Friday, 11th June 2021
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PHIL COLLEN On DEF LEPPARD's Really Cool Collection Volume Three Box Set

Def Leppard 2021. By dltourhistory

Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen has been interviewed and talked about the new Collection Volume Three box set.

Phil spoke to the Jeremy White podcast with the full video interview now posted on YouTube.

Phil talked about the Collection Volume Three box set, The Stadium Tour/2022 touring, acoustic songs, working with Mutt Lange/Mike Shipley, Hysteria/Adrenalize albums, Adrenalize album live, new songs/Next album, novels song writing, guitars and much more.

Collection Volume Three Box Set

Phil praised the box set and especially Joe Elliott's work in putting it together.

He also discussed his 'Perfect Girl' demo, Roxanne cover, working with Mutt Lange/Mike Shipley, playing with Motley Crue, Run Riot guitar solo story, the Hysteria album, recording/writing and his love of The Police.

The box set was released earlier today and can now by purchased or streamed online.

Joe himself recently spoke to SKY ARTS TV about the box set as part of his Download Festival Reloaded interview as well as giving an update on new music.

View the full video interview below.


Visit the Tour News section. For more news on future tour plans.

Visit the Album News section for more news on new music (based on band member quotes).


Def Leppard 2021.

The Jeremy White Podcast - Phil Collen June 2021 Interview Quotes - (Transcribed By dltourhistory)

Collection Volume Three Box Set

"I think so and honestly it's not just me saying this and sounding like a lie. But if I was a fan, which I am, it's got this shit on there and props to Joe because Joe has gone with this guy Steve Hammonds."

"They go through this stuff like really fan boy stuff. Stuff I didn't even know existed. Oh yeah there's a version of so and so with you singing the vocal. And it's like really?."

"And he and Ronan got on there, they've remastered it, remixed it. Done all this stuff."

X era acoustic recordings in Montreal? (Now/Two Steps Behind)

"And there's some really great stuff floating around. I remember one time me, Vivian and Joe done an acoustic performance in the back of a van with one mic. And it came it and it was oh my god it sounds unbelievable."

"So there's stuff floating around. I don't know. It resurfaces at some point and then you get stuff like this."

"And like I say Joe. Joe would probably know. Like he collects this stuff. So he was really good getting these box set things together."

"You know he goes into such detail. It's such a cool thing. I couldn't do that you know. But he does. He has the energy and the patience for that which is really cool because when it comes out I'm like wow this is awesome."

"And you know it's not someone else who is outside the group doing it."

"Exactly, it's really good and they're really special. He's like do you remember when we did this and it's like yeah now you say it. It's really cool stuff. But yeah I agree I think there's some. That thing I forgot all about that until you just mentioned it."

Has he pulled any stuff out of the vault where you like oh maybe we shouldn't put that out?

"No no he's really good about that as well. I'm actually a bit more lax than he is. I'd go oh if I make a mistake or singing the wrong words or whatever. I go that's cool. He's like you sure you're OK. I'm like yeah."

Does Def Leppard have to be perfect. Can you put stuff out 'cause as a fan I like when there's a little feedback on a live recording 'cause you go oh well at least it's live. Does it have to be perfect?.

"No this stuff comes out all the time everyone assumes it's perfect and it ain't. Just by association they go oh i you spend all this time in the studio but yeah we have stuff lie that all the time."

"I remember when I did the solo on - here's a really weird silly trivia thing. Run Riot the solo on Run Riot on Hysteria. So we started taking weekends off. After when we got back into it. This was back when I was still drinking. So I went to from Amsterdam to Paris and hung out with Motley Crue."

"I jammed with them on stage in Paris. And this is obviously '85/'86. Got really really brutally drunk. Obviously with them it was great. And then the next morning I go in and Mutt goes OK let's do that solo."

"The solo on Run Riot and I just felt terrible and I thought it was fairly, fairly awful. It's actually fine. It's more than fine it's actually really cool. I like it now."

"So it's cool but you know, I would've done that again for example. But Mutt's going no it's got a vibe and everything. And I was like I just felt hungover."

Hysteria 1987.

One time where Mutt didn't make you play it 20 times

"Absolutely yeah. Well he still made me play it 20 times."

"And again a lot of the stuff we just bang off. A lot of the stuff on Hysteria when Mutt became involved again. t was just like, it was one take stuff going through it. Even rhythm guitar stuff that I'd spent two weeks on trying to get right. And then we'd come in and he'd go oh no it's fine let's just bang it down."

"It's got an energy to it like Run Riot and Shotgun and stuff like that."

How many overdubs would you do to get a rhythm track?

"It depends. it's like, it's never...it's until it's right. Until it sounds cool. A lot of the time we usually would have a thing where you'd - me and Vivian do it now."

"You know I'll play a Jackson or a Fender Telecaster with a single coil pickup. Add it to a humbucker guitar. A Les Paul or a Jackson PC1 and it just creates a thickness. But then we do different chords. It wouldn't just be like everyone playing block chords. You play inversions."

