Page 148 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

Heavy Load

Heavy questions for heavy rockers

Joe Elliott on school, the north and Topshop togs.

Interview: Polly Glass

heer determination, willpower, enthusiasm and the women’s anybody could have done. And I think that’s the beauty of Def Leppard:
section at Topshop circa 1977 – these are the ingredients that everybody in this band is very capable, but I wouldn’t say we’re the best
made Joe Elliott the man he is today. Born in Sheffield in 1959, musicians on the planet. But as a team, it’s a pretty unbeatable machine.
he’s spent his entire adult life fronting Def Leppard. Most recently
he’s invested in his long-held affection for Mott The Hoople with What advice will you give your son as he grows up?
his covers band Down ’N’ Outz. He’s also saved every item of Def Do whatever you want to do. My parents came from a suit-and-tie background,
Leppard history, sworn off the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame as but when Bowie and T.Rex came along, they encouraged me to get involved.
S “faceless cretins” and become a dad. My mum bought a guitar and taught herself to play Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.
I’d sit and watch her fingers and just be enthralled, and got her to teach me to
What were you like at school? play. Dad said: “Learn to play guitar and you
Not a swot! I was off with the fairies all the Joe Elliott: owner of can have your own one.” You had to work for
time. It’ll probably sound arrogant, but even the world’s most this stuff. I did four paper rounds so I could
as a twelve/thirteen/fourteen-year-old kid, rock’n’roll shed. afford to buy an album every week, and
I knew I could read, write and add up, and I spent all my dinner money on records.
I figured that’s mostly all you need in life to
get by. The only class I dug at school was Leppard have toured with Kiss in the
art. When everyone else was drawing bowls past. Have you ever felt the urge to layer
of fruit, I was drawing band posters, and on the slap as much as they do?
I started making names up – that’s where the Oh yeah. Well, not as much as Kiss. When
name Def Leppard originally came from. you started out as a kid in 1977/’78 in
Sheffield, there was Burton and Topshop.
Is it really grim up north? And Topshop didn’t really sell much boys’
At times of the year it’s grim everywhere. I’ve stuff. You see our first appearance on Top
been in California and it’s grim up north. You Of The Pops, and I think I’m wearing blue
go to Seattle and it rains nine months a year – spandex and a red-and-white shirt from
it looks like Scunthorpe. the women’s section at Topshop. We grew
up with people like Bowie, Marc Bolan,
You’ve said before that you’re the Def [clown-faced Sensational Alex Harvey Band
Leppard ‘archiver’. What’s the best guitarist] Zal Cleminson… Those were the
souvenir you’ve acquired over the years? guys that fascinated us because they took it
I’ve got laminates and backstage passes from to the next extreme. We were a bit shy to do
every tour. I’ve got itineraries. I’ve got the that – and a bit too northern, maybe.
diary I used to keep back in ’78. I’ve had all
my old press bound, and it’s come up with What’s the best drug you’ve ever taken?
me from the first contract we signed, to the I did an E once with Ricky Warwick [Black
bill for the first album, and the breakdown Star Riders]. I’d never done it. We were
of how much we spent – including replacing stood on a dancefloor in Dublin, waiting for
the kettle which we broke because we used PRESS it to kick in, and what seemed like twenty
it as a cowbell on It Don’t Matter. minutes later I said: “I don’t feel anything…
she’s good-looking, beautiful women here…
Where do you keep it all? still don’t feel anything though. What time
In my shed. A man has to have a shed. My “I am highly opinionated, is it?” “Five-thirty in the morning.” We took
shed’s not full of spades and plant pots, it at, like, 9.30pm! Eight hours in the same
it’s full of Marshall amps, old drum kits, and a lot of people take place, just looking at these girls, going:
synthesizers, posters and all that kind of stuff. “Ooh she’s good-looking, isn’t she?” So
it the wrong way.”
It’s the most rock’n’roll shed in the world. that was fun.

What’s the biggest misconception people Do you believe in God?
have about you? I believe in a higher power. I don’t believe in the white-bearded man on a cloud,
Well, I am highly opinionated, and a lot of people take it the wrong way because wearing sandals. I think there’s a higher power, and everybody’s entitled to
sometimes in print the humour doesn’t come across. So people think I’m reach that in any way, shape or form they want; a human form if you like, or
slagging someone off when I’m messing with them, really. It’s just a deflective it can be a gassy entity that’s invisible, or not… Just a presence. But the whole
humour trait of mine, I suppose. And because I care so much about what I do, Bible thing I just find a bit weird.
people think I’m very defensive. And I’m not. I just stand up for us.
What will your last words be?
What can Joe Elliott do that nobody else can? “Did we finish the album?!” But no, I’d want to make sure my family are safe and
Fuck up on a regular basis and get away with it? Nothing. Whatever I’ve done, well looked after, and that whatever’s there doesn’t get taken by the tax man.

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