DEF LEPPARD's JOE ELLIOTT Says His Vocal Issues Weren't Caused By Singing

DEF LEPPARD singer Joe Elliott was interviewed earlier today (Tuesday, April 5) by Johnny Garbutt of the Q107 radio station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. You can now listen to the chat using the SoundCloud widget below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET.

On DEF LEPPARD's latest, self-titled album:

Elliott: "[There are] fourteen tracks [on it], two of which have already been heavily exposed to radio, 'Let's Go' and 'Dangerous'. There's some great stuff on there, though; there's buried treasures on that record that will hopefully see the light of day down the road, you know. But it's a record we're really proud of, because it's different. The two songs I just mentioned are classic DEF LEPPARD — absolutely the second you hear 'em, you go, 'That's DEF LEPPARD.' And that's exactly why we did them. But there are other songs that go a lot deeper in different directions on the album but still tie in. So you know, for us it was a joy to do. It mostly came out of the fact that we didn't really know we were making an album when we made it. So, as daft as that sounds, we were only gonna do a three-track EP, but we kept writing and writing. And then when we thought, 'Well, which three do we pick?' You know, it was just kind of brought up, 'Well, why do we have to pick three? Why don't we put them all out?' And then we'd accidentally made an album. So we didn't have that pressure of A&R men or worrying about what direction we were going in. It just kind of came out naturally, which is the best way to do an album."

On his vocal issues that caused the postponement of a number of shows in February:

Elliott: "As far as I'm aware, it's fine. You know, I got a really bad cough over Christmas and New Year, and that's what did the damage. It wasn't singing. It was just an injury. It was like a footballer getting kicked very hard on the shin and not being able to play for a few weeks or a couple of months or whatever. It was nothing to do with his ability to play; it was just an injury that he picked up. And it was the same thing with me. I just got a really, really bad cough, couldn't clear it up, and I was warned, having seen a couple of throat doctors, that I needed to take four to six weeks off. So it's about now that I start giving it a shout again. But other than that, everything else is fine, you know. It's just… It just needed a rest."

"Def Leppard" entered The Billboard 200 chart at position No. 10 with first-week sales of just over 30,000 units — nearly all from pure album sales.

The album is the band's first studio effort since "Songs From the Sparkle Lounge" in 2008.