JOE ELLIOTT On DEF LEPPARD's 2023 Bramall Lane Show/Drastic Symphonies

Wednesday, 21st February 2024

Def Leppard 2023

Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott was interviewed in May 2023 ahead of the band's homecoming show in Sheffield with video available.

The World Tour 2023 started in Mexico City on 18th February 2023.

The band kicked off the UK/European leg with a homecoming show in May 2023 at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, England.

Bramall Lane Show/Shots TV Interview

On 21st May 2023 Joe spoke to the Sheffield Star at Bramall Lane to talk about his love of Sheffield United and the Bramall Lane show.

A 25 minute chat was published at the time on YouTube with Joe talking to Sheffield United legend Tony Currie.

Alongside this Joe was interviewed for a new music show that has just aired in the UK.

Shots! TV are currently showing the first episode of the 'Kick And Screaming Music Show'.

This includes another showing later tonight on Freeview Channel 276.

It is also available on their website along with the Tony Currie chat from 2023.

You can also view a short clip as posted by The Star below.

Sheffield United

Joe discusses his relationship and history with the football club and attending games since 1971.

And also why he stopped travelling to games after 2005 due to band commitments and family life.

Drastic Symphonies

He also briefly talked about the 'Drastic Symphonies' album.

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).

Kicking And Screaming Music Show (Joe Elliott) - February 2024

Wednesday, 21st February 2024 - Shots! TV (Freeview 276) @ 9:57pm-10:27pm - Watch @ shotstv.com
Friday, 23rd February 2024 - Shots! TV (Freeview 276) @ 11:13pm-11:43pm
Monday, 26th February 2024 - Shots! TV (Freeview 276) @ 12am-12:30am

Quote - "A new show that brings you musicians talking about their love of football and footballers talking about their love of music. In this episode we meet Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott."

Joe Elliott Shots TV February 2024 - Interview Quotes (Transcribed by dltourhistory)

Introduction by host Chris Holt

"Welcome to Kicking and Screaming, a new show that brings you musicians talking about their love of football and footballers talking about their love of music. For our first episode, we have gone big. Big hair, big shows, big noise and a huge devotion to the game. Recently, Def Leppard played a massive homecoming show alongside Motley Crue at Sheffield United's Bramall Lane Stadium. It was a particularly special moment for lead singer Joe Elliott as he performed on stage where he's watched his beloved Blades so many times. Before the show, we sat down with Joe at the lane to talk about how he became a Blade, keeping up since leaving Sheffield and his worshipping of United's greatest ever player, Tony Currie."

Def Leppard 2023.

We're here at Bramall Lane because tomorrow you're kicking off your European tour. It is the kickoff, isn't it?

Joe Elliott

"Yeah, this is the one, yeah. Oh, it's totally special. I never even, this wasn't even on a bucket list for me. I know Springsteen had played here, but it never entered my head, well, maybe we come one day. You know, and we have a Sheffield Wednesday supporting bass player."

"There was Don Valley, it was the perfect neutral venue, and then it was gone. So it's like, you know, but there is no infrastructure to do this at Hillsborough. And I've got to say hand on heart, if there was, and that's where they suggested I wouldn't have had a problem with it because this has nothing to do with football. But, but this is Bramall Lane and we've just got promoted and we're not going through the playoffs."

"And there was none of that, you know, having to move the venue because it's like, what happens if we have to enter the playoffs, you know? So it's, yeah, it's incredibly special because it's our birth town. 21 years I lived here and came to see United from the age of 12, right through until I said 2005 was the last time I saw them actually at the lane. But this, this is, this is a special place to me."

"It's a pilgrimage tomorrow to come here and think, I can't believe that I'm actually going to be playing a gig at this ground that I first walked into in 1971 to watch United beat Southampton 3-1. And we're going to be doing a gig here, sold out gig too tomorrow. It's unbelievable."

Def Leppard 2023.

