Def Leppard's Joe Elliott and Phil Collen were interviewed by The Channel Guide magazine ahead of their October performance on CMT Crossroads. Fellow performer and magazine cover star Taylor Swift was also interviewed.

Taylor Swift - Quotes

How did this episode of "Crossroads" materialize?

Taylor Swift: So one day I was just sitting on my bus hanging out and Robert Allen brings his phone on the bus and says, "Here, I've got someone on the phone for you." I get on the phone, and it's this guy with a British accent named Rick Allen. I was like, "Hi, you don't know who I am at all. You don't know me or my music, probably, but I'm a new country artist, my name is Taylor and there's this thing on CMT, which is Country Music Television, where they pair up rock acts with country acts and it's a concert called Crossroads. My dream Crossroads partner is you guys, and I would really like it if you would do that with me -- could you do that with me?" And he was probably thinking, "Who is this kid?" And I said, "So, do you think that you could think about that?" and he was like, "Well, uh, maybe I could ask the guys about it. Good talking to you." So, I basically threw it out there that I really wanted to do a Crossroads with them, and then I didn't hear anything for, like, six months. I was like, "Eh, yeah, that probably didn't work. I probably freaked him out, like, in stalker mode."

I got a call from my record label like maybe six or seven months after that phone call, and they said, "Def Leppard just called. You're on their radar, they know who you are, they've heard your music and they're interested in the Crossroads." And I was really excited about it.

Since then, have you met the band in person?
I have never met the band in person. My whole band has met their band -- and they're absolutely so in love with them it's not even funny -- but I had a previous obligation when they were in Nashville so I wasn't able to go.

So what is it going to be like for you when you actually walk into a room with these guys for the first time?
It's going to be amazing to walk in and see these people and meet them. I've listened to their music since I was a little kid. My mom listened to Def Leppard when she was pregnant with me. It's pretty much ingrained into my genetics that I am to love Def Leppard, so it's really cool to get to do this with them.

How do you prepare for something like this? I mean, it's not just a normal show -- you have to learn some of their songs, they have to learn your songs. How's that going to work?
Well, I think we're going to pick five songs out of their enormous catalog of smash hits and pick five songs of mine, work them up and have the Def Leppard versions of my songs and, I guess, countrify some of their songs. It'll be kind of fun.

Are there any songs that you're going to push for?
I need to do "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Photograph."

What's going to be more exciting -- to hear them do one of your songs or to be able to do one of their songs with them?
To be able to play one of their songs with them is going to be awesome.

Do you see some common ground between what you do and what they do?
I think we both like to write songs about relationships and love and how people make other people feel. That's why I've always been able to relate to their songs and maybe be influenced by their songs.

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Joe Elliott - Quotes

Def Leppard and Taylor Swift are not artists I would have thought of putting together. How did you get involved in this episode of "CMT Crossroads"?
Well, it's great that you think that because that's exactly what these shows are. If I was putting these together, as much as I know I'd get kicked back on a lot of it, I would be the one saying, "Right, we've got to get Motoerhead together with Elvis Costello. We need to put Bunny Wailer with Slayer." ... Get two people from two opposite extremes and see what you get. Johnny Rotten and Journey. The fact is, it's really not got that much to do with the Tim McGraw connection, which a lot of people seem to think it has because she's got a song called "Tim McGraw." ...

It was simply a case of somebody forwarding us an interview that she did on some Internet site. It just got brought up with her, that she said, "I'd love to [do] a Crossroads, but there's only one band I would ever do it with, and it's Def Leppard. I love those guys." Somebody forwarded it to us and we read it and were like, "Who the hell is Taylor Swift?" because we've been trapped in our little cocoon, not listening to CMT or country music channels very often -- not really sure who she was. And then we learned -- "What do you mean her first album sold 3 million copies already?" It's like, "Wow, you've got to be kidding me." So we just basically said, "Why don't we get in touch with her and see if she wants to do it?" So we did, and she very kindly said, "Yeah, cool."

Is it too early to know which songs you'll be doing?
Yeah, it is, because I'd be a fool to blow the mist right now ... but I will tell you this -- it's going to be spectacular. She actually does part of one of our songs in the middle of one of hers, so we're going to amalgamate that and expand it somewhat. I will tell you this much -- there's going to be five Taylor songs, five Leppard songs and one cover.

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Phil Collen - Quotes

How did you get hooked up with Taylor Swift for "CMT Crossroads"?
Phil Collen: Honestly, I think it was partly to do with the fact that we had teamed with Tim McGraw [on the song "Nine Lives"]. I think that kind of raised a bit of the interest. I think the main thing -- you know, we actually started reading about Taylor Swift, and we saw this thing where she said if she was ever going to anything like Crossroads, the band she'd love to do it with would be Def Leppard. Right there, that pretty much set it rolling, really.

She was born two years after "Hysteria" was released. Do you find that there's a whole new generation of Def Leppard fans out there now?
There are, and there's two reasons for it. The kids' parents -- I suspect that there was music around Taylor Swift growing up. ... The other thing is the curiosity. I think there was a big stage just a couple of years ago. Everyone started getting into, you know, vintage T-shirts and, as you know, anything that's more than a decade old is cool. Anything that's in the decade previous is really uncool. So if you can ride out that storm more than one decade, you wind up being the cool thing again.

What's going to be tougher, incorporating Taylor Swift into the songs that you've been playing for years or learning her stuff and injecting your own vibe into that?
I think it's going to be easier getting Taylor Swift to sing some of our songs. Because she's a female, we can get her to sing all the bits that we really struggle with. So that's going to be easy. "Well, we struggle with this -- you sing this because you're a girl and it's a bit higher for us." ... We met with her band just a few weeks ago, and they were really cool guys and girls, and it was just fun. I think they can adapt to anything. I noticed that about them when they were goofing off in our backstage area. They can join along and play anything. I think you find that with a lot of country artists. They're proper musicians, where we're a rock band -- it's a totally different concept really.

I think it's going to be fun. I think it will be exciting. And I don't think it's going to be too much of a stretch because I've heard the songs -- the Taylor Swift songs -- and the chords are very similar to some of the stuff that we've done. ... You don't really realize it until you start playing along with the and it's like, "Hang on a minute. Someone's been listening to 'Photograph' or the song 'Hysteria.'"

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Source -- channelguidemag.com/Joe Elliott | Phil Collen | Taylor Swift