Def Leppard's Joe Elliott and Phil Collen have been interviewed by CMT ahead of the Crossroads premiere on Friday 7th. Joe and Phil talk about discovering who Taylor Swift is, the mix of country and rock music as well as Nine Lives.


Krista Lee © CMT 2008.

How Def Leppard Discovered Country Music and Taylor Swift - Excerpts

"In Britain it wasn't something that was on the radio all the time, but the cream rises," he says. "Even in the early '70s, and long before then, there'd be the odd song in the Top 20, even in England. It would be country-based music -- Glen Campbell and Johnny Cash and people like that. Occasionally the BBC -- at midnight or maybe twice a year -- would show the Grand Ole Opry. You'd see all these people whooping it up with their hats and their boots on, which was very unusual for us. We came from working-class Sheffield, which is more comparable to somewhere like Pittsburgh. It's a steel town. So it was totally alien."

"Back in the day, a lot of rock bands -- back when we put out Pyromania -- were pure rock, and they'd say, 'You can't go anywhere else with it.' But Mutt said, 'Yeah, you can sing harmonies, you can do this, you can do that.' It pushed us. I think Mutt had a lot to do with that, and I think the trend continues now," says Collen.

Swift had initially reached out by e-mail to introduce herself to Def Leppard's drummer, Rick Allen, but that didn't pan out. However, when she mentioned her aspirations in an online interview, the band's tour accountant brought it to their attention.

"We said, 'Who is it?' -- because, of course, we didn't know," Elliott says. "There's always a first day when you discover a band, whether it's the Beatles or Taylor Swift. You hear the name for the first time, and then you go and check it out. We Google'd her, iTune'd her, listened to it all and said, 'Well ... wow!' Look at how many records she'd been selling and look how young and pretty she is and how exciting it is to be at that point of a career -- because we were there once a long time ago before (she was) born. Of course, the first thing we did -- 15, 20 minutes later -- was try to get a hold of her. 'Let's see if we can actually get this going.' It took a year, but you know, here we are."

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Full Interview -- CMT.com

Link -- CMT Crossroads Show Page

Link -- Yahoo News