You know as of kind of mid to late January. But it's getting better all the time and by the time we get to May. Everything should be fine. I can run and jog and lift weights and giggle and laugh and talk and do interviews. And walk the dog. Not that I have a dog but if I did I could."
"At the time I just couldn't - there was nothing there. It was broke. It wasn't oh he can't do it any more. It was just literally broken but I didn't know it was gonna be broken until we literally got on the boat and it's like oh. Now we can't get off. If you're on land and there's some problem. You can reschedule and tickets can still be valid. But when you're 300 miles out to sea it's kind of do or die."
Hysteria On The High Seas Cruise
"We just rallied round. We were really lucky with the kind of atmosphere that you get on one of these boats. There's 10, 12 other bands on so there's 10, 12 other singers. So luckily Andrew Freeman the singer in Vivian's band Last In Line used to be in a Leppard tribute band. So he knew all that stuff. And between him - and then we got Kip Winger who's a long time friend of ours and also Eric Martin from Mr. Big who wanted to get up and do a couple of numbers."
"So I introduced the band and then I walked off stage. It was the weirdest thing I've ever done but it turned it into kind of a party atmosphere. You know the crowd - they were very sympathetic and I gotta say it was. The only down side of it is that now that Rick Savage is the only one that can say he's done every single gig in Def Leppard. I'm always gonna be one behind him you know."
Vivian's Health/Treatment
"Vivian's doing this new kind of radical treatment where it doesn't involve chemo any more. Chemotherapy will knock you side ways and you've got to schedule it at certain times and he wants to work. So consequently it made it quite difficult sometimes for him to be in the same headspace as he'd wanna be. But if he had to have chemo and then try and get on stage the next day. So he's trying this new radical treatment that works really, really well for skin cancer. And they're trying it on him but it has no side effects and that's the beauty of it. And the last report I heard from Viv, which was about three weeks ago, was that the tumours - they haven't shrunk but they haven't got any bigger. But the important thing is that the cancer within the tumour has radically gone down."<.p>
"So as he says, if you read any of his interviews, this is something that he may have to manage for the rest of his life. It doesn't necessarily mean it's gonna kill him. We heard the c word and we all kind of freak out thinking it's a death sentence. It's not necessarily a death sentence. He's probably actually healthier than I am!. But you know it's just one of those things where because it's the word cancer we all have this kind of image that it's like you know the grim reapers around the corner - because in fairness in many years gone by he has been."<.p>
"But it's getting easier and you know the way he's dealing with it is very positive. So it's just life. Listen you're in a band. You're in a band that's been together for 38 years and this particular line ups been together for 25 pretty much. Things happen you know. You take any random five people off the street and say what's happened to you over the last 25 years. You'll find that they ain't any different to us and we're not any different to them. Except maybe some of our highs have been a little bit higher. You know we've sold records and these amazing tours. Worked with some fantastic people. But we've you know we have a one armed drummer. We have a guitarist with cancer. We've got a singer whose got a temporary voice loss. It could sound like the grim reaper is hovering around the door but we're just here, just laughing at him. We put ice cubes down the vest of fear and we get on with it."
New Def Leppard Album
"We're getting around to getting back to where we were and the new album is as close as we've been so far. To achieving what we've achieved in the past and actually it's been a lot more fun because we've done it on our own. We did it without any involvement from record labels. We didn't even know we were making this new album. We only set out to do three songs. We came up with 14. So I heartily suggest to anybody that's in a band that if they have to make an album like us. Make an album that you don't know you're making and you'll make the most relaxed and original and heartfelt album that you'll ever make."
Related News - Joe Elliott Says His Voice Is Now Coming Back After Tour Break
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Related News - Vivian Campbell Says Band Will Play Man Enough This Summer
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Related News - Vivian Campbell On Health Status And Def Leppard 2016 Tour
Related News - Vivian Campbell On Def Leppard's Upcoming North American Tour
- Listen to the full interview at - wrif.com
- Def Leppard - Meltdown 2016 Show Page
- Def Leppard - Radio 2016
- Def Leppard - 2016 Tour News
- Previous News - 7th March 2016