JOE ELLIOTT Explains Differences Between DEF LEPPARD And GUNS N' ROSES

August 10, 2007

Jed Gottlieb of BostonHerald.com recently conducted an interview with DEF LEPPARD vocalist Joe Elliott. An excerpt from the chat follows:

BostonHerald.com: So what specifically makes you so different from GUNS N' ROSES?

Elliott: OK, I'll tell you this. For a long time THE ROLLING STONES had the tag of the most dangerous band in the world, but I've never heard of them going on at midnight. If they were due on at nine, they came on at nine. If you're going to be a dangerous band you don't have to do it like Axl [Rose] did where you piss off as many people as you pleasure. With us it's all about the pleasure. We don't have an agenda and we don't try and court the press to make us look better than we are or worse then we are. We get on with it.

BostonHerald.com: Why don't you get into all the rock star antics that made GN'R so wild?

Elliott: I think that in part it's because were British. There's a romance to a British band that is different than American bands. As dangerous as The Who were, there was still a kind of gentlemanly conduct about them. It was all champagne and cravats even with the cocaine and smashing guitars. Even with [LED] ZEPPELIN there was a mildness to their rape and pillage, as opposed to the ridiculous Hollywood version of the thing in the '80s where it was all bandanas and headbands and everybody pretending to be out of it. We were always in control with our business managers and accountants.

BostonHerald.com: Did you really feel in control when everything got really big with "Pyromania"?

Elliott: Really, the only thing we weren't in control of was how we were going to react to success. We planned in our minds to be the biggest band in the world, that's who we wanted to be. We weren't SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY AND THE ASBURY JUKES. God bless 'em, but we didn't want to be any of those guys. We didn't want to be Commander Cody or Zappa. We were always going to try to be up there with THE BEATLES and the STONES and FLOYDs and THE WHOs of this world.

Read the entire intervire at BostonHerald.com.

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