Page 120 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

VIVIAN CAMPBELL

because he just would not listen to
I SAW MARC BOLAN ON TV
anything the rest of us came up with. It
was as simple as that. So, I realised I was

being marginalised, and when you add in WHEN I WAS ABOUT NINE AND I
the female factor and also Adrian’s
insistence Whitesnake should only have HAD AN EPIPHANY. I KNEW RIGHT
the one guitarist… well, I knew my time

was running out. What I objected to was THEN THAT I WANTED TO BE
the way it all went down.
A MUSICIAN.
Why, what happened?
He got his tour manager, Jimmy Eyers, to

sit down and tell me that I was out of the
band. That was annoying. I felt that if
David wanted to fire me then he should
have had the balls to do it himself. He

should have been man enough to face up
to me and explain himself what he wanted
to do. Getting someone else to do was
cowardly, and I was bitter about if for a
long time. Not that I was being fired, as

the way in which he chose to do it.
But I did run into him a long time
afterwards, and had the chance to tell him
how I felt about the way in which he got

rid of me. To be fair to him, he listened to
what I had to say, and getting it all off my
chest made me feel a lot better. As I said
earlier, I really do like David. The only
objection I had was that he couldn’t do

something like that himself. He hid
behind another person. I’ve always
thought that if you make a decision like
that, it’s up to you to tell the person
yourself. Don’t delegate it to someone

who works for you.

You had a period of uncertainty after
Whitesnake, didn’t you?
I was involved with Riverdogs and

Shadow King, but neither for very long.

Riverdogs were first, right? So what

happened there?
Originally I was asked to produce a demo
for the band. Which I was happy to do.
But they then asked me to put some guitar Say cheese! There were a lot of expectations for heavy blues album. But that’s not what
Def Leppard and
parts on it. However, as they already had Shadow King, because it not only happened. We recorded the album at
a roomful of their
their own guitarist, I said no. Then they fans smile for the involved you but also Lou Gramm. What Goodnight LA Studios in Los Angeles,
camera during
decided to get rid of the guy, because the went wrong? which was owned by Keith Olsen, who
the Seven Day
rest of them felt he wasn’t good enough. Weekend tour. In a word, cocaine, I had worked with Lou produced it for us. Lou based himself at
And when they asked me if I’d join the on his second solo album [Long Hard the Holiday Inn, which was next door to
band I was happy to do so, as I thought Look, released in 1989] and we found a the studio. However, he would spend four

they were a very promising band. We had mutual love for Free at that time. He or five days at a time just locked in his
a deal with Epic, and released one album would talk about Paul Rodgers, while I room with a huge bag of cocaine,
[self-titled] in 1990. But things didn’t work was enthralled by Paul Kossoff. So, when indulging. He refused to come out, and
out, as the album never sold as well as had the idea came up for doing Shadow King, wouldn’t show up at the studio at all. Lou
been hoped. both of us agreed it really should be a was so into the drug that it dominated his

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