"And that's what me and Steve were doing a lot until it's right. And sometimes you go it needs a bit more and you add something else. A thicker metal guitar or some high inversion or a melody or a different kind of phrase that goes across it."

"You know people have been doing this with vocals and people have been doing it with orchestras for years. It's not just a block. You have to do it until it's right. And the big thing about harmonies, the melodies gotta be there. The melody has gotta come through."

"So many bands who just have a block of sweet wonderful sounding harmonies, but they lose the melody. The main, you know, grit and the hook of it. So we're very aware of that. It's gotta enhance the thing that you're trying to get over."

Mike Shipley Hysteria guitars

"Absolutely but that was the next album. That was Adrenalize. On Hysteria it was actually a Rockman. And to be quite honest we had such a huge kick drum, snare and sub bass. Sonic sound. That you could get away with a kind of a little sound. The main reason for that was you could do different parts and actually add parts."

"If you was playing through a Marshall and you was just overdubbing it would get lost. Sonically it would tire your ears out. Especially when you go backing vocals and cymbals. Have a listen to Hysteria, the cymbals are really quiet. So we can sonically...and this is...I've learnt this from Mutt and Mike Shipley."

"Mutt would go oh no get rid of them cymbals let's crank the vocals up. Ans sonically they take up a similar area. So you've only got so much in your pie so to speak."

"So you've got this crazy low end bass. This kick and snare that are just ridiculous. So the guitars you can have fun with them. In that case. They're a very small spectrum of it you know. So that's what that was about."

How did you get that super low end bas was it a keyboard?

"Everything. We add everything to everything. It's always a misconception. Like my favourite band is The Police you know I've listened to them like a million times. Even stuff like Walking On The Moon. It's got a piano in there playing in it as well. You always think oh it's Sting playing the bass. No there's other stuff there."

"So we've always enhanced it. All the stuff I do now I actually add kind of track loops. Hip hop dubstep loops and snares and different. Even when I'm doing demos. I add that to just create a vibe. It's so much easier now. it's so much more fun actually."

Def Leppard 2002.

Perfect Girl Demo

"It is me singing it I think. I loved it. You know we were going through that thing where oh let's change this. Well Perfect Girl maybe it's a bit poppy. That was the thing."

"I hear you but you know we make these mistakes. Maybe we could redo it."

"Well thank you. I dig it as well .I heard it recently as well and I was like wow this is great. It's exciting. All the above. it's got like a pop thing about it."

I love the drum loop you used in there where did you get that?

"I get loops from everywhere. I go on Apple Loops. I go online. I hear things. I create loops. I do that a lot as well. You know I've got this little thing. Actually my computer's my studio. My laptop. But I've got this little thing."

"Yeah between that and Superior Drummer which is a program. it's awesome and I just create you know. And I'm not very good at it but I know what I wanna hear and it's like wow this is great. And off you go. It's just about getting inspired for a minute I guess."

Def Leppard 2006.

Roxanne Police Cover?/Why The Police?

"All right so there's a thing about The Police. Especially the musicianship. certainly with Sting and the way he would sing. It was like they created the perfect hybrid you know."

"It was reggae. it was punk rock kind of post punk rock. New wave if you like. But they managed to combine it and I think Mutt used to do that. You know with country, with Shania Twain stuff. With us., You know he'd create a perfect hybrid and to me The Police were that and the songs were great."

"And his voice was amazing. When you heard people like say Ella Fitzgerald she could do anything she wanted. But she would kind of, she would be subdued. And a lot of people who can play that well tend to overdo it."

"Like when you listen to Motown stuff a lot of the guys in the Motown era. The players were...they said we don't wanna play, this is three chords?. And you know Berry Gordy, Smoky Robinson, you know all of those guys they're going no these songs are great. How can I put this, not under perform but play pay grade."

"And it's so obvious with that. I love Stewart Copeland's drums. They're so over the top. It's like Mitch Mitchell on steroids you know. But then it's a different type of music."

"It's getting reggae and it's bringing it to the forefront. And it's like combining that with what you wanna hear. The edgy stuff. And Sting's voice. You know he could sing like Steve Perry if he wanted. But he had this kind of soulful reggae pop perfect voice."

"So that with the sound of the band. Andy Summers guitars were just amazing. just the sound of it. So the sound of this unit was something that was so appealing to me. I was like wow! I'd never heard anything like that ."

"And there's also an over confidence which is great. No one's telling them well you can't do that. That was rule breaking stuff. it's like you can't play that on that, it's overdone. Or you can't play bass like that and sing that high, we just don't do that. But they did and I did like the rule breaking aspect of The Police because it was literally that thing."

"It was like they were doing all the stuff that you're not supposed to do, But doing it within the confines of a great song."

"That's the other thing you know Sting was such, is an amazing song writer. And performer and singer and everything. it just needed a vehicle and that was again the perfect vehicle for that."




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