Def Leppard Phil Collen Interview

[styxfanNH]

http://www.ugo.com/ugo/html/article/?id ... ctionId=54

Def Leppard Phil Collen Interview
By Tod Emko

Def Leppard recently released a track pack for Guitar Hero III, which included an exclusive new song, along with two of their hits, "Photograph" and "Rock of Ages." So, in honor of their new foray into the video gaming world, we had a chat with Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen, who spoke about getting their music into the game, their new inspirations and what the heck Mutt Lange is up to.

UGO: You released your latest single via Guitar Hero III. How'd that come about?

PHIL COLLEN: I think absolutely any kind of medium is great. I mean, when we released Hysteria, it had like 60 minutes of music. And I distinctly remember Mutt Lange was going, "Let's just put 60 minutes on it and not worry about it." And everybody's going, "Oh, but the quality is going to suffer! And CD's - sorry, cassettes - and records are not going to handle it. And CD is a new thing, we're not sure if it's going to take off." And we went with it, and he said, "Oh, it's definitely going to be the format for at least the next 10 years or so." And he was absolutely right. And I see it as something like that, really, you look at where it's going, you look at record stores, clothing, you can't even give away CD's at the moment. And it's just the way it is. It's nothing tragic, or "Oh my God, the industry's in the toilet!" People are more into music now I think than they've ever been. It's just that there's a different way of getting it. So this is fantastic. It's a cool, great way of doing it. I think it's perfect.

UGO: So how'd it get to Guitar Hero?

PHIL: It came to us. I have a friend who works at Guitar Hero and we're obviously very aware of how popular it was. I have an 18-year-old son. Yeah, it's like, Jesus, people are going nuts. And even just last Christmas as well. I have a 7-year-old stepson as well, and he's at all these parties around Christmas, and everyone's playing it. It's like, huge. And he's running around singing "Slow Ride" by Foghat. And well hang on a minute, I said to him, "Well where'd you hear that?!" He said, "Slow ride, take it easy! Guitar Hero." So it's a fantastic way to get any kind of guitar music or whatever to a new generation. They really like it. They haven't got the things that we have, you know, we know that Foghat is a '70s band, and they were out of England and whatever. But to someone just hearing that, you know, it's just a really cool song. They have no pre-idea of what the band's gonna be like. It's like, it's a good song or it's not. That's really cool, really.

I have a friend who works at Guitar Hero, and I know a lot of guys who are really big fans of Def Leppard as well. And we were all bummed that we weren't part of the earlier ones. I mean, Guitar Hero, you have Guitar Band, so it was mainly a clearance thing. So we weren't the only ones. We were actually chomping at the bit. So we just had to sort out the legal stuff.

UGO: And tell us about the music itself. You kind of have a country feel now.

PHIL: On the song "Nine Lives" definitely. I mean I came up with this kind of blues riff a few years ago, and Tim McGraw had mentioned he'd like to do something with this. Tim said we've gotta do something one day, so I had this beat kicking around, and it was kind of bluesy. And I said, "Well we should stretch that to country. That's about as far country as we can kind of go without sounding contrived." He came to see us at the Hollywood bowl, which I'm sitting in the parking lot right now, funny enough. And I said, I've got this idea that we talked about, what do you think? I was strumming the idea. He said, "This is great! We should have a stop here, and da-da-da-da-da, and we put it together that quick. So it wasn't like, one of those, forced cheesy duet things. It was all out of inspiration and excitement, so it was kind of the real deal. So, we started it while we were on tour. We had this backstage thing we called the Sparkle Lounge, with a little amplifier and a little Pro Tools rig. And we actually started it, and there's actually a lot of it backstage, and it kind of gives the album a flavor. The fact that we were touring, and singing every night, you're playing guitar, a little more aggressively than if you had six months off and you're sitting at home. So the mode was right, it was like, we're a live rock band, we're recording live, and it just worked I think.

UGO: Is there anybody present or past tense that you would've loved to work with?

