|
Def Leppard had its heyday in the 1980s, but still sells to enthusiastic crowds--many of whom are teens--today. |
THE FREE LANCE-STAR
There are both perks and pitfalls involved with fame.
Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen laughs about the fact that you don't have to be a pretty boy to attract beautiful women if you're well known.
He uses novelist Salman Rushdie as an example.
"He's probably not the best looking guy in the world, but someone was telling me he just broke up with this Indian girl who's an absolute goddess. She was attracted to him because he writes books and is interesting to talk to. The whole thing is not based on what he looks like."
The point Collen was making is that even though Def Leppard has been around for 25 years now and Collen doesn't look like Justin Timberlake, he and the band are still pursued by beautiful young women.
"It still happens," he said.
"Fortunately, I'm married to the best-looking woman I've ever seen in my life and that kind of helps out," Collen said with a laugh.
The most popular heavy metal band of the '80s has had a greatest hits album, "Vault," continuously in the top 20 of the Billboard Top 200/Top Catalogue Albums Chart since its release seven years ago and is still selling over 5,000 copies a week. The band still frequently pops up on interviews on VH-1 and MTV and is still packing arenas on tour.
But, Collen said, most of the craziness associated with big rock tours ended for Def Leppard some time ago because of personal lifestyle changes.
"I stopped drinking right before the 'Hysteria' tour 16 years ago," he said.
"I'm stone cold sober, and that's made a huge difference, not just to band stuff, but to my personal life," he said. "There are more hours in the day. I'm able to concentrate. I'm not just in a fog."
He stopped abusing alcohol after his best friend in the band, Steve Clark, died from an overdose of alcohol and drugs during the recording of "Hysteria."
"It really sucked," Collen said. "It was the worst thing to deal with. "Steve would be going, 'Jesus, I hate this. What am I going to do?' It was really awful. He tried all the clinics.
"It was a real drag to deal with. I'm still not over it to this day."
But the resulting sobriety has been good for Collen and good for the band. It continues to function at a high level, both playing with and generating great enthusiasm.
The reaction to the current tour, which stops in Baltimore April 15, "has probably been the best we've had. It's bizarre," he said.
The crowds don't let Def Leppard slow down, Collen said.
"I really do think you're as fresh as the audience makes you feel," he said. "I get bored rehearsing 'Pour Some Sugar On Me.' When we're rehearsing in a room, it's like 'God, why are we doing this?'
"But the minute you put people in front of you, you're enjoying it."
The band has seen a resurgence in popularity recently.
"There was a period in the '90s when we were totally uncool. That's changed. For whatever reason, in the new millennium, people have come around," Collen said. "It's great."
He hopes part of that might be because "people are actually wising up" to what the music industry is feeding them now," he said.
Few young artists today actually put the time in to really learn to play instruments, Collen said. "Justin Timberlake can dance and sing, but a lot of energy just goes into 'I wanna be rich and famous.' *NSYNC and Britney Spears are almost like Broadway shows."
He believes that too many young musicians today just want to make a buck.
"We got into music because of Dylan and Hendrix--modern-day poets," Collen said. "Unfortunately, now it's more about fashion and pursuing that 15 minutes of fame, not that deep-rooted passion about wanting to be a musician."
Then he laughed at himself.
"It's very easy to sound like a bitter old man," Collen said. "But really, what I see is the disintegration of the industry due to a lack of role models."
