DEF LEPPARD continue to hit the press trail in support of their latest covers album, Yeah!, with a full feature article in the latest Entertainment Weekly Magazine. A few (laughable/metal unfriendly) excerpts follows:

Guitarist Vivian Campbell: "It's so weird, man. I meet people and they're all like, 'Dude, Holy Diver, metal! And I hate metal music. It's true that in the '80s I wanted to play like [metal fret-meisters] YNGWIE MALMSTEEN and PAUL GILBERT and all those cats. But that stuff does not endure. It's really impressive for the first 20 seconds. But I can still go back and listen to [DAVID BOWIE's late guitarist] Mick Ronson and be totally blown away every time."

Vocalist Joe Elliott: "We've jokingly said I was probably wanting to do one of these (covers albums) ever since I went out and bought Bowie's Pin Ups, which was five years before I joined the band." (That landmark 1973 album was analogous to this one, with Bowie remaking the '60s tunes that most influenced him.) We've talked about it for years. I've said 'One day, we need to put the world to right. If we make a record that says where we come from, maybe people will listen a little better.' Because no matter how many times we told everybody we were getting labeled a certain way we didn't think was fitting, the next time we did interviews, they were just re-labeling us the 'new wave of British heavy metal.' Then it moved on to '80s hair metal' and all this stuff. But if you took Lemmy and Ozzy and stuck 'em in a room with Scott Ian from ANTHRAX and Steve Harris of IRON MAIDEN and said, 'Def Leppard - heavy metal" Discuss,' they'd all burst out laughing. Even if you listen to our first album (1980's On Through the Night), it was full of harmonies that were more QUEEN and BEACH BOYS than just the obligatory vocals over a riff."

(Thanks MelodicRock.com)