Def Leppard News - JOE ELLIOTT On DEF LEPPARD's RRHOF Performance With Brian May/Ian Hunter

Friday, 18th October 2019

JOE ELLIOTT On DEF LEPPARD's RRHOF Performance With Brian May/Ian Hunter

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Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott was recently interviewed about the new Down 'n' Outz album and mentioned the RRHOF.

Joe spoke to Lyndsey Parker of Yahoo! Entertainment to promote the new Down 'n' Outz This Is How We Roll album.

Joe talked about the Down 'n' Outz, band history, This Is How We Roll album, Mott The Hoople/Ian Hunter, Def Leppard's early days, the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, the end jam section, the 2019 ceremony, who he would vote in and his friendship admiration of Ian Hunter/Mott The Hoople.

The full 39 minute video has now been published following the shorter 6 minute version last week.

Joe explained how the 'All the Young Dudes' performance at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame 2019 ceremony came about and how he had to talk Ian Hunter into it.

He also mentioned the band's early days and their first show at Westfield School in 1978.

Watch the full interview 39 minute video below.

Down n Outz 2019.

Yahoo! Entertainment - Joe Elliott Interview Quotes - (Transcribed by dltourhistory)

Ian Huner/Mott The Hoople

"Yes I am on a bit of a mission for that because what we are is what we are. I don't have to sit here and talk about me. Def Leppard takes care of itself. I'm happy to talk about it but I'm not me me me me me. I'd rather talk about other bands. The passion for Mott The Hoople came when I was ten. And then I heard Ian sing a song called The Original Mixed Up Kid on one of these compilation records and I just totally fell in love with the story of the lyric, the voice. And I realised he sounded a lot like Bob Dylan but for some reason I hate Bob Dylan but I love Ian Hunter's version of Bob Dylan."

"Ian was just Dylan-esque but better I thought. And he just had this kind of loner vibe. There was something about him. It was a great cacophony that they made. Individually they weren't necessarily the best musicians in the world. But they made a hell of a sound. But the important thing was the songs were brilliant. They made great songs. They made commentary five years before it's time. A lot of people will hear a song like Violence off the 1973 album and realise that he was actually talking about what would happen in London three years later when the Punk movement started kicking in."

"But for me it was the melodies and the tunes. There's a song called Through The Looking Glass on the album The Hoople which is just the most phenomenal bit of work. As is Marionette which rumour has it then when a young Freddie Mercury was watching Mott on tour they were playing this song Marionette because it's deemed a mini opera. It's quite possible and even the guys in Queen said yeah I can see that. It was the inspiration behind Bohemian Rhapsody. So there's a lot of leakage that went into other stuff. But I can't really explain why I like Mott The Hoople I just do."

"The thing was I'd been telling all these kids at school about Mott when they were still signed to Island Records and like you're missing out on this thing. And then unbeknowns to us it'd been going off under the radar. They'd moved over the Defries. Bowie had given them this song. They record All The Young Dudes and all of a sudden the whole world changed."

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All The Young Dudes

"Everybody's world changed because you can have this conversation with Morrissey, Boy George, Duran Duran, me. Half the Punk bands on the planet. When they heard All The Young Dudes it was a wake up call to there is something for us out there because they felt disfranchised I think from having their own - they weren't in to Uriah Heep or Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin."

"So as a 12 year old when I first heard All The Young Dudes. That and T. Rex Electric Warrior a year before set me on my path."

Def Leppard's Early Days

"Not when we started out no. When we started out we had no option but to play some covers because you couldn't get into venues unless you did. Certainly in the places that we played. You were supposed to be a cover band because the clientele needed to hear stuff they knew. We used to get around that by saying here's a song by...and it would be one of ours. We'd say it was by Des O'Connor or Foreigner or whatever you know. We would say this is a song by Tony Orlando and Dawn and we'd blast into Hello America. And the guy would pay us and go I wasn't so familiar with a lot of them songs but seems to go down quite well so we'll have you back."

"When we first started out before we had any songs we obviously learnt to play stuff. The first song we ever played in the rehearsal place that we had was Suffragette City. We also played Pretty Vacant. The first gig we ever did in the school. We played our entire, everything we'd written. Like 8 or 9 or 10 songs and all the kids were stood around the outside of this gymnasium like...when do they finish?. And then we kinda got this like fake encore and we came out and we did Jailbreak by Thin Lizzy and they went mental."

"And we all came back into the school room afterwards which was the dressing room and said I think we need to write more songs like that then.If that's the kind of reaction it gets. When we first started out we weren't trying to...oh you really need to listen to this band or to that band. That's something that just became something that developed once people like yourself would start asking. Either back in the early days '81, '82, '83. What did you grow up listening to?. It was just a conversation piece and we'd name drop all the bands that we listened to."

