Def Leppard News - VIVIAN CAMPBELL Seems To Reveal DEF LEPPARD Will Announce 2020 Tour Next Week

Tuesday, 26th November 2019

VIVIAN CAMPBELL Seems To Reveal DEF LEPPARD Will Announce 2020 Tour Next Week

By Chele Drappel

Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell was interviewed by Wolverhampton radio and seemed to reveal more about the 2020 stadium tour.

Vivian spoke to Garry Foster of 101.8 WCRF FM radio to promote the Last In Line album/tour.

Vivian talked about the Last In Line UK tour, time off, Last In Line II Album, third Last In Line album, 2019 Download Festival Show, Playing With Def Leppard/Last In Line, Tour re-scheduling/2020 tour, Def Leppard's success, G3 Tour, Download Festival Hysteria Show, being down to earth, Riverdogs, his Current Health and plans for 2020.

Vivian revealed that Last In Line have rescheduled their UK tour because "something has come up with Leppard". Other than the 2020 tour news there are no other schedule events for Def Leppard that this could refer to.

Seemingly an indication that, as already mentioned by Billboard, the 2020 tour with Mötley Crüe and Poison will be announced in Last In Line's tour gap between Tuesday 3rd to Friday 6th December. With gigs taking place in the UK on the 2nd and then the 7th.

Vivian needing time, presumably to attend a press conference in the USA, and then get back to the UK.

At the end he also comments on the Def Leppard tour rumours and suggested the tour will not start until June by saying Last In Line might be playing European festivals at that time.

Last In Line's tour will now start tonight in Bristol rather than Friday's gig in his home city of Belfast.

Listen to the full 24 minute interview below.

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).

Garry Foster, 101.8 WCRF FM - Vivian Campbell Interview Quotes - (Transcribed by dltourhistory)

Last In Line Touring

"Well back out, we never stop it seems. We've been playing the last several weeks if the US you know. Coast to coast actually. Just constantly working. It's been that way for the last two to three years for me. I've never been so busy in my life as I've been in recent years. When I'm not working with Def Leppard I'm on the road with Last In Line."

"And I'm happy to do it. I mean I really thoroughly thoroughly enjoy it. It's very cathartic for me to get out and get really aggressive with my guitar again. But it's also something that really kind of has to be done. You know especially in this day and age. I really believe in Last In Line as a band. And I believe in the records that we've made. The two new records and we'll be starting work on our third in the next couple of months."

"And you know to get it to the next level you really have to go out there and play shows you know. You can't just make a record and do a video and do a couple of phone interviews. You know you've really gotta go out and manifest it and make it a real thing. And I'm more than happy to do that. It's been a lot of hard work but it's been really enjoyable."

Time Off

"Def Leppard's obviously at a stage in our career where things are going great for the band and we're actually getting bigger and bigger. Our audience is growing, you know, we're playing to a different generation now."

Third Last In Line Album

"I'm really excited about the next record in particular because we are actually at a stage now where we're negotiating with major record labels and moving off of Frontiers for the third album. And hopefully that'll give us more global reach and better marketing."

"And the songs for the new record are really exciting. Started working on them over the summer and we've probably got 80, 85 percent of it written already and it's a further development of what we did on the II record and it's really. It's exciting to be part of a band that's really finding its own sound. You know that's building off that legacy of the early DIO catalogue. And we have that unmistakable undertone to us but we're getting more and more ambitious musically."

Playing With Def Leppard/Last In Line/2020 Tour Announcement?

"Yeah pretty much you know it's difficult to schedule stuff and you know sometimes we have to move the goalposts and in fact that just happened on this upcoming tour. We were supposed to start in Belfast next Friday on the 29th. We're starting in Bristol as it happens ahead of that because something's come up with Leppard where I had to kind of move the schedule at the last minute."

"But you know that is my main gig. I've been with Def Leppard, next year will be my 28th year with the band, You know so that's a long term commitment. I'm very committed to being part of it. It's an absolutely exceptional band and a great bunch of guys and you know Last In Line is always gonna take that secondary role to my job in Def Leppard."

"But as I said at the start of the conversation I'm really trying to do everything in my power to take it to that next level 'cause I really really do believe in it. Even though it's just a secondary gig to me. It's a very very important secondary gig."