And the other big event happening at the minute is your, your brand new album on Friday just gone. Drastic Symphonies, which is a re-imagining of, I was going to say your best work, but I guess whatever you've chosen to do. And it's, it's with the London Philharmonic.

Joe Elliott

"The Royal Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic. Yeah. There's a distinction because there is two. Yes. We basically deconstructed 16 of our most symphonic tunes that were orchestrated on guitars originally. And it's something that we've always done."

"And we stripped them back down to basics, fitted the orchestra parts on and then to see which bits of the original recordings needed to survive because this is a very ego-free band. We have guitarists going, pull all the guitars out. We want the strings to be the star of this particular record. And, you know, certain bits didn't work. So I re-sang certain songs."

"And we completely reworked one of our most famous tracks, Pour Some Sugar On Me, is now a piano ballad, like a blues song, and a duet with a friend of ours, this fantastic singer-songwriter called Emm Gryner. She's just an unbelievable talent. And we did it as a duet."

"So it's, it's totally different to anything else. It changes the interpretation of all the songs as well, whenever you do something. Yeah. And we wanted it to sound symphonic. We wanted it, the simplest way to explain what we were trying to achieve was we wanted every song to sound like James Bond. We wanted it to have that grandiose of a James Bond car chase. And I think we pretty much achieved that with most of the songs."

Joe, first of all, this is a new programme but I'm going to ask the same question of everyone. So if you had to choose between playing up front for Sheffield United at Bramall Lane or on stage with Def Leppard or Bramall Lane, what would be your choice?

Joe Elliott

"I mean I played football here and I'd scored a goal at the Kop end actually. I played in Tony Currie's Testimonial with George Best and he passed to me and I passed back to him and there are moments I'll never forget but nothing beats being the front man of this band. I grew up in Broomhill. It was just below the waterline of having to be a Wednesday-ite."

"It's a family thing. My dad bless him was actually, he goes to see both Wednesday and United. When he could afford to do it as a kid, because they were always home and away so every week it was one or the other. My father's loyalties were kind of cemented pretty much maybe about 1967-68. I don't know what happened but he just fell on the red side more than the blue and as a kid you take notice of your parents."

"Not that we were going to games because I didn't see my first game until the 71-72 season but the thing is as well with me and I think it's why I am in a band is everybody at Hunter's Bar Junior School which was my junior school, everybody was a Wednesday-ite and I just didn't want to follow the herd. I thought well everybody, there was like two kids that supported United and everybody else was a Wednesday-ite."

"I don't know what it was, maybe the school bully was a Wednesday-ite so just because of that I was going to be a United. I don't remember specifics but I just became a United like overnight about 1967-68 and I'd follow them through the paper and shoot magazine and stuff like that. Once every six weeks there would be a little article on United because we weren't particularly special in the sense of like George Best, Bobby Charlton and all that."

"Until TC raised the profile of the team somewhat and you'd see them on the front cover of things then you're like woah look. You'd see them in the shop on a Thursday morning and there's Tony Currie on the front of Shoot. And then my dad bought season tickets for when we got promoted and that was my first ever game. It was Saturday afternoon, it would be August 71 and it was home to Southampton and we won 3-1. I was just 12, literally by a couple of weeks."

"And then the Tuesday night, which was amazing because I'd never been out that late on a Tuesday, an 11 year old kid, downtown for a 7.30 kick off and it was against Leeds of all teams and in those days the Bramall Lane end was full of United-ites."

"Maybe there were Leeds fans down on the ground and you couldn't see from where our seats were but it was jam packed for the United-ites and we won 3-0 and I thought this was the best thing ever because you're so impressionable when you're 12 years old."

Music And Football

"And it was the beginning of my whole relationship with music and football because just literally October of that year I saw my first concert in the Sheffield City Hall, it was T-Rex on the Electric Warrior Tour. Get It On had just been a hit and Jeepster had just been released."

