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Def Leppard Tour History Fan Archive.
Joe Elliott Explains All Five Members Lead Vocal Song/Album Update

Sunday, 10th May 2015





Joe Elliott 2014.
Screenshot by dltourhistory

Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott was interviewed by Eddie Trunk in mid February and the audio/transcript is now available.

Joe talked about the 2015 world tour, the US shows with Styx/Tesla, the setlist, the upcoming 2015 (possibly self-titled) studio album, the new record/release deal, the band's live vocals, the new song with all five members singing lead and a possible Ded Flatbird reunion.

The interview was conducted backstage during Joe's taping for That Metal Show and first broadcast on Eddie US only SiriusXM radio show on 13th March. The full That Metal Show interview itself was only broadcast last night on US TV.

Joe talked about the new song with all five members singing certain lines during the verses and that it was his idea. This was also mentioned by Vivian shortly afterwards in a different radio interview.

Listen to the full 10 minute interview below - Joe's part starts at 57:13 mins until 1hour 7 mins.

Visit the Album News section. For more news on new music (based on band member quotes) dating back to January 2011.

Eddie Trunk Live. - Joe Elliott Interview Quotes

2015 Studio Album

"Yeah. We've been on and off on this album for a while. We started last February so that's a year ago. And we had a month at my studio in Dublin. To write what we thought was going to be an EP. Three or four songs. And we came out the other side of that month with 12 songs done. Or written you know in various different stages of undress. Some of them were totally finished and could have been released that week, that month. The rest of them were you know works in progress but they were songs. And we decided to take a bit of a stand back from it for a while because we weren't in a great rush. We got together again in May for two weeks to work on them a little bit more and then we ended up with three more songs. So we ended up with like 15 songs."

"And then of course the KISS tour came along so we put everything to one side and this has been the beauty of doing the record that way. We let things kind of simmer and we can listen to them and we nudge each other going 'that needs a jangle on it' and 'this needs that, that needs another harmony there and we should change that bit around'. And so we've let - they've been able to percolate and breathe a little bit you know. So after the KISS tour I started working on some of the vocals. We started doing a bit more writing on the lyrics because we basically worked mostly on the music. We had a few lyrics and stuff done but there was a lot of lyrics needed doing."

"We've done a lot of that work since September/October/November. Took a break in December when I did the Down 'n' Outz tour. And then we fired back up in January and the boys came over for another two weeks. Just to finish off all the little bits that needed doing like backing vocals, guitar solos etc. And now it's just up to yours truly to write one more lyric I believe. Sing a couple more lead vocals and then its gonna be mixed and hopefully out some time this - we were thinking about Spring time but it looks like it's gonna be pushed to the summer."

"Purely because there's been a lot of activity behind the scenes from various different record labels sniffing around asking if we could be - if we would be interested in doing a deal. So we have to give them the respect of paying each one the same amount of attention and seeing which is the right way to go. Whether we go with a giant label or whether we release the record on our own."

"Mirrorball we put out on Mailboat which is basically our own label - Bludgeon Riffola through Mailboat. And the reissue of Slang was on Bludgeon Riffola via Mailboat and it works really well for us because we own - we own the masters. That's the great thing about it. We actually own the masters and it's really important that you can hang on to your work."

The Band's Live Vocals

"It's just the way we are. It's, you know, it's the right thing to do. It wouldn't be very British for us to cheat. We've never been - we've never wanted to. I mean we know how hard it is. We've seen bands that we grew up with that kind of, I wouldn't say got lazy, but it just got so difficult for them to maintain the power to do all that kind of stuff. It gets harder as you get older. We're really lucky that we've developed - and it's more the other guys than me. I just do this kind of screechy thing over the top. But they, between Phil, Sav and Vivian. They've really mastered a blend and when they do the backing vocals on things like Armageddon It and Photograph it almost sounds like a record but it really is live. And when me and Phil do the harmonies on the bridge of Animal, it sounds like the record because we really worked on the diction and the length of the notes and the falls together and make sure that all the bends are in the right place."

"It's what the Everly Brothers did. They were born with that, we had to work at it you know. They were brothers. They had it in their DNA from birth. We had to develop what it sounded like to be the Everly Brothers, But we learnt through working with people like Mutt and we spent a lot of time rehearsing and we'd sit around the hotel rooms. We'd sit around the dressing rooms and we would do these acapella just till we go it down to a fine art and we're just blessed with great singers in this band."

The New Song With All Five Members Singing

"I will - one little titbit I will give you which, this will be a total exclusive. There's a song on the new album where everybody takes lead vocal and that was my idea because I thought you know what, you guys can sing that well, let's all take a line each you know. So it's kind of like. A bit like The Beatles with the second song that they did off the Lennon demos which went on the Anthology where they all took a verse each. What we're doing on this is we're just swapping lines, and I sing the rest of the song but on the verses, where everybody's taking a line each, even Rick."






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