Frontman Joe Elliott says Def Leppard’s former record label, Universal, should treat the band with more respect because “we built their penthouse sushi bar.”
Def Leppard are re-recording as much of their back catalogue as possible after failing to reach an agreement with Universal over digital releases. And last month the band cut five acoustic songs performed during their Rock Of Ages Tour for a medley released to iTunes.
“We’re trying to wrestle back our career and ownership of these songs,” said Elliott in an interview in the latest issue of Classic Rock. “They [Universal] own the originals, we’re at loggerheads with them over the digital rights. And as long as they’re playing silly buggers we’ll just keep recording them again.”
The singer continued, “Until we can come to some kind of humane conclusion to this ridiculous stand-off, we’re going to say, ‘Fuck you!’ We were offered a great deal two years ago and shook hands on it. And then some other twat at the label put a stop to it. It’s our life and our music and we’re not going to let them exploit us to the extent that they’re trying to.”
Elliott said Universal wouldn’t be the major player it is today without the help of Leppard’s multi-million-selling releases.
“Between us and Bon Jovi we fucking built that company,” he insisted. “We built their penthouse sushi bar, wherever it may be, and they just treated us like shit. We can either roll over like little dandelions or we can stand up and punch them in the bollocks. And that’s exactly what we’re doing.”
Read the full interview with Joe Elliott in the new issue of Classic Rock, on sale now.
source: classicrockmagazine.com
3 Responses
Joe Elliot is such an egotistical a$$hole. In what world can he compare his band to Bon Jovi…and I don’t even like Bon Jovi either. They had maybe two huge records in the 80’s, and took synthesized, homogenized rock to new levels. I’ve always hated their sound from pyromania on. At least bon jovi has always been creative with both their sound and song writing. Good luck with re-recording your songs, I’m sure Steve Clark’s family will appreciate it too.
Umm Mr. Bruck don’t u think ur being a little hard on Joe Elliott? Those guys wrote & played those songs. They’re still together making new music. I’m not saying anything bad about Bon Jovi bcuz I love them too. Don’t call Joe names bcuz he’s proud of their work, he has every right to be happy. How DARE u bring Steve Clark or his family into this!! Steve loved being in Def Leppard. Joe Elliott is actually a really nice man.
Greg Bruck should be the twat Joe was talking about. What an idiot. They had not “maybe” two huge records, they DO had two HUGE classic albums back to back, these albums opened doors to many acts and still has the same influence over new artist, both completely different and approach, bon jovi wouldnt even exist without def leppard impact, I’m not going to talk about bon jovi because it would be unfair because Joe is not comparing both bands but album sales, just by the end of the 80’s Leppard and bon jovi sold 50 million albums for Universal. By the way how cheap your comment about Steve Clark you clearly don’t know the brotherhood on this band. The real reason you are blasting Joe is because he made some comments about Cinderella (Band I love too), but he has made comments about poison, motley crue and other bands that is always misinterpreted by the media.