DEF LEPPARD's JOE ELLIOTT/PHIL COLLEN On TAKE WHAT YOU WANT/KICK/Next Single

Wednesday, 18th May 2022

Def Leppard 2022

Def Leppard members Joe Elliott and Phil Collen have been interviewed about the new Diamond Star Halos album and hinted at the next single.

'Diamond Star Halos' is the band's 12th studio album.

As announced on 17th March it will be released on Friday 27th May 2022.

Joe and Phil appeared live on Talkshoplive's The Rock N Roll Channel with host Steve Harkins at 7pm ET/12am UK last night to talk about the new 'Diamond Star Halos' album.

As you can see (if you recognise it) the interview was conducted from Mates Studios in Burbank, California where the band usually rehearse.

Joe and Phil (but mostly Joe...) talked about making the album, the Diamond Star Halos album title, 70s musical influence, remote recording, album songs, Rick Allen's accident/recovery, Phil's Deep Purple gig story, Mick Ronson, The Stadium tour and going back on tour.

Watch the 1 hour 12 minute video interview below.

Next Single/Fire It Up?

Joe revealed the next song, and proper second single, will be released on 26th May with the video following the week after.

He did not say which song but the fact 'Fire It Up' is mentioned in the retail blurb as a single along with Kick and it's position as track 3 suggests that is the song. We will see (and hear) next week.

Take What You Want Live

Joe also heavily hinted that Take What You Want will be played live, possibly as the show opener in 2022.

This suggests that on 26th May the band might debut 'Kick', 'Take What You Want' and - if it indeed is the single - 'Fire It Up', at the SiriusXM Small Stage show in Los Angeles.

Take What You Want Writing

Joe also revealed Sav wrote the music for Take What You Want with Joe writing the lyrics.

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).

Joe Elliott/Phil Collen/TalkshopLive - May 2022 Interview Quotes - (Transcribed by dltourhistory)

A New Single Before The Album?

Joe Elliott - "Yes there will."

Phil Collen - "Kind of the day before right."

Phil Collen - "Yeah. I think the day before the album comes out we'll be releasing a new song which will be followed a week later by the video."

Joe Elliott - "Can we tell them what it is or no?. No we'll not no. You see we come from a generation where the element of surprise is more important than having a camera in the studio 24 hours. So people know your album before it's released because they've been watching you record it. I don't get that at all. I never will you know."

Joe Elliott - "There needs to be a certain amount of myth behind what you're doing."

Def Leppard 2022.

Take What You Want/Playing It Live In 2022

Joe Elliott - "Yeah Rick Savage wrote the music for it. And he says I've got this song. You know I thought when he said he's written a song he meant the entire song like he did with From Here To Eternity."

Joe Elliott - "And he goes I've written this song called Take What You Want. I go OK cool. He says I haven't written any lyrics yet. I just thought Take What You Want would be a great title."

Joe Elliott - "I went OK do you wanna write or do you want me to do it?. He said no you can do it if you want. So I didn't try and re-write. He'd said Take What You Want. I thought OK I'll use that as a starting point."

Phil Collen - "So I just went on from Take What You Want, Take What You Need and carried on. So we had the chorus first then went backwards to that verse lyrics and melodies and stuff like that."

Joe Elliott - "And I just presented it to the guys like we did every other song on this record. And said what do you think?. You know and with every other song whether it be the vocals being presented or the solos or the actual song themselves."

Joe Elliott - "It was just a universal yes because we were so happy to let each individual member of the band express themselves from a songwriting point of view, because we deserve it I suppose."

Joe Elliott - "We've shackled ourselves in the past to like Oh we need to write a certain way. And it's like no you can write any way you want. And we'll make it work you know."

Joe Elliott - "But none of this is square peg in a round hole. It's natural and it is a great opener. It's got kind of echoes of our past. You know the fact that it's got this huge big symphonic intro is very classically us."

Joe Elliott - "And it's got a little bit of the Rock1 Rock! (Till You Drop) intro comparison if you like. Which I think is a great echo to have you know."

Joe Elliott - "It worked great on Pyromania, so why wouldn't it work on this record. And once that riff kicks in, I mean it's just."

Joe Elliott - "Imagine that one live huh?. Hint Hint. So, you know, opening track of the record, you know, yeah. It's gonna be a stonking live track. It is it's great fun to play."

Joe Elliott - "As is. Most songs are when you start doing new songs. When you add new blood to your set. It's the lifeblood for the band really. And it's what keeps you fresh."

Joe Elliott - "If you're forever just going round playing the same set year in year out. As much as your audience can pull you through a situation. Especially if they're really digging the songs, there's nothing like it from n internal point of view of offering up something new."

Def Leppard 2022.

Kick/Fire It Up

Joe Elliott - "The beautiful thing about this is we ended the album the way we started it. Phil had been living in California, had been working with other song writers.That were suggestions from our publishing company 'cause he gets antsy. He wants to work."

Joe Elliott - "And he wrote the song Fire It Up with Sam Hollander. Who worked with Panic At The Disco and stuff like that. So it wasn't specifically written for us but it was always gonna have a bit of us in it because he wrote the music."

Joe Elliott - "When he suggested - when I said to him well what have you got. He said well I've got Liquid Dust and U Rok Mi and I've written this song with Sam. And I didn't go oh well we can't do that then. It's like OK well let's hear it."

Joe Elliott - "And it was like wow that's us. I can handle singing those lyrics. It's not an issue with me. I mean I sing his words on many songs. He plays some of my chords. You know what I mean it's like what is being in a band. So it's just part of the team you know."

Joe Elliott - "So it was totally acceptable to do that. And we had a 14 track album finished and so Phil went back to writing with other people again."

