Def Leppard News - VIVIAN CAMPBELL Excited About DEF LEPPARD's 2020 Stadium Tour

home > def leppard news >

Friday, 13th December 2019

Prev | Next

VIVIAN CAMPBELL Excited About DEF LEPPARD's 2020 Stadium Tour

By Planet Rock

Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell was interviewed last weekend in Wales and talked about The Stadium Tour 2020.

Vivian spoke to Wyatt Wendels of Planet Rock to promote the Last In Line album/tour.

The interview took place backstage at the Planet Rockstock festival over the weekend.

Vivian talked about his early career, DIO, Sweet Savage, Whitesnake, Joining Def Leppard, Def Leppard's Mid '90s Period/Grunge, The Stadium Tour 2020, and played his favourite music including Rory Gallagher, Thin Lizzy, AC/DC, Deep Purple, Rainbow and Def Leppard.

At the end Vivian commented briefly on The Stadium Tour 2020.

Listen to the full 31 minute interview below and at the Planet Rock website until Sunday.

View many media photos from the event courtesy of Gettyimages.

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

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

Def Leppard 2020

My Planet Rocks - 8th December 2019 Vivian Campbell Interview Quotes - (Transcribed by dltourhistory)

Joining Def Leppard

"Actually it wasn't no. Personally I find the bigger the show, the easier it is to do. There's a real disconnect when you play a stadium. The audience, you kinda see people out there but they're so far away from you. Usually there's 25 or 30 feet where they have a photographers pit."

"When you play a small venue people are right there. You see the white's of their eyes. that's really intimidating. A lo more nerve racking. So I wasn't and at this point I'd been in DIO. I'd done numerous world tours. I'd just come off a huge tour with Whitesnake. So I'd been in bands. I was used to being in big bands."

"PLus I was always used to going into situations, you know, having been in a few different bands. I was used to going in and working with people. And I was acutely aware when we were on stage at Wembley, that the other four guys. It was the first time they'd ever been on stage without Steve."

"And they were actually I think, I can't say it for sure, but it was my reading of them that they were more nervous than I was because of that you know. 'Cause they were looking right, for the first time ever they weren't seeing Steve Clark. They were seeing someone else. And it was a hectic sort of a show. We only did four songs and there was a big technical issue with Rick's kit on one of them. It was going out live to a billion people around the world. So, you know, not a lot of margin for error."

Def Leppard's Mid '90s Period/Grunge

"Yeah it was a strange time. We started the Adrenalize tour and that was a big tour, it was about a year and a half. We did 247 shows and we went around the globe and from the time we started to the time we finished the Adrenalize tour all that had happened."

"And we looked different. I mean we all started to grow goatees. We cut our hair. We were really a band like searching for an identity then you know. And then we went into the studio to cut the Slang record which was my first album with the band. And the only thing that we knew going into that was that we couldn't sound like Def Leppard."

"So it was really bizarre to be honest. But we got through it, you know, we started playing in other markets that we'd never been to with the Slang tour. We went to South America for the first time. We went extensively to Asia in like Thailand and Malaysia and Singapore and places like that that we'd never played before."

"You know we had to kind of weather the storm. There's a real resilience in Def Leppard if nothing else. You know like after Rick's accident and Steve's death and whatnot. You know the band kind of picks up the pieces and goes on. And we just kind kept at it. You know we kept a standard to the work."

"There's always been an intense work ethic in Def Leppard. That's the thing I noticed first of all in every aspect. Be it song writing or the live show, the performance when we rehearse. You know it's almost mind numbing the attention to detail. But that kind of resilience is there. That's part of what makes up the core of Def Leppard ."

"And we endured and I remember we were doing a festival in. It was the summer of 1999 and Courtney Love's band Hole were playing. And the guitar played was wearing a Pyromania shirt. And we thought 'Oh, that's a good sign.' OK we're kind maybe getting beyond that. We've survived the '90s somewhat. And it literally was the end of the '90s."

"This was the summer of '99 and then we had to face the onslaught in th early 2000's of Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys and all those boy bands. So music had changed a lot. You know Pop Music that kind of uber produced technology driven like Pro-Tools and pop music was coming in and we made an album called X in 2002 I think."

"Which I feel with the benefit of hindsight was maybe a little bit too influenced by current trends of the time. But we kind of adapted and we've endured and survived but there's always been a standard to it. To the work that Def Leppard does. You know we always try and adhere to a certain level. And I think that that's served us well."

"Even if we were sort of swimming up a stream which we were in the mid '90s."

The Stadium Tour 2020

"No we knew a few months ago you know. And obviously we were trying to keep a lid on it, But somebody let the cat out of the bag. But yeah so it's great. It's gonna be a really good tour. We're excited about it and we just announced it in L.A. a couple of days ago."

"But yeah it's gonna be a big tour. We're doing stadiums. Like 22 stadium shows in North America with Motley and like you say Leppard and Poison and Joan Jett. So it's sort of like a mini festival."