"Because I've been to the football matches with my parents, they actually let me go to a gig when I was 12. I think it's because they just were like, he's not a kid anymore."

"So it was all tied in together, the football and the music, all the way through the 70s. I was buying records but always going to the lane every other week and I went on the cop like all kids, even my mates."

"I got to that age where my parents wanted to sit down in the stand and I didn't want to sit in the stand anymore. So they'd be in the stand and I'd be on the kop."

We moved into the 80s, the band, well established, huge in the States, you obviously spend a lot of time in the States but you would have been spending a lot of time just travelling the world because, you know, global act. What was it like in those days then? Because obviously we didn't have no internet, no phones everywhere. How did you keep up with United?

Joe Elliott

"I don't remember. I'll be honest with you, I don't remember how I kept up with United when we were in the States. I probably actually didn't because other than phone calls to a mate when you could afford to make an international phone call, just because we were big, we didn't get paid for a year."

"So we were selling zillions of records in the States and I was on a hundred dollars a week. So you couldn't afford, you know, there was this trick that we learned from somebody. When you picked up the old rotary phones, if you lift it off and dial a nine and as it hits back you do a zero, it clicks so it's what the phone people, the companies use to test the lines and somebody must have told somebody."

"It spread through rock and roll, it's like, it works in this hotel, make all your calls back to your mum and dad for free. Sometimes it didn't work, you know, you get this $200 bill, you're like, oh no, but for the most part you get through, but that's how difficult it was to stay in touch with people back here. But you have to remember that we weren't spending that much time in the States, we were selling lots of records in the States."

"But we were still in the UK or in Europe, which is a lot easier to keep getting in touch. We were only in America in 1983 from May till September. So consequently, half of that was like there was no football on. And then I was back home and then you've got match of the day or you've got the daily papers where you can follow the results of a team that's going down each league."

Dublin To Sheffield

"And I used to come to games, I would drive up to Sheffield and come to the home games with my mate, we had season tickets in what is the TC stand now, was it the Labour stand at the time. So I had season tickets there. And what was really weird was when after the hysteria album, when we did become very popular in the UK, I would come to the games and, you know, everybody sat down and set me because I'm walking to my seat. So you're this police a beacon and they're all going, it's your man."

"So I kind of got this little kind of area that knew who I was, but they didn't bother me, you know, it was great, really. Not really, nobody would bother you because of them. They didn't care, you know, so, you know, and I'd go with my mum and dad, and sometimes they wouldn't come. So my mate would take the season tickets. So I was, you know, but then I moved to Ireland, I started living in Ireland. Because we got promoted with Bassey or we were doing really well with Harry."

"I started coming to more games because there's not really much, with the greatest respect, there's not a great appeal to fly to another country to watch United play Port Vale. There just isn't, you know, but there is if they're home to Tottenham or Man Utd, you know, whoever was, you know, Arsenal, Liverpool. So I would get up in the morning, drive to the airport, go parking long term, fly to Manchester, rent a car, drive to Sheffield, have lunch with my mum and dad, go to the game, have a quick pint with a more lemonade for me because I'm driving. 5.15, I've got to go."

"I've got to be out of here by about five, get back to Manchester. It was a, you know, fly back to Dublin, then drive home. I get home 10.30, 11 o'clock. It was a 12, 15 hour day to come watch United. I had the energy to do that, but it kind of dried up about 20 years ago because, you know, you've got a family, you've got kids and stuff like that, and all of a sudden Saturdays aren't just your time. And if they are, it's Jeff and the boys in the panel on Sky, you know, because I literally live in a different country."

No Longer Attending Home Games

"So the last time I was at the lane, not the last time, I've seen them at Wembley, but I don't go anymore because we always lose. So I've stopped. I don't want to be their bad luck kind of mascot or whatever. But the last time I was at a game, I was sat next to T.C. and it was against Arsenal in 2005 when we won 1-0 and Paddy Kenny got injured and Jags had to go in the net and Christian Nadar scored and Arsene Vega couldn't believe that Jags was such a great goalkeeper for an outfield player. So that's 18 years ago since I've been here because we have just been non-stop working or."

