Def Leppard News - JOE ELLIOTT Says 2018 Has Been His Best Year In DEF LEPPARD

Thursday, 8th November 2018

JOE ELLIOTT Says 2018 Has Been His Best Year In DEF LEPPARD

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Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott has said 2018 is his favourite year as a member of the band during last night's live Q and A session.

The band were unveiled as one of the 2019 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame nominees on 9th October for the first time having been eligible since 2005.

Only Joe took part in the live event last night to promote the Fan Vote at 8pm EST (USA) which lasted for 27 minutes.

View the full video below.

The band are currently in Melbourne, Australia where played another Hysteria & More tour show at Rod Laver Arena earlier today (without Scorpions as it turned out).

Joe talked about, his feelings about the other nominees, live opening songs, who would induct them into the Rock Hall, the Nomination, playing in Sheffield, tips for young musicians, the best year of his career (2018), which other band he'd be in, looking back at 2018, highlights of 2018, what he does on tour to relax and the Australian tour.

He mentioned how the year 2018 has been such a big success for the band and even his favourite year of being in Def Leppard.

Also mentioned quickly were the 'new' original songs he has written for the third Down 'n' Outz album. An album that was meant to have been delivered to the record company by September 2018 and 'may' be released in early to mid 2019.

Watch the full 26 minute video below.

The Fan Vote takes place between 9th October to 9th December - VOTE HERE

After 31 days of voting the band are now up to 360,000 plus votes and lead Stevie Nicks by over 60,000.

Visit the Album News section for more news on new music (based on band member quotes).

Def Leppard 2019.

8th November 2018 - Joe Elliott Interview Quotes

Current Success compared to past success?

"It actually feels better to me to be quite honest because it's so unexpected. When you're a 20, 21, 22 year old kid and you've formed a band maybe two years earlier and you're going for what you know. You've watched bands like The Beatles and the Stones and The Who and Led Zeppelin do their thing. First album comes out, you know, then by the fourth album they're huge. Same thing happened really with people like Elton John and you kind of expect it to happen at some point. When Pyromania took off we were at an age where this is where it happened to everybody else. And then when Hysteria solidified that it's like well this is kind of what happened to everybody else. Albeit there was a five year gap between those records which wouldn't have happened to most artists. So that I suppose we took it in our stride because that's what we thought would happen."

"But to come back round forty years after we formed and we end up in a situation where in the Summer of 2018 we're playing stadiums and huge arenas to more people than we've played to in 1983. Makes it that little bit more special. It's kinda like getting a second shot. Even though we didn't really spilt and reform. We've been chiselling away through what we like to call wilderness years and I guess there's a bit more heat on the band 'cause I guess people they re-evaluate it over the years. And they start comparing us to what's gone before and since if you like because when we started out being successful in the early 80s we just became our own entity and then we kind of cooled down a little bit and other bands came along and they've disappeared and then here we are put side by side by maybe 90s bands or early noughties bands. I guess people are saying that they think some of the artists from the 80s whether it be us or Bon Jovi or Depeche Mode or even U2 have got more value because of the longevity and the fact that we weren't work shy which I think is a big part of it."

What stage of your career has been the best?

"Honestly, I swear to god, this year. This year has been the best for me because it's not a victory lap, but it's kind of a. It's reinforcing who we are. And the re-evaluation of this band from the darker side of the music industry if you like. Like critics that wouldn't necessarily give us the time of day are now at least tipping their hat going you've got to give them the credit for doing what they do. They don't have to like it and I'm OK with that. But acceptance not just by fans but by people within the industry. It's like rediscovering us and seeing that there is a value there."

"This has happened to loads of bands in the past. It happened with The Kinks. I remember when Led Zeppelin were still an active band they were getting torn to shreds in the press but 30 years after they spilt up everybody's worshipping them again. It's just a funny old world really."

"This year again because like I said earlier on, you know, at this stage of our career where we're all in our mid to late 50s the fact that we're doing it in front of so many people and with such a good response is a fantastic feeling because it's not, it wasn't expected. So it's kind of like winning the lottery but didn't even have to buy a ticket."

If you could be in another band for one tour or one gig who would it be and why?

"It would be the Down 'n' Outz because I've done it and I'm gonna do it again. And I love the songs that I've just written. Bad English!. I just WROTE for the third Down 'n' Outz album."

Joe Elliott in Melbourne 2018

Screenshots by dltourhistory.

Looking Back At The Year 2018

"Well the thing that I'm always looking back at right now, and this comes up all the time, and you do have - you're brain never shuts off and you've forever got time between. You're only on stage for two hours and you've got 22 hours to kill. And when you're not sleeping you're travelling or you're sitting around doing stuff. For me it's like this year has just gone so fast. It's now what mid November nearly and I was in New York with Neal Schon in January promoting the then Def Leppard x Journey tour that we were just announcing. That 11 month ago!. And it doesn't seem like 11 months. So it's like an incredibly fast year. Which is scaring me actually because it basically means in about four and a half months time I'm gonna be 86 years old at this speed. And I don't wanna be 86 years old in four months' time."

"Life is going really fast right now but it's a hell of a ride because like I said the success that we've re-achieved this year, or solidified, has been quite astonishing and we're humbled by it. We accept all the hardships that come along with it 'cause it's not as easy to tour. You know to sing these melodies that we wrote when we were 22 and you physically still have to keep doing them 30 odd years later. It's a challenge and it's a commitment, but it's one that we've never shied away from because we've always been hard workers. We're not millennials that expect everything handed to them on a plate. Or get a medal for finishing tenth out of a race of ten people. We know that you've gotta work really hard for what you want and what you expect to achieve and we've done that this year. And it's quite exhausting at times but it's very rewarding. No complaints, it's been a good year."

Any particular highlights of this year?

"Yea usual ones. People like us get off on a big crowd so Denver because there was 50,000 people in a stadium in Denver. It was a beautiful night and yeah it as just the way that the stadium was lit. There's this band of light around the edge of the balcony thing, the top tier. That's actually registers that that's exactly one mile above sea level. And it's just little thing like that you know like this is really wild, this is crazy."

"There's also going to Japan, being in Hawaii for a week rehearsing the Hysteria stuff. that was a highlight 'cause we all had family out and we actually got to live like human beings rather than just cattle being prodded from one place to another. Settle down for seven days in a hotel near the beach and we purposely set up to rehearse in the evening so we could spend all day with our kin. And swim in the sea and mess around and stuff and have a laugh. And do it together as a group which you see when you're working you don't really have that much time to relax 'cause you're always working. And we actually had a bit of time where everybody was with their people and we had fun as well as work. We don't get to do that very often 'cause we don't all live in, not only the same city, we don't even live in the same country. So for us to be able to do that was pretty special."

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