Def Leppard's Vivian Campbell has been interviewed by The West Australian newspaper ahead of the Perth show. The opening night of the Australian tour which ended a couple of hours ago.

Interview Excerpts - Not your average 80s has-beens

"We've never actually split up," says guitarist and Def Leppard member of 17 years Vivian Campbell.

"When the going got tough in the late '80s, so many of our contemporaries called it quits," Campbell said.

"A few years later they peered up from behind the walls and said 'hang-on', people like 80s music now, we'll reform and cash in.

"We continued putting out albums even in the 90s when nobody cared and we tried to change and adapt.

"But it is a balancing act because when you're successful for something, you become almost a prisoner to your success.

"We're known for doing a certain kind of thing and we do it very well, but we've never rested on our laurels.

"There's an integrity to this band that a lot of our contemporaries don't have."

"We spend a lot of time in each others' pockets - we're in a tour bus, we're in a dressing room, we're in the studio for months on end," he said.

"We kind of have to get along," he said.

"You've got to respect each other on a personal and professional level. After 30 years, we still share the same dressing room.

"We just did some European dates with Whitesnake (an 80s glam-rock band which Campbell once played with) and, you know, they're not a band, it's David Coverdale and whoever.

"I was talking to the drummer in a bar the other night. He's the 49th member of the band of which I was inversion 37c or whatever for about 20 minutes.

"They travel separately, they stay in separate hotels on tour, David Coverdale (the lead singer) stays in a separate dressing room where the door's always closed with a sign that says 'knock, do not enter'.

"We interact with our crew. People always want to come back and work for Def Leppard. We don't have class distinction within the band and the crew.

"That's what makes it fun for us."

"Certainly with Rick, it was about a-year-and-a-half before he could even begin to play anything like a song - that was fundamental to the band's integrity I think. It was seen as such, and rightfully so, but I think at an internal level it actually spoke to everyone in the band."

"It really kind of put things into perspective."

"We were often referred to as the Olympic band because we'd make a record do a tour, take a break and start the process all over again and the whole process would take about four years.

"We're all about energy and I think we'll be feeding off the energy from the fans tonight," he said.
© The West Australian 2008.

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