Thursday, 5th March 2015
Pic by dltourhistory
Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell was recently interviewed by Laura Hall of 98.9 KKZX and the full audio is available.
Vivian talked about his health, touring whilst ill, missing the casino shows, the 2015 studio album, release date, the sound of the album and whether he listens to new bands.
Vivian says the album/first single "may" be released by the time of the Spokane show - 30th September.
Listen to the full 9 minute interview below.
Visit the Album News section. For more news on new music (based on band member quotes) dating back to January 2011.
Laura Hall - Vivian Campbell Interview Quotes
His Health
"I've been dealing with Hodgkin's Lymphoma done four rounds of chemo and a stem cell transplant. But after all of that I'm glad to say that I appear to be over the hump. So I'm feeling very, very spiffy thank you."
2015 Studio Album
"I did miss a bit of the recording though as you mentioned we just finished a new record. We've been working on over the last year and we did that in three instalments in Dublin. And I was there for the first and I was there for the last but I missed the middle part due to having to do treatment. And on that subject I gotta say in the 23 years, even though I'm the new guy in Def Leppard, in the 23 years I've been in the band this is the band's strongest album. In that time and we're really excited about this. So that's the good news, the bad news is I actually didn't have that much to do with it. So that speaks volumes right there."
Release Date/Playing New Songs Live
"Well that depends by the time we get to Spokane we might. It's possible. That's kind of - we're looking at releasing the record later in the year because it's not a hundred percent finished yet. We're all done with our parts with exception of Joe. Joe's got a couple of vocals to finish up. And then the record's gotta be mixed and mastered and they'll put all the packaging and the artwork together. So it won't really be - we're not rushing the release of it. But it will be out in the later part of the year. So obviously when the lead track goes to radio it would behove us to play it. So we'll rehearse whatever the first track's gonna be and it's possible by the time we get to Spokane. It might feature in the show. But it won't feature until it's on the radio."
The 'Rock Element' of The Album
"The rock element was very important to us and that was the first thing that we touched on when we started recording. We set up live in the studio last February for the first recording session. Now a lot of people might think well yeah doesn't everyone do that?. But Def Leppard don't record that way, we do things bit by bit very methodically. So we haven't actually recorded live in the studio since '96 on the Slang album."
"So we wanted to capture that rock element and that 's the best way to do it. So the first couple of weeks sessions we actually banged out a lot of rock tracks and that was good. Then once we'd gotten that in the bag we kind of moved on to the next phase of the record. And it became more methodical and more analytical and like OK what sort of a song do we need next. We started writing to order. That's kind of difficult for me. I've always kind of been a little bit at odds with the other guys in the band about that. So I was quite happy to go to hospital and do chemotherapy. Yeah give me a call when you're done!."
"So you know it's - but we covered - it's a very diverse record. We started with the rock element and we certainly have that covered on it. But it's not front to back a rock album. It's not like High 'n' Dry you know we're not in our 20s any more. But it definitely sounds like Def Leppard."
- Interview Source - 989kkzx.com
- Def Leppard - Laura Hall 2015 Show Page
- Def Leppard - Radio 2015
- Def Leppard - 2015 Album News
- Def Leppard - 2015 Tour News
- Previous News - 5th March 2015