Joe Elliott - "But this time it was with a guy called Dave Bassett. And he called me up one day and he said I've written this song. He says do you wanna hear it?. I said sure. As far as I'm concerned he's just letting me hear it because we're just talking all the time."

Joe Elliott - "And he sent me the MP3 of it and when I heard it I went. You've gotta be f**king kidding me. I said this needs to go band wide."

Joe Elliott - "So he did. He said I've played this to Joe what do you think?. Sav came back within about ten minutes and he went Hello, Sugar anyone?."

Joe Elliott - "And his point was, he wasn't comparing the song to the song. He was comparing the situation the situation."

Pour Some Sugar On Me/Hysteria 12th Track

Joe Elliott - "Right at the end of Hysteria which was an 11 track album. I came p with the chorus of Sugar in front of Mutt. I didn't even know he was behind me actually. I was playing it and he just said to me what is that?."

Joe Elliott - "I said Oh it's just this idea. He goes no play it again. So long story short I did and he went we gotta do that. And these guys weren't even in the country. You know we were in Holland."

Joe Elliott - "And so we rapidly put this rough demo together and when they all came back we played it to them. They were like OK cool . And look what Sugar became you know."

Joe Elliott - "So that was Sav's point. So it was like OK what are we gonna do with this. It was a finished song. The drums sounded fine. the bass parts were right."

Joe Elliott - "The guitars. Are they the actual guitars or did you do some more."

Phil Collen - "I did do some more. Yeah."

Joe Elliott - "Phil obviously added stuff to it."

Phil Collen - "But it was a demo and the demo vocals."

Joe Elliott - "Yeah we played over the top the demo. We replaced the drums machine with the drums. And Sav played the bass over the rough bass that Phil may have played. Vivian added some guitars."

Joe Elliott - "And there was a guide vocal there and some rough backing vocals. But listen to that song on headphones and you can hear other people singing along. It was part of the demo we just left it on."

Joe Elliott - "'Cause it just had this like New York Dolls sloppiness to it. That we thought Stones, Exile On Main Street period Stones. Kind of swagger that we didn't wanna loose."

Joe Elliott - "We didn't want it to be rigid and it's like it was at the end of the project. It's like this is great. And it was such a breath of fresh air that it's like this has got to be the first song that we release."

Joe Elliott - "It was just - but he can tell you all about how it came about from a writing point of view. I wasn't there."

Writing Kick

Phil Collen - "No I was just sitting down with Dave Bassett. And it was like. And actually Dave Bassett, who's an American, actually understands the Diamond Star Halo thing. I actually introduced him to Joe and it's like he's in on the Diamond Star Halo thing."

Phil Collen - "This is before we had the title or anything. So we were writing a song. Based on We Will Rock You. Pour Some Sugar On Me. A stadium anthem. And that's really what it was."

Phil Collen - "I had the a BPM. I had a drum part. That kind of fit in there and I kind of had a chorus - 'I wanna Kick'. Or whatever it was."

Phil Collen - "So you know we started writing the thing. And it just started flowing. And it absolutely kind of represented that era."

Phil Collen - "Again so I obviously had to play it to Joe. Just because...."

Joe Elliott - "He knew I'd be a fan of it. And I am you know."

Phil Collen - "Yeah. And he was like. It was like 'Well f**k, you can't give that away!'. This is so obviously Def Leppard. So that's what we did."

Joe Elliott - "And I think in fairness because he was writing it with somebody else and after the fact of the album. Maybe he album influenced the writing of it to a point."

Joe Elliott - "It was written not with us in mind. Which is probably why it sounds the way it does from a writing point of view. He might not have come in with that song as a kind of a blueprint for what Leppard songs can sound like."

Joe Elliott - "Even though of course it sounds like us once we play it. I mean I dare say if the five of us played Tie A Yellow Ribbon we could make it sound like Def Leppard."

16th Song Started/record Deal/Kick

Joe Elliott - "OK Maybe not. It was like the perfect song. We've got to do this. And I was so excited. He said well we've got this other one on the go."

Joe Elliott - "He says do tou wanna join in. So the three of us started writing a 16th song. But by then we'd got a record deal - 'cause when we started this album we hadn't got a deal."

Joe Elliott - "So that was the brilliant thing again. All these little kind of things that kept became a big integral part of the album. the fact we didn't have a deal when we started the record means that we didn't have a delivery date."

Joe Elliott - "We didn't have an A and R man. We were our own boss. It was gonna be done when it was done. But by the time we got to Kick."

Joe Elliott - "We had the deal in place and we wanted the album out in time for this year's tour if not last year's tour. We had to deliver because vinyl these days takes 8 to 9 months to get manufactured. So you've got to give it to them early."

Joe Elliott - "So we had to knock the last song on the head. But we'll save it for the next album which hopefully won't be seven years away."

Buy 'Diamond Star Halos' Online

Amazon - Regular CD
Amazon - Deluxe CD
Amazon - Vinyl
Amazon - MP3

Diamond Star Halos - Tracklisting

01 - Take What You Want - 4:14
02 - Kick - 3:42 - (Collen) - Amazon - (MP3)
03 - Fire It Up - 3:19
04 - This Guitar [feat. Alison Krauss] - 3:50
05 - SOS Emergency - 3:25
06 - Liquid Dust - 4:01
07 - U Rok Mi - 3:33
08 - Goodbye For Good This Time - 4:27
09 - All We Need - 4:46
10 - Open Your Eyes - 4:19
11 - Gimme A Kiss - 3:12
12 - Angels (Can’t Help You Now) - 4:57
13 - Lifeless [feat. Alison Krauss] - 4:19 - (Collen/Elliott)
14 - Unbreakable - 3:46
15 - From Here To Eternity - 5:37