via Cleveland Scene
Earlier this month, Def Leppard returned with “Just Like 73,” a rocking new single featuring Rage Against the Machine/Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello. For Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell, the song represents several different rock eras.
“The song was left over from our last studio album,” he says via phone from his New Hampshire home. Def Leppard performs with Journey and Cheap Trick on July 30 at Progressive Field. “The song just wasn’t completed in time to make that record. We finished it over the past several months. It’s an homage to our youth and the era in which we came of age musically. It was the early 1970s and the birth of glam rock. There are many hues in ‘1973’ that throw back to that era. The drum sound is reminiscent of that, and the vocal chant and the nonsensical lyrics are too. It’s quite the contrast in style. Def Leppard is essentially from the 1980s, and Tom Morello is from a different generation, and we’re playing a song reminiscent of the 1970s. We’re casting a wide net.”
The band’s most recent album, 2022’s Diamond Star Halos, also casts a wide musical “net.” It finds the band exploring its softer side and even venturing into Americana territory via collaborations with singer-songwriter Alison Krauss.
“That was a COVID record,” says Campbell when asked about the release. “We were supposed to do our stadium tour with Mötley Crüe, but it was postponed. Rather than sit on our asses and do nothing, we decided to make a record. [Singer] Joe [Elliott] started the ball rolling. I make a joke at Joe’s expense here, but I mean it well. I call him Elton Joe.”
Elliott wrote all the songs on piano. While they weren’t typical Def Leppard songs, but the group agreed to record them anyway.
“I thought [the music] was very different sounding,” says Campbell. “Maybe 10 or 15 years ago, we would have told him to save them for his solo album. At this stage in our career, we are very comfortable with acknowledging the fact that we all bring different writing styles to Def Leppard, and it’s fine to make a record that doesn’t fit a norm that might be expected. I would say in the future moving forward, that would be our MO for making albums. Anything goes. Whatever happens to be a good song whether it comes from an individual or the group, it won’t be dismissed because it doesn’t fit the perceived genre.”
Campbell says the band took a similarly experimental attitude into the studio when it recorded Pyromania in 1984 with producer Mutt Lange. It would become one of the top-selling rock albums of all time. To mark the 40th anniversary of that album, the group has released a deluxe expanded edition and a full music and merchandise collection.
“I remember it being a groundbreaking album,” says Campbell, who was not yet in the band when it cut the release. “A matter of fact, in 1983, Phil Lynott, who was the band leader of Thin Lizzy, was talking to me and was very seriously considering breaking up Thin Lizzy because of Pyromania. I pleaded him not to. I was a huge Thin Lizzy fan and they were They were a huge influence. It would be totally ironic if he would break them up because of Def Leppard. [Pyromania] was groundbreaking, and it’s important for us 40 years later to celebrate that record. It definitely moved the goalposts for the entire genre.”
Because Pyromania is now 40, Campbell says the group will play deep cuts from it on the current tour.
“When you play a stadium, you are beholden to the hits,” he says. “At the same time, we’ll balance that by going deep on Pyromania with a few album cuts we wouldn’t normally play. We’ll play the new single too.”
And Campbell says Def Leppard is happy to share co-headlining duties with Journey (each group will play a 90-minute set). Like Journey, Def Leppard was inducted into the Rock Hall long after it was eligible.
“I think our induction was mostly fan-driven,” says Campbell. “The fans were incensed and petitioned for it. Going back again to before my 32-year tenure with the band, I was always a fan. I bought High ‘N’ Dry and All Through the Night. I even bought the first singles. I was a genuine Def Leppard fan, and that’s what made it even more joyous for me to become a member of this band 32 years ago.”
Campbell says it incensed him as a fan in 1987 that when Def Leppard released Hysteria, which he says was “on another level,” it didn’t win a Grammy even though the album had yielded seven Top 10 hits. In fact, the band didn’t even get nominated.
“It was mind boggling to me,” he says. “I think there is this expectancy that the industry will not recognize Def Leppard for what it has contributed. When the news came [about the Rock Hall induction], it was really nice, but it wasn’t something that had we had sleepless nights and anxiety about. I think the real reward for the band is that we’re doing this at this point in our lives, and the fanbase is growing, and the music has become multi-generational. That’s the only validation we only need. We can still go out and play stadiums, and I’ll take that any day of the week.”
