British guitarist Phil Collen is rather busy these days; juggling his time between main band Def Leppard, the G3 Tour with Joe Satriani and John Petrucci, as well as his side blues band Delta Deep. Speaking to Gabe Echazabal of Creative Loafing about all of his current endeavours, Collen admitted:

"I’ve never done a theater tour of the States; I’ve only ever done arenas, sheds, and stuff like that and I’m loving the theaters. I’m loving the sounds and I’m not wearing an ear monitor because I just want to soak up what a theater sounds like. It’s very cultured, it’s really cool. It makes you play different. When I go on at the end with Joe Satriani and John Petrucci, I wear an ear monitor because everything’s so loud... you know, it’s three guitars and you kind of get lost so I do that but, it’s a joy for me. There’s these beautiful, old theaters… some from the 1920s and it’s a gorgeous thing. It’s just great to be a part of that culture."

"We’ve been getting standing ovations. It’s a totally different thing," continues Collen. "The crowd is not even all guitar-head type people, it's music appreciation people. There’s people we meet at the meet and greets and they’re not guitar players, they just love music. It’s like loving classical music or jazz; you don’t have to play to be a part of it, and that’s what’s really lovely. And the fact that we’ve been getting that reaction where there’s an audience having a blast is really cool. I didn’t expect that. I thought it was gonna be slightly different but it’s been great."

To read the complete interview, visit this location.

Upcoming G3 Tour Dates featuring Joe Satriani, John Petrucci & Phil Collen:

February
2 - Barbara B Mann Performing Arts Hall - Fort Myers, FL
3 - Mahaffey Theater - St. Petersberg, FL
6 - Raleigh Memorial Auditorium - Raleigh, NC
8 - Toyota Presents Oakdale - Wallingford, CT
9 - Landmark Theatre - Syracuse, NY
10 - Palace Theatre - Albany, NY
11 - The Palace Theatre - Greensburg, PA
14 - Warner Theatre - Washington, DC
15 - Orpheum Theatre - Boston, MA
16 - Beacon Theatre - New York, NY
17 - Merriam Theater - Philadelphia, PA
18 - New Jersey Performing Arts Center - Newark, NJ
20 - Auditorium Theatre - Rochester, NY
21 - Massey Hall - Toronto, ON
22 - Hard Rock Live - Northfield, OH
23 - Chicago Theatre - Chicago, IL
24 - State Theatre - Minneapolis, MN
25 - Riverside Theater - Milwaukee, WI