DEF LEPPARD Singer: 'I Don't Think We Ever Believed We Were A Metal Band'

June 17, 2005

VH1.com recently conducted an interview with DEF LEPPARD frontman Joe Elliott. An excerpt from the interview follows:

VH1: You've had a lot of cross over success on the pop charts, do any of your metal brethren ever razz you? Have you had to defend your rock honor?

Elliott: All the time. We've had this argument many times. If you put Lemmy, Scott Ian and Dio in a room and say 'Heavy metal — DEF LEPPARD, discuss,' they'd all burst out laughing. But at the same time, you could take Pink and Christina Aguilera and say 'DEF LEPPARD — pop music' and they'd do the same thing. I don't know where we stand. I don't think we ever believed we were a metal band. I think MAIDEN were a metal band and a very good one. We're a rock band. We have exactly the same line-up as the ROLLING STONES, but we don't sound like them. They came from the blues, we came from British glam. We aim to please with three chords and a little white lie.

VH1: Be honest, "Pour Some Sugar on Me" is a pretty silly song, right?

Elliott: No. I think "Let's Get Rocked" is a silly song. I think "Pour Some Sugar on Me" is a great song. It's silly in the same way as "You Really Got Me", or "Satisfaction" or "Get Off of my Cloud" is. It's a three-minute classic rock song that gets people moving. It's not "Blowing in the Wind", but it makes an emotional contact with some people and gets their heart beating faster and that's all you can ever hope for.

VH1: Anyone ever asked you to do a reality show?

Elliott: No they haven't and I wouldn't because ... I don't like to see my stars get it wrong, break down, cry and be told what to do. That should happen in private. When FLEETWOOD MAC were making 'Rumors', I'm sure their producers told band members, "you're not singing it right!" And then they fought about it and then got it right and made it into the classic record it was. But I don't believe I need to see that happen. I don't need to see Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel, I just want to see the finished article.

Read the entire interview at VH1.com.

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