DEF LEPPARD Frontman Slams MÖTLEY CRÜE, POISON; Says Most L.A. 'Glam' Bands Had No Substance

During yesterday's (Friday, June 6) press conference at the Sweden Rock Festival in Sölvesborg, Sweden, DEF LEPPARD singer Joe Elliott was asked how his band managed to avoid getting caught up in the whole "glam-rock" scene of the '80s even after citing such image-oriented artists as MICK RONSON, DAVID BOWIE and T.REX as major influences.

"If you actually look at the way that the 'glam' bands, if you want to call it that, from Los Angeles dressed themselves up, they totally missed the point," Elliott replied. "When English glam bands from the '70s came on 'Top of the Pops' [long-running British music chart television program], it was almost an afterthought to what they were actually doing — music always came first, and then they'd be like, 'What are we gonna wear?' . . . Bowie was very image-driven, and maybe the music came second, but a lot of the other bands, it was always about the music — the image thing was just something that they did to just upstage other bands on 'Top of the Pops'; that's what they used to do. So we were never driven to do the mascara thing or whatever these bands did. They didn't have any substance musically, I don't think, in comparison to us, so we didn't feel we needed to do it. Bands that do that are doing it to cover up the fact that there is no substance in their music. The only band — and I'm not saying it because we're here — the only band that did pull it off was [Finland's] HANOI ROCKS. I thought HANOI ROCKS were a good band, and they looked… Michael Monroe [HANOI frontman] was one of the best… I would have shagged him. [Laughs] I like Michael, I think he's sexy, and I'm not gay. And I think Andy McCoy [HANOI guitarist] does the best kind of Keith Richards... so much better than MÖTLEY CRÜE or POISON or any of those bands. They were real — the rest of the guys, it was all a bit fake for me."

ANIMAL: How on earth can you possibly knock other bands wearing shorts like this? I really have to know.

And check out Phil's bulge, I think he's liking it.

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DEF LEPPARD Frontman - 'I've Just Had A Steroid Injection In My Butt"

"AIIIITICCHOOOOOW!” The sneeze ricochets off the mike stand before disappearing, damply, behind the drum riser. Roadies wince. Guitar techs flinch. The culprit - a middle-aged man with a pyramid of flammable blond hair - sniffs sheepishly. Fumbling in the pockets of his distressed denim jeans, he extracts a wad of tissues and proceeds to dab his streaming nose. “Bloody hell,” snuffles Joe Elliot, by way of apology. “That were a big 'un.”

As with the sneezing, so with the rock. When DEF LEPPARD fall ill, they do so with the brio you'd expect of a band so enamoured with the pageantry of stadium rock they used to be deposited onstage in laundry baskets. Two weeks into their world tour, the diamond-selling soft metal warhorses found themselves flattened by an upper respiratory tract infection. X-rays were undertaken. Sick notes were scribbled. Pyjamas - possibly distressed denim pyjamas with tiny diamante semi-quavers - were donned. Now, just days after they were given the all-clear, a sneeze-punctuated soundcheck at a glumly utilitarian amphitheatre on the outskirts of San Diego does not bode well for a still-poorly Joe Elliot. Does he want to get rocked? He does not. Frankly, the 48-year-old singer would rather be tucked up on the tour bus, sucking a lozenge and watching Dalziel and Pascoe (“I love Dalziel and Pascoe!”). But the die is cast: 20,000 Californians have ensured that tonight's gig is a sell-out and the show must go on.

Elliot, understandably, is concerned. “I've just had a steroid injection in my butt,” he rasps, wincing as he manoeuvres into a folding chair in the concrete garden that serves as the venue's hospitality area. “It bloody hurts, but what can you do? We can't afford to cancel. I mean, just blowing out them shows we did (six North American concerts have been rescheduled) has turned this into the most expensive cough in rock'n'roll, hurr-hurr!”

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Joe Elliott Chooses Essential Def Leppard Songs

In a new interview with Rockmusic.suite101.com singer Joe Elliott has chosen his essential DEF LEPPARD songs.

'Photograph' from Pyromania: “Because for the kind of music we make, it is the classic pop song. It’s got all the right bits to it – it’s got a good storyline, it’s got great heart behind it, great melodies, brilliant guitars and it’s all wrapped up in about three and a half minutes, which all the best songs are. We took a leaf out of the BEATLES’ and the STONES’ book and kept it short.”

'Promises' from Euphoria: “Again it’s another classic Leps song – it’s got melodies, it’s got all the arrangements and all the subtleties and dynamics. Dynamics is a word that gets used less and less these days but for us they’re very very important. We like the way that songs build then go back down a bit, crescendo back up again. It’s a very important aspect for me and something that you can’t ignore.”

'Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad' from Adrenalize: "I think that’s probably one of our better slow songs. It was from the Adrenalize album – I actually preferred it to 'Love Bites', which was a bigger hit for some reason in America and in England. That said, 'Love Bites' got to Number 1 but the other one actually sold more.”

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