Duluth, MN - Tour Diary

Joe Elliott - 14th November 1992 KERRANG! Tour Diary Quotes

We're based in Minneapolis at the moment, so we'll commute to tonight's show and travel straight back afterwards. The Minneapolis show was brill, but the reviewer thought we sucked. These local 'wannabes' don't generally like us, so it's no surprise.

The reviews always say, "...But they went down well in front of an ecstatic crowd". Hello!? Is there anybody in? It seems that if it's not U2 or REM, then it's not rock 'n' roll. What a load of old bollocks!.

The chest pain has eased, but it's still here, especially in my back, so I've still got to watch myself. I can't sing for shit right now, which is really pissing me off cos I can do it under normal circumstances. But this frigging pleurisy thing is a real turd in the soup.

It's a sold-out show, and we're only the third band to play here this year (the others being Damn Yankees and Tesla), so they're going to be nuts. I don't need this! I'm starting to get depressed, and I'm starting to hate everybody that puts these schedules in front of us. We can't cancel, so I just have to sound like shit. Not a very inspiring thought.

8.15 rolls round, and I go on and do what everybody in a band has done at least once - pretend I'm having a good time, for appearances sake. It's bloody awful, but we've got a great sound engineer and by the look of everybody's face, he's doing a good job! (Turn me down, more echo, please!).

We encore with 'Love Bites' and 'Photograph', and it's during the latter that I physically hear my throat go. That damn song is so hard to sing. It's times like these I wish we'd never written the f**king thing. I hate it!

When we come off, I make what I consider a very sensible decision and don't talk. I'm sat in the dressing room, feeling very low and pathetic, while everybody else is saying, "My voice was good tonight, the backing vocals were great". Shut the f**k up! I don't need to hear it. To make matters worse, some local radio station is playing the whole of 'Pyromania', so here's me listening to what I know I'm capable of doing. I'd like to fall into a big hole right now!

Everybody's jolly on the journey home, and I'm having to bite my lip. I'm not used to this. Old Big Mouth likes to rabbit, but not tonight. I remember Bon Scott, after a similar thing happened to him when we toured with AC/DC in '79, saying to me, "If I ever come back after I'm dead, I'm gonna be a drummer!." Tonight I know exactly how he felt...

By Kerrang! 1992.

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