From a musical point of view, the only note that isn’t in that song is an E-flat. Our best one is “Gods of War,” because it was so different from anything else we’d ever done.
So to be fair, I’m going to remove those 15 songs, and we’ll deal with that down the road. It’s a loaded question because the honest answer is probably a song off the new album that you haven’t heard yet. If that trio of misfortune couldn’t kill the band, Elliott joked during their Rock Hall of Fame induction speech, “the ’90s had no fucking chance!” (Bassist Rick Savage and guitarist Phil Collen complete the current lineup.) Now, in the present and talking from his “basement dump room,” Elliott expounded on Def Leppard’s history, from their funniest lyrics to their riskiest endeavors. They persisted after their drummer, Rick Allen, overcame an arm amputation after a car crash in 1985 their original lead guitarist, Steve Clark, died from alcohol poisoning in 1991 and their replacement guitarist, Vivian Campbell, got diagnosed with cancer in 2013. But besides the carousel of smash hits - and there were plenty of them - the Def Leppard story is also one of endurance. I prefer to think of Elliott’s enthused digressions like the marbling in a good piece of steak, making him a far more tender Zoom presence than you may expect from the man who once loudly crooned, “I’m hot, sticky sweet, from my head to my feet, yeah!” (For curiosity’s sake: The above quotes are about 2019’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Roxy Music, and “All the Young Dudes” by Mott the Hoople, respectively.) But yes, Def Leppard has a new album out on May 27 - their 12th, Diamond Star Halos, which Elliott says is a “quantum leap” on par with Rumours and Hotel California - and that’s why we’re here, chitchatting about the miscellanea of his career with the band.Īs Def Leppard’s founding front man, Elliott’s sonorous vocals defined the heavy-metal, hard-rock, and new-wave hybrid that flourished on the airwaves in the ’80s: You were living under a very boring rock if you weren’t exposed to Pyromania or Hysteria in some form or ignorant to strip culture if the opening riff to “Pour Some Sugar On Me” didn’t materialize into your head when feeling a bit randy. He jokes, “I do tend to rabbit on a bit” - he’s being modest.
There comes a point when talking to Joe Elliott where you kind of forget what your initial question was. “It’s a very moving piece of work and a recurring theme in my life.” “I’m already lined up to see them in three cities, depending on where I am.” “What are the key ingredients for somebody to fit in with this band? One of the things we said was having an encyclopedic knowledge of Monty Python, Blackadder, and Fawlty Towers.”
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