Def Leppard News - VIVIAN CAMPBELL On His Respect For Steve Clark/DEF LEPPARD's RRHOF Induction

Friday, 1st March 2019

VIVIAN CAMPBELL On His Respect For Steve Clark/DEF LEPPARD's RRHOF Induction

By dltourhistory

Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell was recently interviewed by Canadian radio and mentioned the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.

Vivian spoke to Mitch Lafon for his Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon podcast.

Vivian talked about the Last In Line II album, new songs live vs. DIO songs, Last In Line's future, Riverdogs, Andrew Freeman, other vocalists he's worked with, Steve Clark, Bruce Turgon/Lou Gramm, Def Leppard's Popularity/Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction and Canadian 2019 tour/Canadian audiences.

He spoke about learning and playing Steve Clark's guitar solos and once again about the upcoming Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction.

Listen to the full 27 minute interview below.

Vivian's part starts at around 19:45 mins into the 1 hour 37 minute podcast and lasts until 45:21 mins.

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

Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon - Vivian Campbell Interview Quotes (Transcribed by dltourhistory)

Learning Steve Clark's Guitar Parts

"Yeah well I was a big big Leppard fan for many years before I joined the band and I actually remember buying the Wasted single. And yeah I bought the first album and the second and the third and fourth and so on. So I was very very aware, you know, that Steve was really the riffmeister in the band. And, you know, I've come to play his parts... when I first joined Def Leppard I didn't immediately start playing Steve's solos, you know, on the ADrenalize tour. Certainly for the first several months of the Adrenalize tour back in 1992.."

"I would just go out there and I knew that the solo came here and I'd play something that was a very very very casual interpretation of what Steve did but then after many months on the road I came to realise just how important Steve's solos were as part of the songs. They weren't just mindless riffing over 8 or 16 bars that most guitar players in Hard Rock do. So I really re-evaluated my approach to it and I think I became a lot more respectful of what it is that Steve brought to Def Leppard as a songwriter and as a soloist. And ever since then I've pretty much tried to stick as closely as possible to the solos that Steve did."

"But having said that no two guitar players play the same. So I could never, under the best of circumstances, I could never play a solo exactly like Steve did. And nor would I want to.So it's always been an interesting exercise for me to find the right balance of staying true to the melodic intent of Steve's solos within these songs and yet adding a little bit of my own flair in there as well. And I think it's also helped me to kind of redirect my own course as a guitar player. You know obviously the passage of time would do that as well because you kind of have a different perspective, you know, as a 40 something or a 50 something year old guitar player than you do when you're a teenager or in your early 20s. ."

"I mean I really put a lot more importance and stock into structure of solos and the melodic intent of it and the dynamic build of a guitar solo now than I did when I was19 you know. I really just don't see it as a gap to fill. You know when I remember back to doing the Holy Diver album with Jimmy, Ronnie and Vinny when it came time to do a guitar solo, you know, all I wanted to do was play as fast as possible. You know but I think that's kind of...it's probably true of every teenage guitar player. Certainly of that era and of that genre, you know, is that you kind of get hung up on the flash and the technique and that's where your perspective stops. It begins and ends basically at the technical aspect of it and there's so so much more to it. Especially if you want something that endures over decades like Steve Clark's music has."

"So yeah I have profound respect for Steve as a songwriter and as a guitar player."

Def Leppard's Popularity/Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame

"I think it's fair to say that there's sort of mixed feelings about it you know. On the one hand I mean the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame has had a little bit of a chequered past and a shall we say varied history of how it goes about selecting acts to get into the Hall Of Fame."

"Having said that, you know, we're certainly glad of the honour and flattered by it and especially so because I believe, if my sources are correct, Def Leppard had the biggest popular vote ever to get into the Hall Of Fame. And I think that that kind of speaks volumes about where our focus is in Def Leppard. I mean we've always been about our fanbase. And, you know, the one yardstick that I've always used where by to measure these sort of things is The Grammys."

"And I remember back in 1987 when the Hysteria album came out. I had yet to join Def Leppard but I was still very much a fan as I mentioned earlier. I remember being amazed at that record. And than about a year or so later I remember being even more amazed that it didn't get nominated for any Grammys. And as the years went by, you know, when the Grammy nominations come out year after year after year and, you know, I think to myself I've never even heard of this artist who just won this Grammy. And then I kind of remember back and Hysteria one of the all time great rock albums in rock history never won a Grammy and never even got nominated for a Grammy."

"So, you know, that's always kind of been in the back of my mind and when I look at our, you mentioned about us playing stadiums. the band's been together for 41 years and we're selling out stadiums in North America with Journey. And we're seeing I would guess roughly about 35, 40 percent of the audience are young enough to be our children and I realised that we've crossed that generational gap and that threshold and we're now playing to people beyond our own generation and our audience is quite literally growing."

".That is really all that Def Leppard has ever strived for. And if we had nothing else in the world we'd take that above anything else. Above the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame or a Grammy nomination or anything you know. If you can't put people in seats and make them happy at your concert then you're failing job one, you know, that's gotta be the first order of business and that's always been our focus in the band you know. So anything that we receive on top of that is just gravy."

"So 2018 was an exceptional year for Def Leppard and I think, you know, to get the year that we got accepted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. The news came to us about the middle of December. It was just a great Christmas Present and a great end cap to what has been a phenomenal year."

"It's, you know, there's great ambition in Def Leppard. There always has been and there's always been great industry and. you know, it's very very rewarding specially for me as the new guy of 27 years almost now in the band. To see things finally get to where we always believed they should be for Def Leppard, for this band. You know we work very very hard at what we do. Our work ethic is always very strong. It always has been in every aspect, in every discipline of what we do. And, you know, we've had some very very very lean years in the 90s when Grunge happened and whatnot. And, you know, we've never give up and we never quit. We've always believed in what we were doing and the quality of what we do. We always try and make the show the best that it can be. Good is not good enough for Def Leppard. It never has been. And it's really nice to see all of that finally coalesce and finally come together you know."

"And as the new guy in the band I'm not kidding myself that Def Leppard's in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame because of any in particular that I've done. But I have helped for the last 27 years. I've helped the band maintain that integrity that we bring to the work. And, you know, I've been there for the bad times and now I'm happy to say I'm there for the good times. So I'm particularly pleased not just for the band but in particular for the other four guys in the band because they really really deserve it."

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