[ Def Leppard UK - 1st August 2008 Tour News ]
| Def Leppard Vivian Campbell Nashville Interview |
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Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell has been interviewed by the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville ahead of tonight's show. Vivian talks about the current tour, writing on the road and the renewed interest in the band. Also the decision to follow record company advice on the X album and the upcoming Crossroads appearance in the city with Taylor Swift.
Interview Exerts
"It's actually more Tim McGraw doing rock than it is Def Leppard doing country," said Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell.
"It was kind of a nice little progression," Campbell said. "(Tim) had a title for a song and he hooked up with Phil (Collen, the band's guitarist), and they banged out a tune and we stuck it on our record."
Fans can hear Def Leppard perform "Nine Lives" and other hits like "Love Bites" and "Photograph" live tonight when the band plays Sommet Center. Whether McGraw will show up to play his hit with the band is anyone's guess.
The members of Def Leppard do hope to meet with country songbird Taylor Swift while they're in town, though, to lay the groundwork for an upcoming episode of CMT Crossroads the entertainers will film together later in the fall.
"The Taylor Swift thing should be really interesting," Campbell said. "She's only 18, but a big Leppard fan. I have really no idea how it's going to work. We're not a very subtle band. I always say our dynamic range is between nine and a half and 10. We're not the best at toning it down."
"We had never done that before," Campbell said. "It was sort of like guerrilla songwriting techniques, which is very different for us. Normally we take a chunk of time off after a tour, and we reconvene somewhere and share our song ideas and pull them apart and think about them too much. With this, necessity was the mother of invention and, too, we kind of just went with it. As a result, it's a bit more of a diverse record. It's more varied, and I think it has a lot more energy."
"We did that because the head of our label had alluded (to it being) a great song and if we did it, it would be our golden ticket to get on the radio," Campbell said. "Normally that's not the thing we do. We're very competent songwriters in our own right. And it's not like we've ever had any sort of difficulty writing a ballad. Having done that, the label totally pulled the rug out from under us and did nothing. That kind of spurred us on more toward making the Sparkle Lounge record and saying, '(Forget) it, we're going to make the kind of record we want. We're not going to try and second-guess the market anymore.'"
The band kicked off their second leg of US dates this year on Wednesday, playing C'mon C'mon and Bad Actress for the first time (at a proper show) in the US and also trying out 'Go' during the soundcheck.
Read The Full Interview - Tour Interviews 2008 | Hidalgo Show
Def Leppard 2008 US/CAN Tour - Here
Tour Links - Tour Press | 2008 Fan Videos
BUY Def Leppard - Songs From The Sparkle Lounge/C'mon C'mon | BUY Man Raze - Surreal
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