Page 147 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

and now they’ve gone back to tried and
trusted.” But we were just listening to what
was going on, on the radio, we’re reading
stuff, we’re picking the vibes up that
everything seems to be going back to
melody again, melody is not unfashionable
any more. But it didn’t have any balls, any
power. We figured like, we’ve got both.
And we know how to do it.
So when we came to Euphoria we just let
ourselves go in any way we wanted, we
didn’t restrict ourselves. With Slang we did,
we said we’re not gonna do the typical Def
Leppard things. But with Euphoria we didn’t
rule them out. If one came, we embraced it.
Because it had been eight years since
Adrenalize. That’s a long time to have
abandoned your main style of music.
So we embraced it.
Euphoria also saw the return of Mutt,
albeit only briefly.
We were really happy with what was going
on, and Mutt came back into the cycle.
I don’t know how or why. Just, Mutt wants
to come over. Okay, great. He wasn’t going
to produce the record. He was just out of
the studio when we were in the studio.
So he came over, and Phil had got this idea
for a song that was along the lines of
a Photograph-type thing, which was Promises.
The way that song developed from the
way that we were developing it to Mutt
coming in, it was like the old team back
together again.
What was it like working with Mutt
again in the studio?
Weird. It was a bit weird because he wasn’t
working the same way. He wasn’t hands-
on. He was more observant. He’d say:
“Stop”, and make a suggestion. It was weird
for Vivian [Campbell, Clark’s replacement],
because it was the first time Vivian had
ever worked with him, so for him it was
a learning curve. We also wrote another
song where we did kind of start from
scratch. We said let’s do something really
off the wall. That ended up being the song
All Night – all groovy noises and orgasmic
sounds. It’s fucking nuts.
And you’ve continued along that path,
with your most recent albums all
arriving as singular entities. Some
instantly recognisable material, some
Tripping the light fantastic:
Def Leppard delivering the
goods in late 2015.
more surprising. You seem It’s the perfect Def Leppard
to have found a great “Adrenalize wasn’t song. A friend of mine who
balance, especially on used to do backing vocals for
X, which was voted Classic as adventurous as David told me: “I sent David
Rock’s album of the year in your version of the song and
2002, and Songs From The Hysteria. It was more he loves it!” I’m like: “Fuck
Sparkle Lounge in 2008, and of a rock album, off!” He said it was one of the
of course Def Leppard in best versions of one of his
2015, which was a seamless, less experimental.” songs he’d ever heard. I
immersive experience – played [Leppard’s version of
pop, rock, you name it. Free’s] A Little Bit Of Love to Paul Rodgers
Deliberately so. Because that’s just where when Queen played Dublin, and he was
we were at. We’ve reached a point raving about it. I had a really great
where we don’t actually have to make conversation with [Spiders From Mars
new albums any more. We do it bassist] Trevor Boulder. I said: “You
because we want to. Our remember when you were doing The Jean
management is like, look, if you Genie?” He said: “No. We did it in an hour
want to go and record and pay for it and a half. The only thing I remember
yourselves, then fine, knock about The Jean Genie was we were
yourselves out. So we do, and we standing at the bottom of the stairs
treat it as we always have, at Wessex studios and the Faces
going in just trying to make walked past us going up the stairs.
something the best we can. That’s it” [laughs].
Except there’s no pressure
from record company You’ve got a huge summer
people to finish it. No A&R tour with Journey later this
people asking if we’ve year, followed by your
written any hits. We don’t biggest UK tour for years.
do what we’re told. We Looking forward to it?
do what we feel. We’ll I love it. Our audience is
live and die by our own amazing, especially now. We
decisions. That is the get people coming saying
ultimate satisfaction of they first saw us on the
being an artist. Pyromania tour, then got
pregnant or moved away or
Is that how Yeah! came something and had to stop, but
about? It was probably have now started coming back,
your least successful bringing their kids and their
album commercially, but teenage kids with them. “I’ve now
what fun hearing you do seen you fifty-six times, and forty of
things such as Bowie’s them have been this century.” Like,
Drive-in Saturday. wow, you know? Wild.
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