How did you come about picking Tripping Daisy as your opening act in America?
Joe: Well, it was a case of them picking us. We found it very difficult to find an opening act that would actually want to go out with a band like us. A lot of the '90s bands wouldn't touch us with a ten-foot pole. All the bands we wanted to go out with were either unavailable, or didn't want to do it, then we were given lists of bands that were embarrassing. Eventually, we heard the Tripping Daisy record and really liked it. I don't know whether they're fans, businessmen, or what, I don't know, but when we suggested getting Tripping Daisy, somebody made a phone call and they said yes. We were happy, I love their album and think it's excellent.
This album went in a different direction for you guys, as well as being the first time Vivian got a chance to write as a member of Def Leppard...
Viv: That's correct, and it wasn't pretty! (laughs) I'm not kidding! It's f*ckin' ass backwards, man! I mean, it's good, I learned more making this record than in all of the other albums I've ever been involved with combined. Def Leppard gets in there and pulls everything apart, it's almost a very intellectual approach to making rock 'n' roll. It's okay, but it wasn't always pretty. I'm happy with the results, I like the record and I'm happy with the quality of my contribution. I'd like to contribute more in the future, now that I've gone beyond the first hurdle of understanding how it is Def Leppard works in the studio. I also look forward to making music quicker, I think we've turned the boat around now, I don't think there will be anymore two, three, four year album cycles, it's going to be in and out. We played a lot of tracks live on this record, which is great too, because it's something that the bad hasn't done a lot. The main thing that was different was Rick playing the old acoustic drums.
Rick: I think the main reason for the sound difference, from my point of view, is that our sound had been copied from Pyromania onwards, and I think we were getting a bit too formularized. The idea of getting somewhat back to basics was kind of exciting for us. It was obviously one of the first records we'd made without Mutt Lange, and that also made a difference in as much as we wanted to exercise what we'd learned working with him through the years. It was great working with somebody new, somebody like Pete Woodroffe that's very open-minded and open to new ways of recording. Again, like Vivian said, playing the acoustic drums for the first time since High 'N' Dry kind of reminded me of why I started playing drums in the first place, the whole dynamic sort of range of the music changed around it because the dynamic of the drum is infinite.
Does this album feel like a more cohesive Def Leppard album to you?
Rick: I think from Joe's point of view, he obviously didn't want to sing in that unnatural sort of screaming voice, and it's great for the rest of us to actually hear Joe singing in a register that is obviously comfortable for him. It's nice to hear a different side of Joe's voice, just like it's nice for me to be able to express myself in a way that I hadn't been able to in a long time. It was very convenient to use different sorts of sampling devices and whatnot during the '80s, because it made it easier for me to reproduce a lot of the sounds that we created in the studio that were so much larger than life. A real drum can't sound like that without a lot of processing, so the idea of going back to basics is a lot more primal, it's a different way for me to express myself.
Live, does this translate well?
Rick: I think what we tended to do, is play the older songs more like the way we recorded the new songs, and I think it's given the old songs a new lease on life. There seems to be a bit more of a band vibe about playing them again.
Viv: It's a lot less stiff than it was on the last tour. When we went to rehearse for this tour, I found some cassettes of early rehearsals for the Adrenalize tour, and we were just f*cking so different then, it's really weird. We would really obsess on finesse and parts, and ultimately, when you get out there in an arena or whatever, the finesse goes out the window, it's the meat and potatoes of it that matters. This time we rehearsed for about three weeks, last time we rehearsed for about three months. We were really tight. This time out we're pretty much as tight as we were before, but [what] we've lost in that cohesiveness we've made up for in vibe. Partly that's due to the way we recorded the Slang record, and also it's due to the fact that last year, for Vault, we went on a worldwide promotional trip that involved us playing acoustic a lot, and when you play a lot of those songs acoustically you have to readjust them because you don't have effects, you don't have a whammy bar, you can't really bend strings, so we had to do different interpretations of a lot of the songs. We found that it really worked and the quality of the songs comes through. A good song can stand up to being adapted in a lot of different ways, so we took the ethic that we learned on the acoustic thing and we applied it to this tour, and a lot of the old songs have a different sort of approach to them and have a renewed vigor that wasn't there on the last tour. It was replaced by a perfectionist aspect. It's good, there's much more of a vibe, it's almost like it's a different band.
