Monday, 30th December 2019
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JOE ELLIOTT Says Late 2020 DOWN 'N' OUTZ UK Tour Likely/David Bowie Tribute

Def Leppard 2019. Screenshot

Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott was recently interviewed by US radio and mentioned the Down 'n' Outz album and possible 2020 tour.

Joe was speaking with DJ Eddie Trunk on his Trunk Nation show on 20th December to promote the new Down 'n' Outz This Is How We Roll album.

During the lengthy (and very newsworthy chat) he gave an update on new songs and when we can expect another studio album to be released.

Joe talked about his time at home with family, 2020 tour, Down 'n' Outz album, potential DNO shows in 2020, Goodnight Mr. Jones David Bowie Tribute, Stadium tour 2020 ticket sales, Motley Crue/Poison Band Disfunction, Co-Headlining/Set Times, The Stadium Tour Production, A proper biopic on the Def Leppard story?, 40th Anniversary OTTN Release, Record Store Day 2020/Videos Reissues, New Def Leppard Songs and the 2015 self-titled album.

Down 'n' Outz 2020 Live Shows

Joe talked about the possible live shows which would be played in late 2020. Indicating they would most likely be in the UK and probably not until November/December. He also said they would like to play a couple of shows in the USA.

He had last talked about possible shows in November and said they might do 10 to 12 UK shows.

This Is How We Roll Album

Joe also talked about the very positive reaction to the new album and how it was "Better than I expected".

David Bowie Tribute

He then talked about how the David Bowie tribute song 'Goodnight Mr. Jones' came about and how it was put together.

Listen to the full 55 minute interview below.


Trunk Nation - Joe Elliott Interview Quotes - (Transcribed by dltourhistory)

Elliott Family Christmas/Working

"It's busier in the busier than it is when I'm on the road 'cause there's so much to catch up with. That's the problem, you know, you come home to mountains of mail which most of them are like red warnings for bills you've not paid and stuff like that."

"We, you know, usual thing when I'm at home I'm just me. You know nothing special. So I get to do all the wonderful stuff like cleaning out the cat tray and putting up the tree and stuff like that. So yeah we pretty much hunker down for the winter and just chill out you know. And we are always working you know. When you're not writing a song or messing about with an idea, you're planning for this tour next summer. I'm currently promoting the Down 'n' Outz album."

"So a lot of it is just me using my mouth and my brain as best I can to get the point across about this new Down 'n' Outz record and this huge tour next summer."

"So it's not manual labour, it's work. But you know it's fun. It's fun to talk about music and after all these years we're about to have the biggest tour we've ever done and we've been saying that for the last five years. It just keeps ramping up and up and up. It's crazy."

Reaction To Down 'n' Outz Album

"The reception's been amazing from what I can gather. You know that Rush song Trees?. That's what it's like having the Down 'n' Outz, you know, when Leppard have just announced this massive tour. You've got you know the Oaks are blocking all the sunlight on the maple you know."

"It's a tough one really but the fact of the matter is that it's very well received. Obviously in this day and age it's easy to get the reviews forwarded on as emails from your PR team on a daily basis. It's got fantastic reviews. It's been very well received."

"Listen when I put it out I wasn't expecting it to sell the way a Phil Collin's solo record would or a Robert Plant solo record would. OI put this record out as an artistic statement more than anything else to get these songs out of my heads o we could move on. I've been messing around with these songs on and off for five years. Whenever the mothership was parked up long enough to for us to play around a little bit."

"So I can only grab them when they're not working and the chances of us all not working at the same time were really hard. And impossible in fairness. So we had to do it in sections. So the response has been great. Better than I expected. And this kind of record, it's not - the way the business is these days and probably from going forward it'll never. I don't think it will regress back to the way it was in the '70s or the '80s."

"But this record is out there forever you know. There's lyric videos are on YouTube forever. It's always there to be discovered. It's not like it's gonna go out of fashion next year because it sounds like 1975 anyway this record. You know so it's always there and people will discover it down the road and it'll sound no different to what it did the day it was released. So for me it's just an ongoing thing. it's out there like Hysteria is out there. And it hangs in the air for people to pluck it off one of those maple leafs if the oaks just move out the way for a couple of minutes."

