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Vivian Campbell Discusses Joining Def Leppard In 1992 (Audio)

Wednesday, 19th October 2016





Vivian Campbell 2016.
Pic By Chele Drappel

Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell was recently interviewed by Chris Jericho and mentioned joining the band in 1992.

Vivian was interviewed ahead of the Last In Line US/UK/European tour for the Talk Is Jericho podcast.

Vivian and Phil talked about Los Angeles, hotels, their backgrounds in music, Vivian's time in DIO, how they left DIO/Ozzy's bands, joining Def Leppard, writing for Def Leppard, starting Last In Line, the Heavy Crown album, the upcoming 2016 tour, Jimmy Bain's death, plans for a second Last In Line album and the Hear 'n' Aid project.

Vivian was interviewed alongside bassist Phil Soussan who joined the band after the death of Jimmy Bain.

He says that Leppard will not be "too busy" in 2017 and Last In Line will record a second album.

Listen to the full 1 hour 20min podcast below. Vivian talks from 5mins to 1 hour 16mins.

Many thanks to Mark Guess.

Visit the Tour News section. For more news on future tour plans.

Talk Is Jericho - Vivian Campbell Interview Quotes

Joining Def Leppard/How hard was that?

"It was actually easier for me than it was for them because you know ever since day one with Def Leppard, every time that Joe or Sav or Rick or Phil or even Pete Willis back in the day. Any time that they had looked to their right it would've been Steve Clark on stage right and all of a sudden it wasn't, it was somebody else."

"So at that stage I'd been in DIO. I'd been in Whitesnake. I'd done a spell with a band called Riverdogs. And done a record with Lou Gramm. But I was used to coming into a situation and making it work. So it was a little bit easier for me to walk into that band. Plus I was a huge Def Leppard fan. I was very, very familiar with the music. Going back to before the first album. I mean I had I had the early singles. I remember buying Wasted in the picture sleeve and stuff."

"So I genuinely was a big fan. I was very, very familiar with it. But there is no way in hell I was gonna sound like Steve. I can't you know. But what the band - it was a great loss for Def Leppard losing Steve because Steve was also, haing been with Def Leppard for almost 25 years now. I know that he was the the big writer guy. He was the riff guy. And I do feel that that's a loss because when I write a riff for Def Leppard. My natural tendency is to write heavy. You know and it's not always gonna fit the Def Leppard formula. So it's a different kind of thing."

"You know Steve and I are not at all similar guitar players you know. But I've really learnt to appreciate what it was theat he brought to Def Leppard. I mean not that I didn't beforehand but I mean it really - I've gotten to life in his skin if you wanna say for like 24/25 years and I've really gotten to get very, very intimate with his music."

Three major name guys up for that gig?

"It wasn't an audition it was more a courtship. It's more about the personality. When you're in a band with people. We call it submarine duty you know because you're on a tour bus for 15 hours a day or whatever. So you know you kinda have to get along. So the process took a month or two and involved getting together and playing and that was easy enough for me. They knew I could play guitar. What they didn't know when I joined the band was that I can actually sing and that was a big plus 'cause Steve actually didn't apparently. Steve used to pretend to sing."

"So that was I guess a plus for Joe and the other guys in the band and. We'd get together and we'd play and then we'd go to dinner and then we'd play soccer on a Sunday afternoon. Went to the IMAX theatre to see the Rolling Stones movie you know it was stuff like that. And then we'd go back a week later to the rehearsal room and play. It was getting to know each other 'cause Joe was the only one that I knew prior to joining the band. I'd had I guess a bit of a reputation because I'd been in DIO. I'd gotten fired. I'd been in Whitesnake for about 20 minutes. So they wanted to make sure that it was gonna work so that's what that was about."

Second Last In Line Album In Early 2017

"Frontiers has offered the opportunity to make another record ealy next year. So w're definitely gonna do that. And that'll be a different and exciting chapter for us because we'll be writing with Phil for the first time and with Eric. So I'm excited about that."

"So hopefully next year in 2017. I know Leppard aren't gonna be too busy next year. So I'll have more of an opportunity and hopefully everyone else's schedule will be clear enough where we can actually do something."

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