On April 16th, Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen guested on The Toontrack Podcast. He discusses his time in the '70s band Girl, working with Def Leppard, and his blues-based band Delta Deep.

Delta Deep is a blues-based band featuring Phil Collen and Robert DeLeo (bassist for Stone Temple Pilots), in addition to Debbi Blackwell-Cook (back-up vocalist for such artists as Michael Buble and Gregory Hines) and Forrest Robinson (drummer for India.Arie, Joe Sample & The Crusaders, TLC). Collen recently spoke with Greg Prato at Alternative Nation about working with DeLeo and his favourite Stone Tempe Pilots songs. An excerpt from the interview is available below:

Q: How it playing with Robert, stylistically?

Collen: "Obviously, because he’s in a rock band…the big difference is it’s like, funk on steroids. It’s not your typical soul or groove or blues band, because me and Robert are from hard rock bands. Alternative, metal, whatever you want to call it. And what’s really interesting about Forrest Robinson is the fact that he’s from Memphis, he’s played with all these…the Crusaders is a jazz group. But when I first met him, what he said, 'All I really want to play is double kick drum metal.' I said, 'Really?!' Never judge a book by its cover! Because I thought he was like a groove guy, which he is, but that’s what he loves playing. So when Debbi (Blackwell) gets out and sings over the top of it, it reminds me of early Zeppelin. It’s got a feel like that. I didn’t really expect that – I thought it was going to be more subdued, it was going to be a bit of a groove and bluesy, but it turned into this other thing. It’s got element of Zeppelin, Def Leppard, STP – only it’s this soulful, funky, rock thing. It’s a very muscular version of that. Like I said, playing with Robert is a joy. We’re basically a three-piece – guitar, bass, and drums. And there’s so much going on that you’ll fill all of the gaps – and not just all with notes, but with aggression. And that’s the one thing that I always love. I have another band, Man-Raze, and we’ve got two albums out. Paul Cook is the drummer, and he’s the drummer from the Sex Pistols. I loved Paul Cook’s drumming. I loved the Sex Pistols album (Never Mind the Bollocks…). I always wanted that aggression in something. So we pretty much got that down, and again, with Man-Raze, it was that thing, it was the aggression. A lot of people miss out on that. It’s like a lot of rock bands are kind of wimpy or whatever and don’t quite have that thing. But this is…steroidal and muscular are the only words to describe it!

Go to this location for the complete interview.