Def Leppard and Manraze guitarist Phil Collen says that KISS are fully deserving of their place in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame but that he insists he couldn’t care less if Def Leppard are ever inducted.
Collen praises KISS – who are currently on a mammoth co-headlining tour with Leppard – but is adamant he wasn’t bothered about following in their bootprints.
He tells Shmonty And Conklin’s radio show: “I think it’s great that KISS got in there. They should be there. They’re an American band 40 years and they’ve been snubbed.For me, I really don’t care, whatever. The way I look at it, I’ve got two diamond albums sitting on my mantlepiece — that’s 10 times platinum. I’ve got two albums. That means the fans went out and bought it, so that means a lot more to me.”
Def Leppard are touring America with KISS and after a nearly-30-year career packed with huge hits and big selling records the band have almost done it all. But Collen says they still set targets. for everything the band achieve they set themselves another goal.
He adds: “Back in the day, it was getting a gold album, then a platinum album, and they don’t really exist anymore, so that’s passed by. There’s all these other things. You just want your music to translate, for everyone to hear it, which we’re doing — we’re succeeding there. And then with concerts, it’s always been, you wanna play a certain venue — you wanna be at Wembley, Madison Square Garden, the Marquee club, the Budokan in Japan. So they’re all goals and ambitions that we’ve actually succeeded already. But you keep adding more.”
Fans have been waiting six years for a follow up to 2008’s Songs From The Sparkle Lounge, but the wait could be over.
Collen says: “We’ve just written 15 songs for our new album. We’re actually blown away, because it normally takes us about five years to write 10 songs, and we’ve got 15 songs already — we’ve gotta finish them off, but we’re gonna have an album out next year. So for us, that’s our big goal. Next year’s gonna be a really important year. We’ve got this great album. The recording has been really going fast and flowing, so we’re ultra excited about that.”
source: classicrockmagazine.com
15 Responses
If only Phil would have went the opposite way on his feelings about Kiss…..that would have put some much needed spark into that tour they are doing together. Noone puts down the Gene or the Paul. Noone.
I think Phil is a cuper cool guy. But Def Leppard, in my eyes, DIED after “Hysteria.” You just can’t take what they’ve put out eh past 20+ years and compare it to their genius first three albums. It’s two different bands, Period. I wouldn’t waste a penny on them today. And I consider Pyromania one of the biggest metal albums of all time. It was THAT important.
Pyromania was one of ‘those’ albums that simply transcended the band. Like Screaming for Vengeance, 1984, Number of the Beast, it was a must listen again and again and again. I was so hoping for Pyromania 2 when Hysteria came out and was sooo disappointed when it came out. Perhaps it was a smart move to move on from that sound and create Hysteria. Commercially you can’t argue with what they did and success they had for a few years afterwards. But I agree with you on them, they were just never the same band and went Top 40 and lost many of the Hard Rock/Metal crowd that bought the first 3 albums…all killer. Steve Clarke was the ‘edge’ to that band, and although he was there for Hysteria, I’ve always wondered if his death impacted the band creatively and thus they became far more polished than they were on the first 3 records.
I agree DR,
Screaming and Pyromania, to this day, are my two favorite albums.
D 🙂
Def Leppard were already top 40 before Hysteria, “Photograph”, “Foolin'”, and “Rock Of Ages” all made it into the top 40 back in ’83. I love Pyromania as well, but IMO, Def Lep’s best album is High ‘N’ Dry.
For me, it’s a toss up, it could either way between Pyromania and High N’ Dry. But I think Pyromania edges it out by a hair. Both are great albums.
D 🙂
DL didn’t try to be Top 40 with Pyromania. The songs you mention were good songs that broke through the barrier of Top 40 radio. Hysteria however was a carefully crafted plan to break through the Top 40 Radio market. Elliot said as much back in the day when he said they wanted to to be the biggest band in the world. I still put Pyromania slightly ahead of High N Dry (1b so to speak). But I agree with either album being considered their best. On through the Night didn’t get as much love as it should have. For a debut album, it was a great record.
I bought Screaming once on LP, twice on cassette because I played too much and ruined my first copy. The I bought the CD when they first came out, and then downloaded the album on my Ipod. I don’t think there is any album I’ve re-purchased as many times as Screaming. I saw them twice on that tour and purchased the Live in Memphis VHS from that tour when it came out. Although I was a Priest fan since Hell Bent for Leather, that album transformed me into a complete Metal Head and hardcore Priest fan. Rob Halford is the one person I can never look at objectively. Anything he does, I’m down with.
Yes, Screaming, in my humble opinion, is perfection. I wore both Screaming and Pyromania out. Ahh, the good ole days 🙂
D 🙂
Yeah, the albums got scratched, the cassettes got worn out, but the CD’s are still going strong! I might get some backlash for this, but I actually really liked Hysteria. of course it was a little “softer” than the first 3, but I still thought it was & still is a really good album.