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June 5, 2009
Def Leppard Interviews: Joe Elliot And Phil Collen
When it comes to album sales, British rockers Def Leppard are in good company. Very good company. They are, in fact, one of just five groups to have recorded two albums that have earned the RIAA’s Diamond status. Yeah, that’s one level above Multi-Platinum. Who are the other four groups that share this distinction? That would be The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Van Halen.
With the U.S. leg of their tour with Poison and Cheap Trick a little over two weeks away, four Country Music Television award nominations (who would have thought?) and the re-release of two of their best-selling albums just days away, there’s plenty for the boys from Yorkshire to talk about these days.
Frontman Joe Elliott recently had a talk with In The News and shared his thoughts about the band’s success and some of the challenges they have faced over a career that has spanned three decades.
Elliott credits the groups success in North America – something that was more elusive in their native U.K. – to the birth of MTV. “In America, it had gone wall-to-wall MTV, everywhere from LA to New York, Toronto to Miami, everyone was watching it, because they’d never seen anything like it before,” he says.
That led to the exposure the group needed, which resulted in a deluge of requests for radio stations to play the group’s music that their new fans had discovered on MTV. It wasn’t long before Def Leppard was headlining tours, playing packed venues with 50,000-plus fans and breaking Led Zeppelin ticket sales records in some U.S. cities.
It’s hard to talk about Def Leppard without mentioning drummer Rick Allen, whose tragic car accident resulted in the loss of his left arm in 1984, a circumstance that, according to Elliott, actually made Allen a better drummer.
“He plays more to the song than the ego. If a drummer can do a complicated fill he will. But if he can’t, you can prove to yourself you don’t need it,” Elliot reports. Something that actually makes a lot of sense if you think about it. As an amateur drummer who has the odd distinction of being someone who was never into drum solos, I know exactly what Elliott is talking about.
When asked about whether going on the road again for a 40-city tour will be grueling or great, Elliott responds enthusiastically, saying the group can do “do 40 dates for breakfast!” A confident claim that should make for high expectations among fans who plan to be in the audience.
Guitarist Phil Collen also set aside a little time to talk to Independent News & Media about what he’s been up to and how he managed to survive the decadence of the band’s early years.
Now a vegan, Collen says “I’ve felt weird about eating meat since I was a kid,” and proudly reports that he’s the “picture of health at 51.” Although he acknowledges that there was a time in his life when his health was not a top priority.
Asked about his former reputation as a boozer, Collen admits that his drinking eventually resulted in blackouts. Realizing that he didn’t like being out of control he decided to sober up.
Collen also talks a bit about the group’s disappointment with their record label, and how they do not get the kind of support from them that they think they should be getting. “…you pay a publishing company to protect you — and then everybody’s downloading your stuff and they don’t do anything about it,” he says.
Def Leppard’s summer tour with Poison and Cheap Trick gets underway on June 23rd in Camden, New Jersey.
For the full Joe Elliott interview, check out In The News, and for the Phil Collen Interview see Independent.ie.
March 13, 2009
Poison’s Bret Michaels Next Up For Tell-All Book
Joining the ranks of other aging rockers who have decided to tell their stories of sex, drugs and rock and roll, Poison frontman, Bret Michaels is planning a June release for his autobiography entitled Roses and Thorns: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy to My Reality.
In the new book Michaels promises to deliver his share of the aforementioned sex, drugs and rock and roll. He also plans to delve into the downside of his life experiences, writing about his diabetes and his long-time battles with guitarist CeCe DeVille, which apparently culminated in a fist fight on at least one occasion, which Michaels describes as “one of the harder things to live with, much less write about.”
Besides the book, Michaels is one of those guys that does not seem to be content with one role in life, and has expanded on his endeavors with a television show called “Rock of Love,” which is currently in its third season and sounds a bit like a combination of ABC’s The Bachelor and CBS’s Big Brother.
Apparently the show involves a group of women who share a mansion and compete in a series of “challenges” for a chance to go on a date with Michaels. The first two seasons have not resulted in a match for Michaels, but he is hopeful that the third season will be the charm and hook him up with a suitable companion as the show departs from the mansion and takes to the road in a tour bus full of women who will vie for Michael’s affection.
Michaels will also be prepping for a summer tour along with Def Leppard and Cheap Trick that is being billed by Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott as “the Rock Tour of the summer.”
February 26, 2009
More Details on Def Leppard Summer Tour
As reported here earlier, Def Leppard plans to hit the road for a U.S. tour this summer with hard rockers Poison. Now we are hearing that the duo will become a trio with the addition of Cheap Trick to the ticket. Fans may recall that Cheap Trick teamed with Heart and Journey last year for a summer tour that stretched into October.
This summer’s tour will start off on June 23rd in Camden, NJ and wind up on September 7th in San Bernardino, CA for a total of forty dates.
"We’re going out with three bands, which limits the amount of time we can play to about 90 minutes," Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliot revealed to Billboard. “When you do your greatest hits and some new material or extra stuff you might throw in, you have got to push and shove and clamp down. No big long speeches from moi. You have to do the AC/DC thing and just bang through everything.”
Tickets for the show, which is being produced by LiveNation, will go on sale March 6th at the LiveNation website.
The show is expected to last about four hours and is being described as an “interactive concert experience,” which will include the use of Bluetooth transmissions for appropriately-equipped attendees who will be able to receive the text messages before and during the show. Other interactive features are also planned.
Although there will probably be other classic acts hitting the road this summer, Elliot says “We’re gonna be touring with some new friends and some old friends and can guarantee it will be the Rock Tour of the summer.” I’m sure the fans and critics will be anxious to see if the show lives up to that bold claim.
January 14, 2009
Def Leppard And Poison To Team Up For Summer Tour
It may seem a bit odd that two classic groups that were engaged in a verbal feud not long ago would decide to join forces for a tour this coming summer, but that’s the way things are looking as Poison’s Bret Michaels recently revealed while talking with CNN.
It was just last summer when some comments made by Joe Elliott during a press conference sparked a public spat between Elliott and some members of Poison. Elliott’s comments indicated that bands like Poison and Motley Crue used their image to cover up the substance that was missing from their music. Bret Michaels himself responded by calling Def Leppard out for appearing on the popular TV dance show Dancing With The Stars and lip-synching their performance.
Elliot appeared to offer an olive branch a bit later on when he explained via the band’s web site that he had nothing personal against Poison and was making reference to groups who use stage names and other Hollywood-style practices that made them appear less genuine.
It now appears certain that the rift between Elliott and Poison is something they have put behind them, and the news that they plan to tour together may come as a surprise to many fans after last summer’s incident. In fact, listening to Michaels, one might get the impression that Def Leppard and Poison are now best buddies.
Some of Michael’s recent comments included statements such as: “I’m very passionate about the music I make — and when you can be out on the road with people you like — I’ve been able to go out with Aerosmith, KISS, Skynyrd — and to be out with Def Leppard and Poison this summer, I think that it’s gonna be the tour of the summer.”
Michaels talks about the Def Leppard-Poison tour around the 9 minute and 40 second mark in the video below.
