Def Leppard News - PHIL COLLEN On DEF LEPPARD's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Setlist

Monday, 28th January 2019

PHIL COLLEN On DEF LEPPARD's Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Setlist

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Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen was interviewed by Canadian radio recently and commented on the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction.

Phil spoke to Tom Bedell of Q104 radio in Halifax, NS to promote the upcoming Canadian tour.

Phil talked about the 2019 Canadian tour, Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, the setlist, improving as a live band, playing live/touring, 2018 tour, Hysteria album/Mutt Lange, new Tesla album, co-headline tour and 2019 European tour.

He suggested the setlist for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame performance in March would be a fairly obvious pick of three popular greatest hits and also explained why playing live is more important to him than any award shows.

Listen to the full 10 minute interview below.

Read Joe's comments about the Rock Hall Induction from December.

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

Tom Bedell/Q104 - Phil Collen Interview Quotes - (Transcribed by dltourhistory)

2019 Canadian Tour

"Me too, Yes, absolutely.A real Canadian tour eh?. Yeah absolutely or pretty rusty. One of the two. No we'll be good. We just been out obviously for a long time on this tour and it's...yeah best we've ever been. So you know it just keeps improving. So there ya go."

Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame

"Thank you. It's great you know. Yeah it's always good. Anything like that. Any recognition."

Hard Rock Getting Respect?

"Not that, they're just running out of people to put in there to be quite honest. You know let's be really and there's not that many bands left you know. That's the other thing. I know that's not really a consideration but yeah if you stick out there long enough there's gonna be. They're goona go oh who do we out in this year. And they kind of scrape the barrel. So yeah we get in at some point I guess."

Who else should get in?

"Honestly I really don't care. It's not something I really follow to be quite honest. You know it's more, the fans get really passionate about it. They're always going why aren't you playing that? and why aren't you playing the Superbowl and all this. And it's like, you know, I don't know. I have no idea why it's taken so long and all this stuff but there you go. And it's not something that really concerns me. My real buzz is actually getting up there and playing live. The fact that I'm 61 and I can still run around like a 20 year old is pretty amazing. And playing these songs that we've written that do stand. Some of these songs we've have got are like 35 years old and older and you know we're actually out there playing them and people are really digging them and that to me is really kind of, that's a big deal you know."

"All the other stuff, awards ceremonies and that stuff not really my thing I gotta say."

Hall Of Fame Setlist?

"You know it'll probably do down to the event as well. They want your three most popular songs. So I'm sure it'll be like Pour Some Sugar On Me, Hysteria and another one you know. It's kind of a no brainer really."

Band Improving As A Live Band/Mutt Lange

"Yeah well I think one of the main things or one of the main reasons we are around is we do keep improving every year. Like not just the show, you know, we had lasers this time around. We reintroduced lasers (for the first time) since the 80s and that was cool. But you know we really, the singing gets better, the playing gets better. Last year I went out on the G3 tour with Joe Satriani and John Petrucci and that raised my game. It just raised the playing part, you know, just raised the bar just hanging around with those guys all the time."

"And that was great and then, you know, you apply it to the Def Leppard thing and everyone. Joe sung the best I've ever heard him sing at this tour that we just finished in December. And again you know a lot of people all go as you get older it goes out. No people actually, what tends to happen is that people stop bothering. And I think we've done the opposite and we actually see the results from it. So that's what I'm really psyched about is the fact that we, you know, we're a real live band. It's not us playing samples or tapes or anything like that. It's us really singing and doing all that."

"So I'm really proud of pleased of that and when anyone gets to see it then they, you know, respond back. They actually, well first off they don't believe us and then they go well how do you do that?. And you know it's hard work and that's really what it boils down to. And I think that was installed into us by working with people like Mutt Lange. Who was amazing, you know, he just, he wouldn't accept anything that wasn't exceptional. He'd say do you wanna be ordinary or do you wanna be exceptional?. And you know he installed that into us. And we still have that going with us so I'm really glad he did that and it kind of it really pays off. And so now at this point in our career we are having a bit of an Indian Summer. But a lot of it I put down to you know perseverance and kind of just...and being fans of what we do. We actually really like it, we like each other. We go out on tour and it just keeps improving. So it's really exciting and I now a lot of other artists or bands can't really say that. You know you speak to 'em and they go oh that's a bit of a grind. it's this or that and it's not for us. it just gets better and better and especially as the performance gets better. Keep writing songs and everything else so it's really exciting."