"And I think that Def Leppard benefits as a result of the work that I do with Last In Line 'cause it's certainly brought me to the very zenith of my guitar playing. You know like I said I don't think I've ever played better in my life and I'm really excited about it again. I think that that's a really important thing for a professional musician. Or a professional in any occupation. It's not always easy to keep the passion when you do something as a career."

"It's something you start off because it's your hobby and because it's your burning passion as a kid and you wanna do it. And then it becomes your job. You do it for decades and decades. It's possibly sometimes to fall into a routine and a rut. Where you kinda just do it because you're good at it and it's your job. But it's especially exciting when late in your career you rediscover it as I did several years ago."

"You know it was several things. I think one of the things was having a cancer diagnosis and dealing with that. That it really kind of lit a fire under my ass again. You know I kind of re-evaluated where I was in life and what I wanted to do with the rest of it. And you know all I ever really wanted to do in my life was murder my Les Paul. And play really aggressive rock guitar and Last In Line has afforded that outlet."

Def Leppard's Success

"No it doesn't surprise us. I mean we work very hard. Almost 28 years ago I joined Def Leppard and it's a very very different experience. There's something, it's very difficult to put into words. Especially on a nutshell, but Def Leppard just has an incredible work ethic and a global view and always had thus great global view. Joe especially has always been the beating heart of Def Leppard. He's always had this great passion for it and great ambition. And he always wanted this band to be where we are right now."

"And I think, you know, as someone who was a fan Def Leppard for many many years going back to the very beginning. Prior to being part of the band for so many decades now. I think I have a very unique perspective on it and I honestly think that Def Leppard deserve to be where the band is at right now. The band has worked incredibly hard in every aspect. You know be it song writing or recording or the live performance. just nuancing every little aspect of it. And nothing is too difficult for this band and each and every person in the band contributes and carries their weight."

"And it's like we have this collective ego as a band in Def Leppard. We don't allow one person to think that they're more important than the music and the band and that sort of focus has helped us go from strength to strength. In recent years we've really noticed that we've exponentially started to play to a an audience that is no longer just our own generation."

His Current Health

"I'm great with that thank you. I mean to be honest it's the least of my concerns and it always has been. Other than the first few months when they told me I had cancer. You know that's scary. You don't really know how to respond to it. But after a few months of that I looked at it very pragmatically. You know you have two choices in life with anything that's thrown at you. You can capitulate or you can pull your socks up and move on you know."

"But I've been very very fortunate that after a few failed chemotherapy attempts of different types of chemo. And I tried a Stem Cell transplant and that didn't work either. So it kept coming back and then I was fortunate that I got chosen for a clinical trial in the US for a new drug and I happen to be one of the people that responds very well. It's a drug called KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab). It's now on the market. And I believe it's one of the first drugs that was ever given to people for any kind of cancer that is dependent on a genetic marker that about a third of the population have ."

"I happen to be one of the third of the population that has the genetic marker that means that this drug kinda works for me. So the cancer's still there but it hasn't grown in almost four and a half years. I do these infusions about once a month. And it's just kind of holding everything in place and it's a very benign drug in terms of it's side effects. I mean compared to chemo it's nothing. So a little bit of fatigue and nausea, those sort of things. But certainly nothing by comparison to doing hardcore chemo."

"And to be honest really the hardest part of the treatment for the last four and a half years for me is scheduling, because I am so busy and I'm travelling all over the globe, is getting back to the States once a month to get an infusion. That's the difficult part. But that's a first world problem you know. So happy to take it."

2020 Last In Line Plans

"Well first off we're in negotiations with a couple of labels to nail down where we're gonna make the next Last In Line record. And I hope to have that formalised by January."

"I really wanna be in the studio by February with Last In Line to start the record. Now I doubt it would get out in 2020, but if it is to be released in 2020 it would be at the very tail end of it. And we're gonna try and do as many more shows around Def Leppard's schedule as possible."

"We also are hoping to get back to Europe maybe May/June of next year to do some more festival shows with Last In Line."

Def Leppard 2020 Tour

"I'm hearing rumours that there's a big Def Leppard tour next year but, you know that's just rumours."

"Yeah well news to me. We'll see what transpires you know. Yeah I'll believe it when I see it."