DEF LEPPARD’s Joe Elliott - “If We Don't Play 'Photograph' And 'Sugar,' We Won't Get Out The Building Alive”

August 23, 2011, 12 years ago

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Spinner recently conducted an interview with DEF LEPPARD frontman Joe Elliott. In the interview Elliott talks about his songwriting process, their current tour with HEART and how he couldn't give a damn if Def Leppard never gets a good review as long as the fans keep coming to the gigs. Read the interview below:

Spinner: How has performing changed for you over the years?

Joe Elliott: “I don't really feel any different when I get up on stage. Sometimes I might be archiving some old DVDs and I'll watch a gig from three or four tours ago and go, "My God, we've changed." And I don't just mean getting older. I mean the way that we approach the songs, the way that we present them. But it's always enjoyable. We're blessed to be able to do this for as long as we have, because it's what we've wanted to do since we were 12 years old. It's difficult not to enjoy it.”

Spinner: You have so many hits, how do you decide which songs to play when you tour?

Joe Elliott: “If we're in America, we choose songs because they were hits in the States. There are songs that we have to play in England that we don't play in the States. And the same thing goes for Japan or Australia. We're out on tour with Heart so we have a limited amount of time to play and you've got to cram it all in. I had an e-mail in my Planet Rock account, because I DJ for this radio station in England once a week, and the guy accused me of being a fraud because these first four gigs back after the break we played exactly the same set. And I wasn't going to say to the guy, 'Well you know, my father just passed away, let's just keep it simple for the first week and then we can get into experiments.' He's writing this as if every single person comes to every gig. The only people that know are the ones that go online and look at the set list. So he's a f---ing idiot. And I don't mind saying that out loud and please print this. When somebody like him turns around and says that 'Love Bites' is just a 'beer break,' I'm like, 'Wow, you're a moron, so don't bother coming back to any of our shows. We don't want people like you in our audience. We have to play for the majority.' If we don't play 'Photograph' and 'Sugar,' we won't get out the building alive. And that pays our wages. Not these idiots who sit in their mother's basement eating Doritos and playing Dungeons and Dragons all day. I'm not interested in those kind of people.”

Read the entire interview here.

Joe Elliott and bassist Rick Savage will sign copies of the band's coffee table book, Def Leppard - The Definitive Visual History, at Book Soup in West Hollywood, CA, on Monday, September 5th from 3 - 4 PM.

Full details can be found at this location.

Def Leppard's The Definitive Visual History is now available worldwide.

The fully authorized visual history of the band follows them from the new wave of British heavy metal to their massive Pyromania and Hysteria albums to today.

Watch a trailer for the book below:



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