PHIL COLLEN: Well, I'm fascinated by the whole Jimmy Hendrix thing. Pioneering, and just the whole thing. It would've been great to have been around, in the late '60s and actually been in the studio with him, because that must've been absolutely mind blowing. I mean, listening to it now, you go, yeah, we just accept it for what it is, whatever, but at the time, it must've been completely freaking people out. The whole guitar playing thing. I was a Hendrix fan. I was more of a Stones guy than a Beetles guy as well. It's got a bit more raw, and a bit more rock and roll to it, and that was my thing. But yeah, Jimi Hendrix would've been great. Stevie Wonder, in the early-- the mid-70s I guess. Truly one of the greats around.

UGO: How've things changed since you became elder statesmen?

PHIL: It's really a lot different. I think the last three or four years, we've been touring every year, which we never used to do. We'd never tour without a product out. Now, in a sense, everything's changed, the industry has changed. All the record stores are closed, so again, like with Guitar Hero, mediums of just getting it out there, touring is great if you're a successful band. And I think our integrity's intact because we never split up. We never went away and reformed and all that stuff, we kept our credibility even when people were giving us the finger and thought we were really crap and uncool like in the '90s. We stuck through it and that's given us huge brownie points. I think we've come out the other side with a certain amount of integrity. And obviously with the whole retro thing, everyone wearing Zeppelin t-shirts, everything, that's really helped, and the fact that we do have a catalog of great songs. What we've been waiting for, for probably the last 15 years, is a legitimate hit. We've had radio hits, and we've had classic rock things, but right now, it feels good, I gotta say. Especially in England, where they really thought we sucked for a long time, we're getting press that we never dreamed of getting. And it's for no reason, it's not like this album is so much different than anything we've ever done, it's just that the timing is right I think. Rock band, great live band, got tons of hit songs, and we've got a current album out now, and a song that's out. That speaks volumes I think, it's just a matter of getting all these things to line up really.

UGO: Are there bands that you'd love to hit the road with?

PHIL: Yeah, funny enough, we just did two tours with Styx. And back in the day, we'd have said, "In a million years, you couldn't have put us with, say, Styx." We've done a Journey tour; it was HUGE. I mean, the first show we did, there were 25,000 people. I mean, they couldn't get anymore people in there. That went so well, that the Styx thing came up, and they were THE nicest band that we've ever worked with. And they're just gentlemen, I can't say enough good things about them, they're brilliant. So we had a great time, and then we toured with them again. And it worked; whether or not people liked Styx, they'd go to the show and they'd leave, and they'd go, "Wow, those guys are GREAT!" And again, they don't do "Babe," they don't do "Mr. Roboto," they do all the other stuff they wrote that's cool. So whenever you go on tour, there's a list of bands available for touring, and we're getting names thrown out there for summer, and you'd love a really young, hip, trendy band, but a lot of the times it just doesn't work out that way, and sometimes even that pairing doesn't work. Wasn't our experience with Styx and Journey, and to a lesser extent Foreigner last year, and REO Speedwagon, we love those guys as well. So that worked, so who knows.
UGO: So are you guys in touch with Mutt Lange?

PHIL: Yeah, he lives in Switzerland and New Zealand, and he kind of lives between the two. We were going to do a song on this album, but he was in the process of moving, so we never actually got that song together. We kind of got it started, but that was about it. So maybe the next one, the next album.

[Blue Falcon]

http://www.ugo.com/ugo/html/article/?id=18554&sectionId=54


"And again, they don't do "Babe," they don't do "Mr. Roboto," they do all the other stuff they wrote that's cool."

Uh oh. Sounds like Phil Collen has been drinking quite a bit of JY's Cringe-Inducing Kool Aid.

[elmotano]

http://www.ugo.com/ugo/html/article/?id=18554&sectionId=54


"And again, they don't do "Babe," they don't do "Mr. Roboto," they do all the other stuff they wrote that's cool."

Uh oh. Sounds like Phil Collen has been drinking quite a bit of JY's Cringe-Inducing Kool Aid.

LMAO Blue Pigeon, that must be the case LMAO

[Grotelul]

http://www.ugo.com/ugo/html/article/?id=18554&sectionId=54


"And again, they don't do "Babe," they don't do "Mr. Roboto," they do all the other stuff they wrote that's cool."

Uh oh. Sounds like Phil Collen has been drinking quite a bit of JY's Cringe-Inducing Kool Aid.

No..Phil just has the opinion of most these days with any musical taste.