Def Leppard Phil/Vivian Canadian Interviews

Def Leppard guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell have been interviewed ahead of tour stops in Ottawa and Winnipeg. Phil talked to the Ottawa Sun and Vivian was interviewed by the Winnipeg Sun. Brief highlights below:

Phil Collen - Def Leppard having time of Nine Lives

"It's strange," the 50-year-old guitarist admits, "We're stars when we play. But then we can be completely anonymous when we're on the street.

"But I think this is one of the reasons why the band has stayed together as long as we have. No one really feels like a star, so no one plays the rock star. We all want to work hard and have a good time. We have a real working class ethic. That's what keeps us together, and keeps our heads on our shoulders."

"It's unbelievably fun, to be honest," he says. "We've been together longer than most people are married. We've been through death, divorce and dismemberment together. We're not boys any more. We're grown into men. I trust these guys. We're better than ever."

"We don't care about flash or our image," he insists. "We'll try anything to keep it interesting for us. It's all about the music."

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Vivian Campbell - Balancing Act

"It's a tough thing for us, and we're kind of between a rock and a hard place," says Campbell. "As artists, you keep wanting to move forward and play your new material, but you're kind of beholden to your success of the past. We're fortunate, in that we have a truckload of bona fide Top 20 hits, but the other side of the equation is that's all our audience wants to hear."

"We try to sneak in a couple new songs as we go, but you can really tell the majority of the audience doesn't know them, because there's a collective, 'Uhh,' " Campbell quips. "You can put a new song in the first two or three - or even start with it - because while the audience is there and you have everyone's attention, they'll indulge you. But from then on, it gets difficult. You've got to pick the right (new) song to play, and even then, assume maybe 10 people in the audience are going to know it out of 10,000.

"Running order is very important, especially for a band like us, because our show is very physical, and it's very up, and we don't like to bring it down."

Def Leppard were supposed to play Winnipeg back in April, but had to reschedule their show when frontman Joe Elliott came down with what Campbell jokingly refers to as "a sniffle."

"It was actually an upper respiratory tract infection, which was very unpleasant," he explains, noting doctors told the band to "nip it in the bud," otherwise they'd have to scrap the next eight months of touring. "We've all been on tour and gotten ill and managed to pull through, but with this, it got to the point where Joe would open his mouth and nothing would come out. Which for Joe Elliott is very strange. That man is in love with the sound of his own voice."

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Read The Full Interviews - Here

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