Def Leppard News - Joe Elliott Says Singing McCartney Was An Absolute Blast

Joe Elliott Says Singing McCartney Was An Absolute Blast - Audio

Tuesday, 2nd December 2014

The Art Of McCartney 2014.
The Art of McCartney

Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott and producer Ralph Sall were recently interviewed by Arroe Collins of WRFX 99.7 radio about The Art Of McCartney album.

Joe and Ralph talked about The Art Of McCartney album, covering Paul's songs 'Helen Wheels' and 'Hi Hi Hi', putting the album together, a "possible" concert featuring all of the artists and the album formats. Clips from many songs are also played throughout.

The Art Of McCartney album was released on 17th/18th November.

Listen to the full 13 minute interview below (the last 4 minutes are the 'Hey Jude' cover).

Arroe Collins - Joe Elliott Interview Quotes

Covering Paul McCartney

"For me as a kid growing up on The Beatles and then turning into a you know a musician, a singer or whatever you want to call me. And then getting an opportunity to perform one of his songs on record. Anybody can get up and do it on karaoke or even just do it live for an encore. But to actually contribute to something as substantial as this album with the just incredible cast of characters that have done the same thing. It's just am absolute gift to be able to do something like this. And the songs that we got to do, were exactly the songs that we would wanna do you know. Classic pop rock songs right in the vein of the kinda stuff that we like to try and write ourselves. It was an absolute blast to be involved in it."

Hi Hi Hi

"You've got to remember with Hi Hi Hi as well. Where I come from in Great Britain, in the UK. That song was banned by the BBC because they saw it as you know Hi Hi Hi as like drug references. Similar to the way John Denver with Rocky Mountain High and all that kinda stuff. So that makes a song even more special when you're 12 or 13 years old and the BBC ban a Paul McCartney and Wings song you go well I've gotta get a copy of that. You just wanna have it more and it made it even more special. These songs, doesn't matter what they were. They're just, they're all special to me."

"For me when I sang Hi Hi Hi, I was singing it with Paul's band and I was just kind of giggling every time we'd take a break going, I can't believe I'm singing with Paul McCartney's band. You know it was just crazy. But you just step up to the mic and you just sing because you know the song. You've heard it since you were a kid. It's in your DNA. And you're not trying to rip it off, you're not trying to copy him exact. You're trying to do it with his flavour and a bit of your flavour. So that people go that sounds like Joe Elliott singing Paul McCartney and that's - then you've achieved what you're after. It's just having fun with it. That's the great thing about these projects is that the songs are already fantastic. So you don't have to worry too much about trying to re write them. But all then you've got to do is perform them well and if you can't enjoy getting on the mic and doing a Paul McCartney song then you're in the wrong business."