Checking In With Def Leppard’s Vivian Campbell (Interview)

It was just announced that Def Leppard and special guests Scorpions would be rocking Auckland’s Spark Arena in November, with tickets going on sale tomorrow.

The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda immediately tracked down Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell to find out what fans can expect when the two bands converge on Auckland.

Of course Campbell has a long, rich history that also includes stints playing with Dio, Whitesnake and Lou Gramm. As it turns out, Vivian is quite happy to discuss his past along with remincing about his first major gig with Leppard.

Click  here to listen to the interview with Vivian Campbell:

Or, read a transcription of the interview here:

 

MD: So you guys are heading down to New Zealand later this year along with Scorpions, but before that you have this big tour with Journey coming up in the States, is that right?

VC: We do, yeah, we start that in a few weeks, we’ll be going into rehearsals a couple weeks from now. And uh, excited about that, it’s been twelve years ago was the only other time we toured with Journey in the US. It was a huge tour you know, cause both bands have a lot of catalogue – that’s what brings people in nowadays to a show. We get a, uh, very multigenerational audience. When you put a band like Journey and Def Leppard together, that’s quite a winning combination it seems.

We’ll actually be performing the Hysteria show, which will mean we will perform the Hysteria album in sequence.

MD: I can imagine. But we’re getting Scorpions which I’m particularly thrilled about it,  I don’t think Scorpions have played in New Zealand before. So it’s a first chance for the – do you guys have any history with them, or will it be the first time for you as well?

VC: First time for me personally. I’ve never shared a bill with Scorpions – I’m a big, big fan of Matthias Jabs, the guitar player, so I’ll be looking to cob a couple of licks from him, when he’s not watching. I’ll be looking over his shoulder. It should be fun, you know, should be a good, good package.

MD: So it’s been a while since Def Leppard has been in New Zealand, and my understanding is you guys have been working on an album… over the last few months. Is that right?

VC: We have had an album out. Our most recent album came out at the very end of 2015. So it’s reasonably recent. So I guess we’ll be playing some stuff from that. But um, actually when we get to that part of the world… Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and when we go to UK right after that, we’ll actually be performing the Hysteria show, which will mean we will perform the Hysteria album in sequence. Obviously we’ll play some other songs before and/or after that. We haven’t exactly thought out the whole package yet, but it will be an Hysteria feature, as opposed to what we’re doing in America, which is more of a mixed bag of the band’s catalogue.

I never meant to leave those other bands. I mean, I was fired from Dio. That was just kind of a weird kind of a situation. But it was never my intention to leave it.

MD: Yeah, it’s what – the 30-year anniversary of Hysteria? Is that what’s happening?

VC: Something like that. Yeah, I tend not to define things in terms of decades… that can be very depressing.

VC: It’s been a while, too…

MD: I can imagine. Just touching on your own career, personally. I mean, you joined the band in… ’92ish, I think it was, after playing with Dio and Whitesnake and Lou Gramm and a bunch of people. What has it been about being with Def Leppard that’s kind of caused you to stay, where the other things were kind of… not so permanent?

VC: I never meant to leave those other bands. I mean, I was fired from Dio. That was just kind of a weird kind of a situation. But it was never my intention to leave it. Whitesnake was a little bit different, it was never really a situation where there was room for growth. Whitesnake has always been David Coverdale’s band, and if you look at Whitesnake historically through the years… I mean, I’m not exaggerating when I pick this figure: there’s been well over 50 different musicians through Whitesnake.

In fact, I remember, and this is going back four, or five, or six years, I was talking to the then-current drummer of Whitesnake, who was a little bit miffed that he had missed the number 50 position. He was #51 or #52. And that was seven years ago. So I guess we’re probably into the 60s now, of people who’ve been through the ranks of Whitesnake. So that was never going to be a situation where that was going to be a permanent home. It’s always been David’s band, and it always will be.

We went to dinner together, we went to the movies together, we went and played football on a Sunday morning.

Def Leppard is a very, very unique band, it’s totally different to any other band on the planet in so many ways. When Joe called me about joining Def Leppard back in 1991, sometime? We’d known each other socially, Joe and I, cause his main residence is in Dublin. I’m from Belfast in Ireland. And we knew each a lot of people socially and I’d see him every now and again. And Joe called me and said, “I’d like you to join Def Leppard, I think you’d be great for the band.” But we kinda had to go through a courtship. Whereas with any other band it would’ve been a straightforward audition – you go in, and you play, and you see how it goes – with Def Leppard it went on for months and months.

