Joe Elliott is sitting in a room at the Four Seasons in downtown Minneapolis, eight or nine hours before he is scheduled to take the stage with his band Def Leppard for a concert at the Minnesota Twins' ballpark.
“Do you see it there?” he asks on a Zoom call, tilting his laptop so the camera takes in Target Field through a large window behind him. “Green Day was there on Saturday. And here,” he adds, panning the camera toward U.S. Bank Stadium, “is where Metallica just played two nights. Crazy weekend here.”
Twenty years ago, few would have predicted that Def Leppard would continue to find themselves in that sort of mix. The British pop-metal group exploded with the 10-times platinum Pyromania (1983) and the 12-times platinum Hysteria (1987), both of which were polished to a high-tech sheen by the band under their famed and demanding producer, Mutt Lange. Inevitably, the group’s career cooled off throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, as swaggering hard rock gave way to grunge and pop-punk.
But then things started to heat up again for Def Leppard, which finally returned to stadiums armed with enduring songs like “Photograph,” “Love Bites,” “Rock of Ages” and “Pour Some Sugar on Me.” Now here they are — singer Elliott, guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell, bassist Rick Savage and drummer Rick Allen — on a tour with another purveyor of glossy ’80s rock radio hits, Journey, which stops Sunday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
“We get up on stage, wink at each other, and say, ‘Can you believe it? ’ Forty-seven years later, we’re playing such big venues after everyone said we were done,” says Elliott, 65. “We were the only five who said, ‘No, we’re not. ’” The frontman is wearing a black Taylor Swift T-shirt, a souvenir from the Eras Tour date in Dublin where he introduced his 8-year-old daughter to the pop megastar. (Fun fact: Rick Allen’s brother, Robert, is part of Swift’s management team.) “It was a very magical moment,” he says, “and I’m forever grateful to Taylor for making Dad look cool for a couple days.”
Def Leppard played on an episode of CMT’s “Crossroads” with Taylor in 2008. Could you see where this was going?
I don't think anyone could. If you look at it now, it makes sense. But if you think back to 2008, there was nothing like what she's achieved. I know that anyone who was there when the Beatles and the Stones came along will say, “Wait a minute…” But for people born in this century or in the 90s, this is a phenomenon that has never been seen before, technically bigger than the Beatles and the Stones put together, at least commercially. It's crazy, the amount of tickets she sells.
But I always knew she would be a big star. And despite all the hardships she's been through – from people trying to trip her up over the years at certain parts of her career – she's just bounced back. She's a fantastic role model for a generation of young people.
Robert Plant told me a few years ago that you were once known for making “a complete fuss” while warming up your voice before a show.
I know exactly what you're talking about. That was the me in 1988 who didn't really know what I was doing. Back then, as successful as we were, there was always a certain amount of anxiety inside of me: Am I a fraud? Am I capable of doing this? So I used to have to prove myself before I could get in front of an audience. I'd get in the shower because it's nice and big and echoey, and I'd clear my throat… doing something like the beginning of “Immigrant Song,” I guess.
When Vivian joined in 1992, she brought with her Roger Love, a renowned vocal coach from Los Angeles, who came and stayed with us for a month in Ibiza, where we were rehearsing. And he specifically tailored the tapes to everyone's voices so we could get ready for the warm-up. But Robert is absolutely right: I made quite a fuss back then and he seems to have never forgotten it, which is hilarious. We talk quite often, mostly about football. In fact, his birthday is coming up; I owe him a text.
Def Leppard's core hasn't changed in decades, which is pretty unusual for a touring group these days. Journey, for example, is touring with Arnel Pineda instead of Steve Perry. Do you think fans care if they're seeing the original members of a band?
My experience watching Journey is that audiences are very enthusiastic. Are there any detractors that I don't see who say, “I wish I was Steve Perry”? Probably. We have people who still wish I was Steve Perry. [guitarist] Steve Clark was in the band, or even [guitarist] Pete Willis, the keyboard warriors who make a bit of noise. But most people, I think, just want to hear the songs. The song is what rules, not any particular person in the band.
