Def Leppard News - Vivian Campbell On Joining Def Leppard And His Current Health Status

Vivian Campbell On Joining Def Leppard And His Current Health Status

Friday, 17th June 2016

Vivian Campbell 2015.
Pic by Chele Drappel

Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell was recently interviewed by Bigmusicgeek and mentioned his health.

Vivian talked about the history of Last In Line, their 'Heavy Crown' album, the Dio Disciples band, Jimmy Bain's death in January, the current state of his health, joining Def Leppard in 1992, DIO and Sweet Savage.

During the interview he talked about the current state of his health.

He also recalled joining the band in February 1992 just before the start of the Adrenalize tour.

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Bigmusicgeek - Vivian Campbell Interview Quotes

Current Health Status

"I still have cancer. It keeps coming back, but I am well. My health is fine. I am doing a course of treatment called immunotherapy. I did three rounds of chemotherapy over the last three years and the cancer kept coming back. At the end of 2014, I went into the hospital for a month and did a stem-cell transplant. I was, to be honest, really hopeful that that was going to take care of it. But then in May of last year, they did new scans and the doctors told me that the caner had come back. At that point, they had wanted me to do radiation and I just couldn't bring myself to do that. I'm not a fan of it for many, many reasons. That prompted me to do some research. My wife found out about a course of treatment called immunotherapy. They are a new class of drugs that are under clinical trial for several years."

"There are minimal side effects from taking these drugs and it's certainly nothing compared to chemo. There is no intense nausea, hair loss or neuropathy that goes on with chemo. It's a walk in the park. I had those issues when I was doing chemo while still touring in Def Leppard. ...It made it very difficult for me to play at times. You deal with it, ya know?"

Joining Def Leppard In 1992

"I was also taking intense vocal lessons, really honing my craft as a singer. I was truly on the path to making my own solo record and quite happy with it, so the hardest part of me joining Def Leppard was deciding whether or not I wanted to be in another band. But, you know, it is Def Leppard. It's not everyday you get afforded that type of opportunity. I knew Joe and I knew the kind of person he was, so I figured that I knew the sort of band that Def Leppard were. We actually went through like a courtship. It wasn't so much an audition as it was getting to know each other. It took place over two or three weeks in L.A. We'd literally go into the rehearsal room, play some music together and then go to dinner, go to the bar and then, the next day, we'd go to the park and have a game of football. It was us getting to know each others personalities to see if it would work. Twenty-four years later, it's still working, but I would think that it was much much more difficult for them to accept me than it was for me to step into that band."