DEF LEPPARD Frontman Discusses Feud With Web Site Over 'Covers' CD Review

DEF LEPPARD frontman Joe Elliott recently gave an interview to JamesonChronocles regarding his recent "war of words" with MelodicRock.com webmaster Andrew McNeice over McNeice's early review of the band's upcoming "covers" album — a review that Elliott claims was based on an "unfinished," "work-in-progress copy." A couple of excerpts from the interview follow:

JamesonChronocles: I want to ask you about the covers album coming out. I have been reading comments on what fans think of this and I've heard from both sides of the coin. Some love the idea and some hate the idea and would like to hear an album of new material from you guys. Any comments on that, Joe?"

Joe Elliott: "Well, Sarah, we've been working on some new stuff but it's hard to say when things will happen being we're getting ready for a new tour and being busy in our personal lives. We'd love to do an album of new material and hopefully it will happen but as I told you, in the e-mail, I don't like to give out information because things change all the time and I don't want to promise something and can't deliver. A covers album is something I've wanted to do for a long time and I finally get to live out my dreams and sing songs from my childhood idols."

JamesonChronocles: You accused [McNiece] in your letter of stealing the CD and said some pretty harsh things like "He/she or it has luckily stumbled across a work in progress copy on someone's desk. Someone who admittedly should know better than to leave a copy lying in view of such a low life and you go on to say that they have no ears and any idiot hearing it would know it's not finished yet. Then say, "Please give it back to whomever you stole it from" and you go on to call him a nasty name. Do you think Andrew stole it, whether directly or indirectly, Joe?

Joe Elliott: "I was very upset when I wrote that letter, I admit that but to answer your question, Sarah, I'd have to say yes he did indirectly because I know someone within the organization sent him the CD and to take that and print up a review is guilty by association. I don't care if he didn't walk in and take it off a desk, he still got it under false pretense and used it to his advantage."

JamesonChronocles: Joe, do you feel this could alienate some of your fans by the way you handled things when you wrote that letter?

Joe Elliott: "I've heard some of the responses on the forum and I know I haven't exactly won over everyone but I'm sure that they can understand where I might be coming from. I tend to fly off the handle at times but I'm very firm about not giving out information on albums we're working on until it's confirmed. I hope the fans won't stop supporting us because of this ridiculous thing going on between the music critic and I but I won't hold any grudges if they decide not to."

Read the entire interview at this location.