Postcrescent.com recently conducted an interview with DEF LEPPARD guitarist Vivian Campbell.Excerpts from the interview can be found below:

Postcrescent.com: You’ve played in DIO, WHITESNAKE and many other bands. What’s different about playing with Def Leppard?

Vivian Campbell: “There’s a lot of things that are different about it. Primarily, Def Leppard really is a band. It’s five guys and we’re not a revolving door of musicians, which those other bands are. Whitesnake especially — I mean, has anyone actually counted how many musicians have been through Whitesnake? (laughs) I know it’s over 50. It’s ridiculous, and even Dio, like after I left Dio, there were several other guitar players, a couple other drummers, quite a few bass players (and) a couple of keyboard players. Def Leppard, if Steve Clark were alive, he’d still be in the band today. Def Leppard is not the kind of band that just goes out and swaps members. … It also has a much higher standard than other bands I’ve been involved with. When it comes to song writing, good isn’t good enough, it has to be great. The band is notoriously meticulous in the studio, and even going to our live performance, we take what we do very, very seriously, so there’s a very high standard of work that goes into the band. We show up sober and on time and do our job.”

Postcrescent.com: You’re still playing huge venues with Def Leppard. How are playing shows in 2011 different than the early ’90s when you joined?

Vivian Campbell: “When we were touring before, we were touring to promote a new record. That’s certainly not really the case nowadays. It’s kind of more of an event. Our show has grown production wise; it’s come full circle again. My first tour with the band was for Adrenalize and that was a huge production — just a massive stage and lasers and all sorts of bells and whistles. Then in the ’90s, in the grunge era, that kind of stuff wasn’t in vogue, shall we say (laughs). We just went out with a backline and kind of put our heads down and played rock and roll. It was a different kind of a thing and then by the very late ’90s, we started to say, I think it’s OK to actually go back to being Def Leppard again and put some production value back into the show. So the show has grown and grown, and fortunately our music really lends itself to that … I wouldn’t say we’re a theatrical band — that kind of thing reminds me of MÖTLEY CRÜE — but we are very much about the production.”

Read the entire interview here.

As previously reported, Def Leppard will be returning to Japan this November for two shows in Osaka and Tokyo. Tickets go on sale July 16th. For all show details click here.

Dates include:

November

5 - Grand Cube Osaka - Nakanoshima, Kita-ku, Osaka
7 - Tokyo International Forum - Marunouchi Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Def Leppard's official YouTube page recently posted professionally-shot footage of the band performing their classic 'Animal' during rehearsals for the Summer 2011 Mirror Ball Tour in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Check out the clip below:

Def Leppard's Mirror Ball (Live & More) - a behind-the-scenes one hour radio special - is currently airing and streaming on over 100-plus radio stations in the US. This special radio program includes band interviews, details about the making of the band's first ever live album, plus new songs taken from Mirror Ball. Stream the entire three-part special here.

Mirror Ball (Live & More), landed at #16 on the Billboard 200, selling approximately 20,000 copies in the US in it's first week of release.

Mirror Ball is available exclusively at Walmart and Sam's Club locations in the United States and Canada. The triple disc package features two CDs and a 50 minute DVD containing live performances and intimate backstage footage of the band captured on the road. The album also brings together three brand new studio tracks - 'Undefeated', 'Kings Of The World' and 'It's All About Believin'.

Mirror Ball tracklisting:

Disc 1:

'Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)'

'Rocket'

'Animal'

'C'Mon C'Mon'

'Make Love Like A Man'

'Too Late For Love'

'Foolin''

'Nine Lives'

'Love Bites'

'Rock On'

Disc 2: (DVD)

'Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)'

'Armageddon It'

'Pour Some Sugar On Me'

'Hysteria'

'Nine Lives' (music video)

'C'Mon C'Mon' (music video)

Disc 3:

'Two Steps Behind'

'Bringin' On The Heartbreak'

'Switch 625'

'Hysteria'

'Armageddon It'

'Photograph'

'Pour Some Sugar On Me'

'Rock Of Ages'

'Let's Get Rocked'

'Action'

'Bad Actress'

'Undefeated'

'Kings Of The World'

'It's All About Believin'