That is not [Journey guitarist] Neal Schon, he's not Joe Elliott, he's not Robert Plant, he's not even Taylor Swift. It's the song. So to a certain extent it doesn't matter. We once did a show with Foreigner and there was no one in the band who played on one of their records. But they went out and played their songs and 83,000 people in Quebec couldn't even give a…
We fought tooth and nail to keep this band together because we saw what U2 was like. Until recently, when [drummer] Larry [Mullen Jr.] They couldn't do the Sphere residency, they never changed the line-up. We lost Pete along the way, and then we lost Steve, but this line-up has been together for 32 years, which is four times longer than the Beatles.
And we really love each other! I got a respiratory problem in Boston last week and I isolated myself because I didn't know what it was. They put me in my own room and I hated it. I said to the guys, “I don't understand these bands that have different dressing rooms.” We share the same room and we always have for 40 years. Apparently the Foo Fighters did too, because Phil was talking to Pat Smear recently and he said, “Well, yeah, this is what real bands do, isn't it?”
Def Leppard's hits have always had their place on the radio. What do you like to listen to before or after one of their songs?
When I hear one of our songs between “Gimme Shelter” and “Kashmir,” it’s good company. That’s how you judge it. The other day, while we were being driven to the concert in San Antonio, “Sugar” came on some radio station. It was “Brick House” by the Commodores, then “Sugar,” and then “Billie Jean.” Again, good company.
We were the sore thumb in the '80s, the lone rock band that had hit singles. A lot of rock albums were huge hits: Van Halen, Guns N' Roses, Steve Winwood – they all had platinum albums on a very rock-oriented chart. But then you look at the singles chart and there's Cameo, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson and New Edition. That always made us smile, like we'd infiltrated a chart we shouldn't be on.
Queen's Brian May, second from right, with Def Leppard at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2019. From left: Vivian Campbell, Rick Allen, Phil Collen, Joe Elliott and Rick Savage.
(Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
Who made records in the 80s that sounded better than yours?
Nobody. I don't mean that in a disrespectful way, I just don't think anybody has made records that sounded as good as ours. Bands have made records that sounded as good as ours. different Ours. And now they would argue that their record sounded better because it sounded more organic. But what we were trying to do was use machinery and technology to go further: take something Queen-type and literally bring in the technology of Joy Division or Kraftwerk or the Human League. Why can't a band that plays rock 'n' roll use these drum sounds and these sequencing effects to enhance something that hasn't really progressed that much? When we were making Pyromania, we were listening to stuff that was on the charts in 1982, and it didn't sound any different than anything that came out in 1975.
ZZ Top had a similar idea: combining guitar music with synthesizers and programmed elements, around the same time with “Eliminator.” What did you think?
I was more impressed by the videos because they really stood out. You have to remember that in 1983, when we were still making $100 a week and riding the bus together, even though we had a top 10 album, it was still a novelty to check into your Holiday Inn and see if they had MTV. We'd watch “Gimme All Your Lovin'” and “Sharp Dressed Man” 587 times on a day off.
We're very fortunate to be part of a generation of bands – us, Duran Duran, ZZ Top, The Police, Michael Jackson – where you can close your eyes and watch the video because it's burned into your retinas. ZZ Top was what you'd call an American three-piece trio with songs like “Tush” and “Cheap Sunglasses,” and then they broke through to a totally different audience. And I'm sure a lot of their old fans were like, “This isn't ZZ Top anymore.” Certainly when we put out “Pyromania,” people were saying we'd betrayed our metal roots and all that nonsense… It's called progress.
Which is better: “Pyromania” or “Hysteria”?
Jesus, man, come on. Obviously the big breakthrough was “Pyromania,” the memories of that tour from being this band that got off a bus and went into a hotel to being this band that got off the bus and we couldn't even get into the hotel because there were too many kids blocking the way. But in 1987, when it's the second time, it's the second timeYou know what I mean? So what you had was the first one and then the biggest one. Which one of them is better? I just mix them up and say: The 80s were excellent.