We played a bit of music together. But it wasn’t just about that, you know. We went to dinner together, we went to the movies together, we went and played football on a Sunday morning, I’d organized a pickup game. So you know, we just were kinda hanging out, and getting to know each other’s temperaments and personalities, because it really is very, very unique band. And the way that the band works, creatively, is very, very unique in itself, and… we had to make sure that both sides of things were going to work out. I’d been in and out of a few bands at this stage, and you know, I didn’t want to get sucked into another situation that wasn’t going to work out for me personally. And obviously they didn’t want to make a mistake in getting the wrong person into the band, so… we spent several months sort of… dancing around each other, trying to get to know each other and see whether it worked, so.

You know, it’s been 26+ years now, so I think it’s working out, dude.

MD: I was wondering if you had to – I know Joe Elliott is a big Mott the Hoople fan. I was wondering if you had to pledge your allegiance to Mott the Hoople before joining the band.

VC: Whoa, whoa! No, actually! But it turns out we do have very, very similar musical influence. We all do. We all have a very similar base – we all came of age musically in the UK, in Ireland, in the early 1970s at the advent of glam rock. So Marc Bolan in T. Rex, that was the first thing that turned me on to music. I was about 8 or 9 years old, and I just remember seeing Marc Bolan on a show called Top of the Pops every night on BBC One, and that changed my life for me, it truly was an epiphany, and I remember one of the first interviews I did with Joe as a member of Def Leppard back in 1992, the interviewer asked us that question. “What first got you started?” And I said Marc Bolan on Top of the Pops one Thursday night in 1971 or something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FXRrp4lb3o

It was probably more difficult for Rick and for Joe and Sav and Phil, because it was the first time they’d ever gone on a major stage without Steve.

And Joe was looking at me and saying, “Wow! Me too!” And it got the ball rolling for him too. But then he went on to being this huge Mott the Hoople fan, much more so than I was. I mean, I have a strong appreciation for Mott the Hoople, and Mick Ronson and … the music they produced. And Ronson was an incredible guitar player. But Joe was kind of obsessive about it to a great degree. But then again, Joe was, Joe was kind of um, he’s encyclopaedic when it comes to knowledge of music. I mean, he really, really has an incredible record collection and an incredible ability to retain memories for this kind of stuff. I mean, as a musician, I had my – I had my inspirations and then I got my head stuck into guitar, just wanting to improve my craft. With Joe, he truly is a walking encyclopaedia of all things music.

MD: I think one of the first gigs you did was with that Freddie Mercury concert with Bowie and Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson. That must have been a mind-blower.

VC: Yeah, it was! It was actually my second show. We did a little sneaky warm-up club show in Dublin about two or three days before that. But yeah, that was the official “Here’s the new guy in Def Leppard” show. And yeah! It was a big, big show. I mean, it was Wembley Stadium, and all these huge name acts on the bill. I mean, Elton was there, Guns ‘N’ Roses was there, as you mentioned, Bowie, and George Michael and the rest of the guys from Queen, and … it was an incredible day, and it was being broadcast live around the world on television.

You know, and it was quite a nerve-wracking day for all of us. But I gotta say, we got through it, and I think it’s probably… as difficult as it was for me, it was probably more difficult for Rick and for Joe and Sav and Phil, because it was the first time they’d ever gone on a major stage without Steve. So I was very, very aware of that during the show. And I’ve always tried to remain so, even in the 26 years since. You know, I’m up there on stage, and the majority of music I’m playing was written by Steve. So I always try and… not overstep that boundary, you know. I’ve got to kind of be myself, but at the same time I’ve also gotta be respectful of his legacy, and of the music that he helped create, you know.

MD: Gotcha. Alrighty, sounds like our time is up, but thank you for talking to me, and uh – I’m looking forward to this show coming here, I think it’s in November. It’s going to be a rockin’ good time. So, well, see you then.

VC: Pleasure, Marty. Yeah, yeah, I love Auckland. It’s like going back to Ireland, except on the other side of the world.

Tickets for Def Leppard and Scorpions go on sale tomorrow (May 4) at 1pm