Page 57 - Classic Rock (January 2020)

It brings back a lot of memories. What happened
in eighty-six was something we’ll never forget,
a big moment for Rick and for the whole band. “We felt on top of the world
And it was a great show this year, even though last year. In some ways this
it was cold and wet. That’s three times now that
we’ve headlined Download, and it’s been manky year has been just as great,
on two of them and beautiful on one. Oh well, it’s
England, it’s going to rain, that’s what it does here. if not better.”
But I loved it, and the crowd was great. It felt like
they were really there for us. They call it Sin City. How did you find it?
Vegas is a mad, mad town, and it’s totally rock’n’roll
Later in the summer, Leppard returned to Las these days. It’s not the elephants’ graveyard that it
Vegas for another residency – a twelve-night stand was in the fifties and sixties. We had Aerosmith
at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & playing next door, and we had all sorts of people
Casino. Nice work if you can get it. coming through. Jackson Browne came to see
Talk about the cherry on top of the cake. We us. Criss Angel, the magician, came to see us
put on the biggest production we’ve ever twice. And on our days off we saw other
done, with five gigantic screens, and shows. I saw Criss Angel’s show, and Phil
the stage itself was almost the size of went to see Cher, because she had Joel
a football pitch. It was just bonkers. Hoekstra from Whitesnake playing guitar
We had a format, of course. We did for her. It was fun on stage and off.
a forty-minute blitz, then a twenty-
five minute sit-down acoustic bit, Leppard have a famous fan in Taylor
and then we did another blitz. But Swift, and you found another this year
we had a lot of fun changing up the in Miley Cyrus.
set every night. We met her at this huge festival
in Vegas, a few weeks after our
And you opened those shows with residency. It was a proper mix of all
a classic deep cut from Pyromania. types of music – us, Miley, Green
Well, when Phil [Collen, guitarist] Day, Chance the rapper, Heart. We
suggested that we open with Die played for twenty-five minutes, and
Hard The Hunter. I looked at him here’s commitment for you: Rick
like he had three snake heads, Savage [Leppard bassist] had gone
and went: “Are you fucking home to Sheffield after the residency,
nuts?” But then the more we did but he got in his car, drove down
it, I went: “Wow, this is genius. to Heathrow, flew ten hours, got to
Good idea, son!” the gig, did five songs, and then went
straight back home. I, on the other hand,
How does a residency compare stayed local. It was fun to hang out with
to a regular tour? different people, whether it was rockers
In one respect it’s easier. When or rappers or whatever, and when we
you do one load-in and one met Miley she told us she’s a huge Leppard
load-out and you’re there for fan. At that festival she sang Black Dog and
twenty-odd days, all your Comfortably Numb. This is the same woman
energy goes into the show, that did Nothing Else Matters and [Nine Inch
because you ain’t travelling. Nails’] Head Like A Hole at Glastonbury. She’s
You’re just getting into a car upped her rock game somewhat!
and driving back to your hotel,
or in some cases just getting in And after the final Leppard shows of the year – in
an elevator and going upstairs, Tennessee in October, headlining the Exit 111
because some of the guys stayed festival with Guns N’ Roses and Lynyrd Skynyrd,
in the hotel above the place where and in Sacramento in November – you celebrated
we played. By the end of the Vegas the release of the new album from your other band,
run, the last two nights, which we filmed, the Down ‘N’ Outz. How would you describe it?
we were playing twenty-four, twenty- It definitely doesn’t sound like Def Leppard, but it
five songs a night and playing for nearly does sound like me. You know how Ozzy’s Blizzard
two and a half hours. You really needed Of Ozz didn’t sound like Sabbath but it was still
stamina for that. But with the crowds that full-on rock? A fan would be able to distinguish
we had and the way we paced it out, it was between Sabbath and Ozzy’s solo stuff quite
a fantastic thing to do. easily, even though they’re quite close. Well, this
is very different, but it’s still rock. It’s more Elton
Is that the kind of thing that could only John, Queen, Bowie, a bit of Sparks, a bit of Leon
happen in Vegas? Russell. The songs are good, and Paul Guerin’s
Totally. Vegas is Vegas. I wish we could guitar playing is just brilliant. I said: “Be my Mick
do that kind of residency in other Ronson.” He said: “You don’t have to ask!”
places, but there is no equivalent in the
UK. You can’t do it in Blackpool or at So in Joe Elliott’s head it’s still the seventies?
Batley Variety Club. But we had maybe Put it this way: if you hear anything on this
a couple of hundred fans that came over album that sounds like it came after 1975, I’d
from the UK to see us in Vegas. be very, very disappointed.