Def Leppard 2014. Screenshot

Possible Down 'n' Outz 2020 Shows

"Yeah there's a possibility but not before that tour. It'll be after it and that's what I said about this record. If anything it will benefit me and the band to tour, you know do some shows in a year's time. If we went out and toured it the week the album came out. We'd be playing those songs mostly to people that were coming out of curiosity because of the bands that we're in other than the Down 'n' Outz."

"Or on the fact of maybe owning the first two albums and if we were to play the new songs a week after the album came out. They wouldn't be over familiar with any of them. We could do a little club tour or special guest slot on a bigger tour next year when the album's been out for a while. And anybody that knows it and has bought it will know the songs better."

"So I think in all honesty they would be received better in a live environment later on. So I've no worries about that. Obviously I wanna play some shows but realistically you've got to...you can't let the tail wag the dog. And you know having just come off this year's tour and come home I needed to just get some domesticity into my life because I haven't seen my family for a long time."

"So we're all kind of, you know, hunkering down for the winter together and I'm just nibbling away at other little projects at the moment. But yeah one day I really genuinely would love to be able to come out and do a gig, even if it was doe Sirius. Just a radio show or play The Bowery or, you know, some little club in New York and do maybe something in L.A.."

"And whatever we could do Britain's always easier because that's where everybody lives. But you just wait for the opportunities and see what happens. But we're actively be looking for when this tour is over after the summer, the Fall, next winter we'll be doing something with it."

Def Leppard 2019. Down 'n' Outz 2019

Goodnight Mr. Jones David Bowie Tribute

"No I took my time. I didn't wanna do some knee jerk reaction to his passing. It was obviously always in my mind. The same way that, you know, there's two ways of doing it. When Lennon died I think Roxy Music had a Number One hit single in the UK the week after Lennon died with a cover of Jealous Guy."

"That would've been the kind of knee jerk reaction version. Which in fairness for them was very successful. But I was writing and it was only when I got the music together for that track. And I was listening to it and it's pretty obvious when you listen to it that it's kind of got a Bowie-esque Life On Mars type vibe it. You know it's very much in that vein. It was written on a piano. I was thinking about Rick Wakeman when I I was writing it. I can't play like him but he was always an inspiration as a pianist."

"And once I'd got the music down I thought this kind of sounds like the right time. I was also ware of the fact that now three years ago, maybe six months after Bowie had passed that Ian Hunter had done a song called Dandy about Bowie."

"And I didn't want it to be too close to that so people thought I was only doing it because Ian had done one you know. I wanted it to be completely natural. I wanted it to just have references that would make it, nice references to Bowie. I didn't wanna over egg the omelette by making it too schmaltzy or making too many references towards him as a person."

"I kind of, I did some double entendres with some song titles in there. But I just thought once I got that chorus. You know Goodnight Mr. Jones the stars have your spirit, the earth has your flesh and your bones. I just thought I was on to a winner with this straight away. So it was a subject that was ripe picking for me because he had been part of me as a fan, as a musician, as a hero since I was about 12 years old."

"So there was plenty of room in my head for this to percolate and for it to naturally come out the way I wanted it to. I was really happy with the way that that song turned out. And it's not just the lyrics and the melodies. The string arrangement that we did for it really worked out well. And Paul Guerin's guitar solo is just to die for. It's just a superb Mick Ronson-esque guitar solo that just fits beautifully with the song."



Down n Outz 2019.

Down 'n' Outz / Latest Release


Down 'n' Outz / Latest Tour

Down 'n' Outz Tours


Related News - JOE ELLIOTT Says DOWN 'N' OUTZ Would Play Only 10 To 12 Shows In 2020

Related News - DEF LEPPARD's JOE ELLIOTT Says No Down 'n' Outz Tour Until November 2020

Related News - DEF LEPPARD's JOE ELLIOTT On Why He Wrote Goodnight Mr. Jones DAVID BOWIE Tribute

Related News - DEF LEPPARD's JOE ELLIOTT Really Wants To Play New DOWN 'N' OUTZ Songs Live

Related News - JOE ELLIOTT On Writing DOWN 'N' OUTZ DAVID BOWIE Tribute Goodnight Mr. Jones

Related News - DEF LEPPARD's JOE ELLIOTT On Possible 2020 DOWN 'N' OUTZ Tour


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