"And over a period of time no matter how many times I name dropped Bowie or Bolan. They just went yeah, yeah, yeah but what about the Sabbath and the Zeppelin stuff?. No Bowie and Bolan. Bowie and Bolan. Can't you get it through your thick skulls?. That I grew up on this stuff. Please for God's sake. Which is why we ended up doing the YEAH! album. It kinda worked to a point. But it's something that's always gonna be there. I've just accepted the fact it's like not everybody reads everything you've done."

Favourite Cover Of A Def Leppard Song

"I've never really heard that many to be quite honest. Mariah Carey's was the most I would say expensive version of one of our songs. I mean the story I heard. Mariah if you're watching correct me if I'm wrong. She was doing a photo shoot for her Greatest Hits album and they were playing Vault our Greatest Hits in the studio. And Bringin' On The Heartbreak came on and she started singing with it and she said we need to hold the album coming out. I wanna record that and put it on as a bonus track. That's how we heard it."

"Yeah she shot a video for it. And it came out as a single. I'm not really familiar with too many other versions of us. Other than Hayseed Dixie have done a whole yeehaw violin album of our things I think."

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Emm Gryner PSSOM Piano Cover

"My favourite version of one of our songs, which you would never of heard I doubt. Is by a Canadian girl called Emm Gryner. She does a kind of a piano-y blues version of Pour Some Sugar On Me. It sounds a bit like Marlene Dietrich really I suppose. And it's just phenomenal. It's on an album called Girl Versions I think. And it's on YouTube. It's brilliant. It's absolutely my favourite version."

Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Ceremony

"We weren't overly familiar with the Hall Of Fame because we never for a minute thought we would ever be in it. So when you go into quick rewind to kind of check things out on YouTube like watching people's acceptance speeches. Watching Inductions to see how it really works. You'd realise that there seemed to have been this flow of, what would they call them?. All-Star Jams at the end. And to sum it up you'd have Phil Collins on drums, and there would be Mark Knopfler and maybe Eric Clapton and George Harrsion and Paul McCartney. And they'd all be there year in, year out doing I Saw Her Standing There or something."

"And once we realised we were being inducted and it was a Fan Vote. And we were there for us and them. Not necessarily buddy buddy with all the other groups who were gonna be on. I basically said can you imagine the All-Star jam with us and The Cure?. And Radiohead 'cause I can't you know what I mean."

"I could've seen maybe McKay or Manzanera joining in on something. So I said I can't see it happening but I think that because Brian's there we could get Ian because of the connection between them because the only band Queen ever opened for were Mott in 1974 . Queen opened for Mott The Hoople at the Uris Theatre and on the British tour of '74. Other than that Queen have always been a headline act."

"So they have a history with Mott The Hoople. And me and Brian May have got up with Ian two or three times in London. So there's always this little kind of circle of like we can do each other's stuff. So I made overtures towards in getting Ian. And he was just over the bridge. He was actually in Brooklyn rehearsing with Mott for their tour. So getting hold of him wasn't that difficult. But talking him into doing it was."

How so?

"Well because they were busy. I said Brian's getting up to do it. And there was radio silence for like 24 hours and then I got a call and he went. Alright then for you I'll do it. You know so we got him over totally unrehearsed. We rehearsed it without him. He came in half an hour before we played it. Just put on his guitar. Got up and bang off we went."

"And what was great was word got around backstage so then we had Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles going can I get up?. Actually she'd already rehearsed it in fairness. So we knew she was getting up. But Steveie Van Zant got up and Manzanera from Roxy Music. Rod Argent and Colin Bluntstone got up. And you're looking along the lines and I'm going Def Leppard, Ian Hunter, Brian May."

"Yes this is our all star jam except it's that song. It's full circle. It's the song that really got me wanting to do all this and now we're actually closing out our induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame with that song. It's like licking the envelope shut."

Mott The Hoope In The RRHOF

"If I've got anything to do with it they will. But you've got to start the process. If there's an issue. If there's a problem with the Hall Of Fame. It's that it doesn't have a London branch. And what I mean by that is you can talk all you like to the committee that are all based around Manhattan. About the value of a band like T. Rex. And they'll go yeah but they only had one hit in America. Not the point. They had so many hits in England that the amount of bands that they influenced that had massive hits in America. It's the trail it leaves behind. It's the family tree. T. Rex. Mott The Hoople. That'd be about it for now for me. I wouldn't wanna get greedy."

"I mean look at us we did sell a gazillion records (in America) and and we weren't gonna get voted in by the committee. We only got voted in because of our fan base."

Five British Inductees In 2019

"That's fantastic and I will say this much I was shocked beyond belief that Todd Rundgren didn't get in. I swear it's like if anybody deserves it through his production work alone."

Thanks From Ian Hunter

"Oh every time I see him. He looked me in the eye and he went, well through his shades. He says I know what you're trying to do. I said what?. You're trying to make me famous. So we have these kind of conversations all the time but they're mostly humourous."