Guitarist Vivian Campbell- "There Was Never Any Intention Of DEF LEPPARD Going Country"
July 9, 2009, 15 years ago
Rege Behe from Pittsburghlive.com is reporting:
What in tarnation is going on with DEF LEPPARD?
Last year, country superstar TIM MCGRAW sang with the British band on the single 'Nine Lives'. TAYLOR SWIFT, the omnipresent teen sensation, sang with the band on a CMT Crossroads performance in 2008, joining singer Joe Elliott and company for versions of 'Photograph' and 'Pour Some Sugar on Me'.
It's not that Def Leppard has traded its Union Jack motif for cowboy hats. It's only country musicians acknowledging the pervasive influence of Def Leppard.
"There was never any intention of Def Leppard going country," guitarist Vivian Campbell says in advance of Friday's concert with POISON and CHEAP TRICK at the Post-Gazette Pavilion in Burgettstown. "Nor are we influenced by it any way."According to Campbell, Swift's affection for Def Leppard came by way of her mother's passion for the band.
McGraw expressed interest in performing with the group after attending a Def Leppard concert, which led to the recording of "Nine Lives." "It's basically a Def Leppard song with a little bit of Tim McGraw," Campbell says. "We tried to cash in on it, I'll be straightforward about it. We tried to exploit it as much as possible. We actually serviced that song to country radio, and they sent it right back to us. There was no way they were going to play it because it wasn't country."
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