Rick: That's true, it's more like the approach of playing in close proximity, on a small stage, it's that sort of mentality as opposed to everybody being off in a far flung part of the stage and they've got to stand in a certain place because there's a certain lighting cue, this, that, and the other. Now it's like the music is more of the emphasis. We've actually had a real positive reaction from people that we've talked to after shows. One guy the other night in Kalamazoo said he saw us there on earlier tours, and I asked him, "How did tonight's gig compare to the last time we were here?" and he said "liked it better because you were focused more on the music."
Was that a change that you guys were ready to make as a band, or was that a change that you thought was dictated by the way music is going right now?
Rick: I think a bit of both. I think the fact that we'd done the whole in-the-round thing started to get a little bit mechanical, and then I think the emergence of bands like Nirvana, and a looser approach to playing kind of made it fun again, instead of taking the whole technology things to its end, from a production and a musical point of view. I think it's good for any band to touch base again and get back to where they were, and the reasons for getting the band together in the first place.
As far as Def Leppard is concerned for you, Vivian, you've been in a lot of bands. How does this rate with other projects you've worked on?
Viv: It's a very different sort of thing. I've been involved with other groups, but they've always been someone else's band. Whitesnake has always been David Coverdale's band, look at the amount of musicians that been through that band. Dio has always been his band, it's Dio for f*ck's sake! So there's always this glass ceiling. No matter how much you get involved in the writing and the creative process of the band, there's only so far you can go because ultimately it always comes down to one guy. That can be very frustrating in a lot of ways, because you know you're really pissing into the wind, you know that ultimately you're spinning your wheels and you're not going to get ahead.
What about the Riverdogs?
Viv: Well, Riverdogs was different because it just didn't happen. That was a great band, actually. Other than Def Leppard, Riverdogs was the greatest band I've been involved with musically, because they were really good musicians, we wrote really good songs, and everybody listened to everybody else. We were a great live band with strong vocals, but that just never happened, that's why I skipped over that, people know me for Dio and Whitesnake. You know, Def Leppard is a very different thing. For the first time, I'm working with people that are peers of mine. We come from the same place, we're similar ages, we grew up on the same culture, so we have things in common other than just making music. With Coverdale, he's older than me, we had a Dutchman, we had a Cuban, we had a Texan. In Dio, Ronnie was, God, 20 years older than me, he was virtually old enough to be my father, so culturally and generationally there were these boundaries that could not be easily overcome. Def Leppard is just a much more comfortable environment, and creatively, everyone gets involved, there are no limits to what you can do in this band, your ambition is your only limitation. You can write as much as you want, you can get involved politically as much as you want, there is no one there that is going to say "No, you can't do this." There is no Ronnie Dio, there are no back stabbers, so it's a much more comfortable environment. It's something I can grow into, whereas the others I could not really grow in.
Rick: We were really looking for the band vibe again, and he had been in a situation where you did get together in a rehearsal studio and f*cking crash stuff out. We had kind of gone away from that, to the point where there wasn't really any kind of pre-production, it was like we would write the songs as we went on in the studio. It was a very sterile way of making music. I think the idea that he was so enthusiastic about, was pretty much getting in the same room and laying stuff down. That was it to me, you may have a different idea.
Viv: Actually, I want to do more of that in the future, I think we should explore that even more, we only touched on that in this record. I still think happy accidents, serendipity of rock 'n' roll, a band goes in and they play something and they keep playing through, all of a sudden it gels. We did that a little bit on this record, but not as much as I'd personally like to see. I'd like to see us do more of that in the future.
Rick: I think the reason for that is because we just weren't used to it. We weren't used to being in that kind of situation, the studio had become a completely different animal to playing live, so consequently, it was kind of a bit sterile. But like Viv says, it would be great to tap into that a little bit more.
