Tuesday, 24th September 2013
Pic By DefDazz/Darren
Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell was interviewed by PYX 106 radio today and a transcript is available plus an audio download.
The interview on the Quinn & Cantara show was recorded yesterday.
Vivian talked about his health, touring and (for far too long) about DIO/Last In Line.
The full 9 minute audio can be heard below along with the transcript.
PYX 106 - Vivian Campbell Interview Transcript
Good morning and congratulations for kicking that cancer's ass Vivian.
Viv - "Thank you I did my last chemo a week ago yeah. All good."
Touring whilst going through chemo.
Viv - "Yeah I mean physically it was hard but mentally actually I'm really grateful I had the chance to continue working cause I found it very cathartic to have a purpose in life you know and to get up in the morning and actually have something to look forward to doing and I love work. You know it's all I ever wanted to do was play guitar on stage so you know to be able to do this and actually make a living doing this is a real gift so. You know I find that it's been part of the healing process for me to actually keep looking forward. Keep moving forward, keep working."
Rest of band suggest taking a break this summer instead?.
Viv - "They did actually. They told me I didn't have to work. I mean even to the extent that they would get someone else in to cover me for the shows if I wanted that but I was never comfortable with that option. The other thing is you know Def Leppard's a hard working band but we take a lot of time off. I mean there's a lot of down time. So you know we did the VIVA! Hysteria thing in Las Vegas this past Spring and then we had a couple of months off. And that actually was when I was starting my chemo. So the first three months or so of my chemo I didn't have any work to do specifically. So I was at home and I had time to adjust to that whole schedule. And see what sort of an impact it had on my body and on my mindset and stuff. Yeah there's plenty of time off with Def Leppard which is why I have other projects. I just like to keep working."
The DIO thing.
Viv - "Well first of all I'd like to point out that Ronnie was the one who wished me dead. I never wished Ronnie Dio dead. I mean I certainly didn't have a good personal relationship with the guy. We had a great musical relationship but on a personal and business level it didn't go well at all. Yes I did say some things about Ronnie that you know I can't say that I didn't feel those things. I do think it was wrong of me to say them in public you know that's definitely something I'll own up to. Bot no I don't believe in karma as such. No I don't subscribe to that you know and I don't think that things happen because they're supposed to. I think that you kinda. You manifest you're own destiny in a lot of ways you know. However as regards to the whole cancer thing I mean I actually look at it as a positive in a lot of ways. You know it really kind of rearranges your priorities in life and puts a lot of things in perspective."
"As regards to being over the whole DIO thing yeah. Absolutely and I do think that that's a little bit easier because Ronnie has passed away several years ago. I mean if Ronnie was still out there still touring as DIO then I wouldn't put the Last In Line project together. Although if Ronnie were still with us I'd like to think that at some stage maybe he and I could've sat down and put on our grown up trousers and talked things through you know. That would've been the ultimate thing and I think that that would've happened. I think the real obstacle to the whole DIO thing was his ex-wife Wendy you know who managed the whole project and basically in my opinion kind of tore it asunder cause Ronnie always wanted it to be a band from the get go. It was always a difficult relationship. Musically it was a great and I never had a problem with that but you know it took me a long, long time to be able to go back and revisit that music. Which is essentially my music, it's as much my music as it was Ronnie's cause I wrote those songs with Ronnie."
Vivian's part in the original music.
Viv - "Yes Ronnie and Jimmy Bain, the bass player and myself wrote that music together so you know I do feel that it's mine. But for - literally for decades for close to 30 years I couldn't even listen to that music I didn't own the records. It left - the whole business side of dealing with the Dio's left such a bad taste in my mouth that I didn't want anything to do with the music. I wasn't given any ownership of it from a financial point of view because the Dio's did take that from me. And that left a very bad taste in my mouth so I wanted nothing to do with it musically. You know with the passage of time and what not I've gone back and I've revisited that and I'm reclaiming my heritage. I wrote those songs. I played on those records so it's a great joy now to be able to go out and play them. You know and we've got a great singer Andy Freeman. He's a lovely guy, he's a great talent. He doesn't sound like Ronnie tonally and that suits me cause I didn't want to draw that comparison. I don't want Last In Line to be a DIO tribute band. It's about the original band who wrote and recorded the original records."
"So it's all the original players. Vinny Appice on drums. Myself on guitar. Jimmy Bain on bass. Claude Schnell on keyboards and with Andy's help we went this summer and we did our inauagral shows. We did a weeks worth of shows over in the UK. And as you noted earlier on I had to fit that between chemo schedules so we'd originally planned to do a more comprehensive tour in Europe to kick things off. But we got started and you know we're headed to Tokyo in Japan in a couple of weeks to do a festival date over there and we've got a couple of West Coast warm up shows in advance of that. We're trying to book a full on US tour for early in the New Year. Yeah we're trying to propel that forward and make it a going concern cause we really enjoy each others company and we enjoy the music and there's a real chemistry to the original band. As there is to any original band that can never really be replaced you know."
Asks about the Richie Sambora/Bon Jovi tour situation.
Viv (jokingly) - "That would be about right yeah. That's kind of how the business works yeah. I don't know but that would seem - I mean from my experience in the business that wouldn't be - I don't know if Richie was making two million a month..."
Has he ever accidentally texted or called Phil Collins/Other celebrities.
Viv - "No I only have Phil COLLEN in my phone book. No I try and avoid celebrities."
- Listen/Download at - pyx106.com
- Def Leppard - Quinn & Cantara 2013 Show Page
- Def Leppard - Radio 2013
- Previous News - 24th September 2013