"I have genuinely been away or I'm at home and I'm following them because of the fact that, you know, technology being what it is, you can see every game at home and pay for it, pay the tenant to watch the feed and stuff like that. You know, it's sad, but I don't live in Sheffield. So, but they're always here. They'll never not be here, you know, and this season, just like when we under what, you know, under Bassett in 86, 87, 88 watching that team. I mean, I became best mates with Bob Booker. He's still a friend of mine now, you know, he texts all the time. He comes coming to see us at Wembley. He's a mad mad Leppard fan."

Def Leppard 2024.

Def Leppard x Journey The Summer Stadium Tour 2024

July

6th July 2024 - St. Louis, MO @ Busch Stadium - w/ Cheap Trick

10th July 2024 - Orlando, FL @ Camping World Stadium - w/ Cheap Trick

13th July 2024 - Atlanta, GA @ Truist Park - w/ Steve Miller Band

15th July 2024 - Chicago, IL @ Wrigley Field - w/ Steve Miller Band

18th July 2024 - Detroit, MI @ Comerica Park - w/ Steve Miller Band

20th July 2024 - Nashville, TN @ Nissan Stadium - w/ Steve Miller Band

23rd July 2024 - Philadelphia, PA @ Citizens Bank Park - w/ Steve Miller Band

25th July 2024 - Hershey, PA @ HersheyPark Stadium - w/ Steve Miller Band

27th July 2024 - Pittsburgh, PA @ PNC Park - w/ Steve Miller Band

30th July 2024 - Cleveland, OH @ Progressive Field - w/ Steve Miller Band - (First time at this venue)

August

2nd August 2024 - Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre - w/ Heart

5th August 2024 - Boston, MA @ Fenway Park - w/ Heart

7th August 2024 - Flushing/New York, NY @ Citi Field - w/ Heart

9th August 2024 - Hollywood, FL @ Hard Rock Live - (Solo)

12th August 2024 - Arlington, TX @ Globe Life Field - w/ Steve Miller Band

14th August 2024 - Houston, TX @ Minute Maid Park - w/ Steve Miller Band

16th August 2024 - San Antonio, TX @ Alamodome - w/ Steve Miller Band

19th August 2024 - Minneapolis, MN @ Target Field - w/ Steve Miller Band

23rd August 2024 - Phoenix, AZ @ Chase Field - w/ Steve Miller Band - (First time at this venue)

25th August 2024 - Los Angeles/Inglewood, CA @ SoFi Stadium - w/ Steve Miller Band

28th August 2024 - San Francisco, CA @ Oracle Park - w/ Steve Miller Band

30th August 2024 - San Diego, CA @ Petco Park - w/ Steve Miller Band

September

4th September 2024 - Seattle, WA @ T-Mobile Park - w/ Cheap Trick

6th September 2024 - Spokane, WA @ Spokane Arena - w/ Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience

8th September 2024 - Denver, CO @ Coors Field - w/ Cheap Trick

10th September 2024 - Salt Lake City/West Valley City, UT @ Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre - w/ Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience

View Full Tour Section

Def Leppard The Summer Stadium Tour 2024

Def Leppard 2023.

Def Leppard / Latest Release

Animal (With The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) - (Digital Single)
Drastic Symphonies - (Album - May 2023)

Def Leppard / Latest Tour

Def Leppard The Summer Stadium Tour 2024

Def Leppard - Interviews
Def Leppard - 2023 World Tour
Def Leppard - Tour News
Previous News - 9th February 2024
Back

share this story:

get def leppard news

Stay in touch with the latest updates.

Subscribe to the Mailing List

explore def leppard tour history