Interview :: 3rd November 2005.
Spots unchanged ::
Def Leppard ready to pour on the hits Saturday when it performs with Bryan Adams at the Santa Barbara Bowl
The seemingly odd pairing of pop-metal band Def Leppard and middle-of-the-road crooner Bryan Adams can be explained by one guy, superproducer Robert "Mutt" Lange.
Lange, best known these days as Mr. Shania Twain, was the man behind both acts' biggest albums.
"Because of Mutt, we've known Bryan for ages," said Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott. "In 1990, Mutt was working with both of us at the same time. Bryan got up onstage with us in Paris one night. We know each other -- we don't have to get to know each other. So it makes sense."
It also made sense for Def Leppard to trade off headlining duties with Adams. "Some nights, we go on in the daylight, but it's only fair," Elliott said. "We agreed to it straight away."
According to press materials, Def Leppard is slated to go on last when the group performs with Adams on Saturday at the Santa Barbara Bowl. Opening the show will be Ricky Warrick.
While Def Leppard's days as mainstream superstars have passed, they remain one of the most durable of the '80s metal groups.
Despite some high-profile tragedies in the group -- drummer Rick Allen losing an arm, guitarist Steve Clark losing his life -- the members have remained together for 25 years.
The band, to its credit, is not one of those '80s groups that has broken up a bunch of times and now tours with a few original members and a couple loose parts.
"It's really rare," guitarist Phil Collen said. "There's been a unity because we've all experienced the same things together. Births, deaths, marriages -- all that stuff. It kinda keeps you tight. That's the why you do it. I think that's one of the reasons we've maintained so long."
Aside from a lineup change early in the band's history that brought Collen into the fold, the only other change to Def Leppard came when Clark died from an overdose and later was replaced with Viv Campbell.
"It's not just a five minutes thing -- the band that is around for six months, and it disappears," Collen said.
Perhaps the biggest reason for the band's longevity is its trashy, infectious singles, tunes as timeless as cheap beer and tight T-shirts.
The band's most recent disc, "Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection," surveys Def Leppard's entire career.
"That's what this tour is, a celebration of our 25 years," said Elliott. "We've got 85 minutes onstage, and we concentrate on the hits, the first time we've done that on tour. We have to drop some of them (for time), but that's a great position to be in. It's like a football coach who has a team where everyone is fit and ready to play."
The only new material the band is playing on the tour is drawn from "Yeah," an all-covers disc due for release this fall. The songs the band chose all played a part in shaping Def Leppard's sound.
"We wanted to show people, absolutely and as a matter of fact, where we came from," Elliott said. "We wanted to put to bed the idea that we were weaned on Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. Those were the bands our older brothers listened to. Our true love was always the three-minute pop song."
"Yeah" includes covers from David Bowie, ELO, Badfinger, T-Rex, Thin Lizzy, the Faces and Roxy Music.
"A lot of these bands were huge in Britain but never really made it big in the States," Elliott said. "They've got short solos and big, hooky choruses. And they're all British artists, except for Blondie.
"Our only rule was that everything had to come from before we signed our first record deal. The Blondie song ('Hanging on the Telephone') is the most modern one on there. Most of it ended up being from between 1970 and 1973."
Collen is psyched about the set.
" 'No Matter What' by Badfinger is going to be the leadoff single," he said. "We've done 'Waterloo Sunset' by the Kinks, as well as stuff by T. Rex, Mott The Hoople, Roxy Music and Thin Lizzy. And a lot of it is obscure; it's not the standard stuff. It's not like Stones or Beatles songs."
As for the musical approaches, Collen said, "They vary. Some of them are like we've kept almost karaoke versions, while other ones are completely different. It's not any one thing; it's however we felt for each song, really." A preview of what's to come can be sampled on the "Rock of Ages" set, which includes "No Matter What."
Def Leppard's current tour is bringing the band to minor league baseball stadiums and other open-air venues like the Santa Barbara Bowl. Elliott said he preferred the freedom of outdoor shows.
"I saw Radiohead at a similar gig in 1998," he said. "It was 42,000 people on the longest day of the year, and it just chucked down with rain. But people were still grooving and sliding up and down in the mud.
"When you're outdoors, people behave more loosely. They feel like they're not being watched over by all those uniformed guys. That's when you start seeing chicks on their boyfriends' shoulders.
"I really do like it. But I've got to say, there's nothing like opening your mouth for a long scream and swallowing a moth. And, trust me, that happens to everybody from me to Bob Dylan."
Collen is continually amazed at the impact of the band's music. People around the world, he notes, know the words to "Pour Some Sugar On Me."
"They do," Collen says. "They sing it in English. The same deal with Japan. It's kinda cool. It's really cute."
The same deal with young people, too. People younger than Collen come up and say they love Def Leppard.
"The younger fans got to hear it from their bigger brothers or from their parents, which is a bit scary," Collen said.
"They say, 'Oh yeah, my mum listened to you' and it's like 'Oh god.' That makes you feel old."
© Ventura County Star 2005 :: taken from older articles.