Has anything interesting happened on the road so far?
Viv: What's been interesting is that the audiences have been really, really into it. We didn't know what to expect, but actually there really is a core Def Leppard audience, we didn't really think there was anymore.
Rick: The people that are there are really, really digging it. They're really having a good time out there, which is great.
Was it tough to pick material for this tour? Did the way you recorded Slang naturally weed out some of the older material from possible set lists?
Rick: There were certain songs we didn't necessarily feel comfortable playing.
Viv: I'll tell you what, "Let's Get Rocked" is one of them, but we're going to play that tonight to see how it goes, because we've been surprised so far at the audiences we've had. They're so into Def Leppard, that we think they might actually want us to play "Let's Get Rocked," so we'll see how it goes. Some of the fans we talk to after the shows say "I wish you had played more of the new songs," and others would say, "I wish you'd played 'Let's Get Rocked.'" so we don't really know, we're still changing it night after night, trying to find the happy medium for people. Obviously it's more exciting for us to play the new songs, because that's where we feel we're at, as opposed to going back to (laughing) "Let's Get Rocked."
How has Tripping Daisy been working out?
Viv: We wanted to take a new, young band out with us. We didn't want to take a band from the '80s, or '70s even. Some of the bands they were proposing as opening acts, we didn't feel that comfortable with. We like to give younger bands a chance, and we like fun bands. We had a terrible time through the agencies, they were offering too many metal bands, so I actually called the manager of Tripping Daisy direct. He said that the lead singer was a huge Def Leppard fan, so we negotiated the deal and did it. I don't know how our audience is digging them, it's a little strange for them because they're a very far out band, and it's hard for them because it's summertime and we're playing outdoors, and they're going on in daylight. They look to be very much a midnight sort of band, you need a few drinks down your neck and a little ambiance adjustment. They're actually a good band!
Def Leppard are one of the few bands that broke in the '80s that is still really strong. How do you think rock is doing now?
Viv: I think it's healthy, what's happened to music, it needs to have the rug pulled out from time to time. The thing about the '80s that was so intolerable, was that people with big hair and ripped jeans were taking themselves too seriously. I mean, some of them are better than others, and it's all subjective, but people think that what they do is actually important. Ultimately, we're songwriters, musicians and entertainers, and we're not f*cking rocket scientists. Somebody needed to deflate that ego. I think the reason that Def Leppard has so far survived and (as he knocks on the dressing room's wooden table) will continue to, is because Def Leppard has always written good songs, has always been a quality band, and good songs endure, an image and hairstyle doesn't. We're going to try and continue to do that. Def Leppard is going to try and have a quality to the songwriting and hopefully that will keep us going. We have ambition to be around for another 10 or 15 years.
The wake-up call was a one-two punch from Slang, "Work It Out" featuring Campbell at his harmonizing best, and the title track hitting with a hip-hop flurry that picked the pace up more than enough to warrant its low-key follow up, "Bringin' On The Heartbreak." The emotional see-saw continued, rising hard with "Tear It Down," and crashing quietly with "Two Steps Behind," which was introduced by a loosely strung together set of acoustic jams including the Creedence classic, "Bad Moon Rising."
Just when it appeared the Def ones were overtaken by emotion, the set thundered forward without turning back. "Photograph" launched into "Rocket," which was followed by the sped up delivery of "Armageddon It" and "Pour Some Sugar On Me," two of the night's hardest-hitting rockers. "Love Bites" opened the encore, followed by the radio hit and apparent crowd favorite, "Let's Get Rocked." In grand style, with a soccer ball on stage to add to the excitement, "Rock of Ages" shared the spotlight with Vivian Campbell, who managed to work on his soccer game while hammering out the evening's closer.
Is there life after 21st century technology and flashy theatrics? Def Leppard seem to think so. In a convincing rebuttal to their labelmates KISS, who insist that size does count and money can buy you anything, the Leps throw it all away in favor of bare-bones delivery and uncluttered, club-like stage show. Most bands probably couldn't pull it off, but Def Leppard have one major asset working in their favor- there may not be a better all-around band of musicians out there.
