Print - Interview - Vivian - Saskatoon Star Phoenix - 11July2019

[CindyJ]

Def Leppard's Vivian Campbell talks new music, band longevity ahead of concert
2019 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Def Leppard will be coming to Saskatoon on July 27, 2019 as part of their international tour.
MATT OLSON

One of the world’s biggest rock/metal bands of all time is bringing the Hysteria (and much, much more) back to Canada.

Def Leppard, fresh off touring across Europe, are making their way across the Atlantic for 11 shows in cities from coast to coast. Formed in the late ’70s, the band rose to prominence in the ’80s with their Pyromania and Hysteria albums (featuring hits like Pour Some Sugar on Me, Animal, and Photograph) and continues performing more than 40 years later.

Guitarist Vivian Campbell joined the band in the early ’90s and has been part of the group ever since. He spoke about the band and the Canadian leg of the tour ahead of their arrival.

Q: It’s been a few years since you guys have done the cross-Canada tour. What’s changed in the past few years?

A: All of us, we just continue to nuance our performance. It’s one of the great things about being a musician — there’s no term limit on it. You can get better as you get older. If you’re an athlete, you inevitably reach a point in your career where your performance starts to decline. As a musician, we just keep nuancing the performance and keep getting better and better … I’ve been very fortunate in my career, being the “new guy” in Def Leppard … I’ve played with a lot of bands, a lot of great musicians. But Def Leppard is a very unique band. The work ethic, the focus, and the ambition is unmatched. And I think we’re very buoyed by the (2019) Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (induction).

Q: Def Leppard is essentially a household name in music. Do you feel any pressure with that, or does that buoy you too?

A: No pressure at all. Far from it. We absolutely love it. We have a very serious focus on what we do, individually and collectively, and we always try to make the show bigger and better year after year. Like I said, there’s great ambition in Def Leppard. When I first joined Leppard all those years ago, (lead singer) Joe (Elliot) was the only guy that I’d known. Joe sat me down and kind of explained to me, or tried to explain to me, what Def Leppard was all about … Joe didn’t just want to make great records or have great shows. He wants Def Leppard to be one of the biggest rock bands in the world. And we still have that hunger and that ambition and that attitude.

Q: There’s a rumour that there’s some new music on the horizon from you guys, maybe coming out next year. How much truth is there to those rumours?

A: The one thing I can’t say is when it’s coming out. We’re certainly working on new music, and it’ll certainly be next year we’ll be working on it 100 per cent, but I don’t know when it’ll be complete. With Def Leppard, that’s always a dangerous prediction.

Q: So it’s in the books, but no due date from the teachers yet?

A: Yeah! There’s some new songs being kicked around. I don’t know when it is we’ll actually get around to getting the five of us in the same place to record it — I assume that would be sometime early next year — and I don’t know what it’s going to be, if we’re just going to aim for doing a couple of songs or a full album … there’s always something on the go. Everyone in the band is a writer, everyone has ideas going, it’s just a question of when we collectively focus on trying to make that commitment to get together to make a record, and that’ll definitely be sometime next year.

Q: How do you, in concerts, balance everybody wanting your old classics with the new stuff you’ve done?

A: We always try to play something, if possible, that’s more recent, even though we realize that for the majority of people that may represent a low in the show … but there’s not one song in a Def Leppard show that isn’t presented in a way that’s very exciting … everything about Def Leppard’s music is big. There’s a lot of bombast to any Def Leppard song, and we try and match that.

Q: Still touring, still hoping to make new music, still lots of things on the go — do you see the end for this band?

A: No, I don’t see the end at all … everyone gets old, and age inevitably slows you down. So yeah, we’ll probably work at a pace that’s less frenetic than it used to be 20 or 30 years ago, but we’ll still try and be legitimate in what we do. And the day we don’t feel it’s legit then we’ll throw the towel in, but we’ve no intention of doing that any time soon.

Def Leppard plays at SaskTel Centre on July 27.

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