DEF LEPPARD's JOE ELLIOTT Explains Decision To Make New Album Self-Titled Affair

DEF LEPPARD singer Joe Elliott spoke to Grand Forks Herald about the band's forthcoming self-titled album, tentatively due before the end of the year. He said: "It's finished. We're just doing simple, last-minute adjustments. The first song is going to go to radio next month. It's a 14-track, 55-minute album. It's just called 'Def Leppard' because that's what it sounds like. It doesn't sounds like any one specific era of DEF LEPPARD. It's got everything. You'll listen and you go, 'Oh, that sounds like DEF LEPPARD,' or you'll go, 'That is LEPPARD, but sounds a bit like LED ZEPPELIN or QUEEN but you can hear the AC/DC or the CROSBY, STILLS & NASH coming through.' We have not shied away from anything that's influenced us in our growing up periods of our life. Just because we've made the kind of music we've made doesn't mean to say we don't like all of this other stuff."

He continued: "We made this record as an artistic statement that we'd be happy to play in 10 or 15 years in time and go, 'You know what? That is a great record. That was a great period in our career.'

"For this new album, [stars] seemed to have [aligned] for us, because we all played and sang great and wrote well. There's some great variety on there. Every single aspect of anything we've ever wanted to put out — acoustic, heavy, soft, slow, fast — it's there. That's why we call it 'Def Leppard' because, just like QUEEN were, we're capable of coming up with vastly different kinds of songs."

DEF LEPPARD guitarist Phil Collen recently told Mike Hsu of the Worcester/Boston, Massachusetts radio station WAAF about the band's upcoming CD: "It's probably the most diverse thing we've done. And I think it's the best thing we've done since 'Hysteria'; I really do. I've said that, and I've heard that come back as a quote, and I sincerely believe it. It's the loudest rock guitars we've ever had on some tracks. Some of the stuff we've done as a band in the studio — we all played along live and then added to it — and then other tracks were pure studio stuff.'

Asked about the word "experimental" being used in connection with the new DEF LEPPARD album, Collen said: "I don't think that's the right word. I think 'Hysteria' was experimental, because we were using all this new technology. This is more just expressive, is the right word. Instead of pandering to anyone — whether it be fans, a record company or whatever — we actually have just done our own thing. There was a purity to it that we haven't had before. There wasn't one time when someone said, 'Oh, I don't think it's gonna work.' Everyone tried it. And I don't know whether that's experience or what. It's certainly not age, 'cause most people, they get a little more uptight as they get older, but this is… It's the opposite; there's a more relaxed feel, and, because of that, it kind of flows. So I don't think 'experimental' is the right word. I think it's more liberating and expressive, is the way I would go with it."