This article is from the March 1997 issue of Metal Edge- 1996 Year In Review.
They'd rather go to a rave than check a band out. It's not as important in people's lives as it used to be. People would rather go to a dance thing. The way the music business is run now, it doesn't concentrate on bands' careers but the quick, fast hit, and then 'next.' Why work hard on an act? Hootie & the Blowfish, they sold 14 million copies on the first one and the next one came out and it's 'sorry guys, you had your 15 minutes.' That 15 minutes has been stripped down to two. It's a shame when you're in a band. Some of the rap and hip hop artists, it's a very quick burnout. It's hard out there. But being aware of it is half the battle."
Def Leppard's plans for the coming year hinge on the success of singles. "The music business is very funny, it's more hit-oriented than it's ever been. Unless you're having a big hit it doesn't translate to everything else," Phil noted. "It's happened to us in the past, where we've finished touring and they've said, 'Well, you've got a hit.' We toured the States three times on Hysteria, the album went to #1 twice or three times. So we never rule anything out. We're all up for it. Our policy is if people want us, we'll go there, but if there isn't enough demand and it will cost us a fortune we won't. We learned our lesson once, we took all our stuff down to Australia and lost a fortune because there wasn't the demand for it."
If touring does not resume, Def Leppard will begin work on a new album earlier, but after a needed break. According to Phil, "It will be the band again, some elements of the live thing from Slang-sonically it will be along the same lines." While there were some songs left over from Slang, "I think we'll start from scratch. There's a reason, I don't think they were strong enough. Maybe in a few years they'll turn out to be winners but they have to meet a certain standard before we'll let them out," Phil explained, projecting a probable release in early '98.
Despite a case of chronic bronchitis, Phil was in good spirits when he called from Germany. "Places we never played like Prague, I think they're a bit starved and they went nuts. It was great. Paris was a good audience. Whoever is coming is having a great time and we are as well." They'd added "Action" and "All I Want Is Everything" to the set, and were working out the vocal harmonies to new single "Breathe A Sigh," one of Phil's favorites, for the acoustic section of the show. "It's the only song on the album that's similar to the Hysteria/Adrenalize/Pyromania thing where we multi-tracked and did studio tricks on the vocals. We'll have to play it a million times before we get it. It's a challenge and you gotta have that, it keeps you a fresh, live band and if you didn't have that it would be a drag," he said. "It's good having challenges."
For my next interesting and entertaining text file, I'd like to share with you all an idea thought of by my friend Mark--a Def Leppard Rock Opera! I think it's very cool, so I thought I'd let you all have a chance to read it. Of course, I asked Mark first. He doesn't mind the attention! Enjoy!
At the opening, Joe is a soldier in a terrible war. Songs include: Die Hard the Hunter, Gods of War
After the war, Joe falls on tough times and begins to sink into a depression. He turns to drugs and alcohol to escape reality. Songs include: Wasted, High & Dry
As part of this degenerate lifestyle, Joe also has several one-night stands and becomes addicted to sex. He also has been known to visit prostitutes. Songs include: Armageddon It, Action not Words, or any other song that's about sex
As Joe spirals downward, he meets a beautiful woman, "Heaven." He believes that he has finally found true love, and he even cleans up for her. She turns him around. Songs: Heaven Is, Have You Ever..., Hysteria
After some time passes, Joe slips and begins to use drugs and alcohol again. He also abuses Heaven and loses all of his new friends. Song: From the Inside
Heaven leaves Joe (smart girl). Song: When Love & Hate Collide
Joe realizes that his life will always be a mess as long as he's in drugs and alcohol, etc. He's hit rock bottom. He's broke and the love of his life has left him.
After cleaning up for good, Joe writes music and lyrics about his experiences. While he intended to have his music only for his own release of emotions, he becomes popular. Audiences can feel the emotion and meaning in his music.
The grand finale of the show is Joe, now a famous singer, performing Rock of Ages (which includes a medley of every song in the show).
