Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen recently spoke with Listen Next! about where the next great band will come from once they, and other prominent musicians, retire.
Collen responded (per blabbermouth.net), “I don’t know. I’m still waiting, actually. You hear a lot of stuff out there, but it’s few and far between. There’s a problem, I think, and I think it’s the TikTok and YouTube crowd.”
He continued, “When bands or artists would write before, it would be because they wanted to be an artist and wanted to express themselves and write songs and share them and go, ‘Wow. Check this out’, as opposed to, ‘Wow. Look at me. Please love me. I don’t wanna sound like an old dude, but that’s what I noticed. And I’m still waiting for someone like Prince or [LED] Zeppelin or something that has a bit more something to it. There’s very little stuff.”
“Metallica‘s great; when you see ’em, there’s a big difference,” Collen said. “Guns N’ Roses are awesome. I don’t see that anymore; I don’t see that star power. I don’t see that kind of thing. So that’s what I’m waiting for. There hasn’t been any of that. Nirvana was… Obviously, Foo Fighters is an offshoot of Nirvana. And I love the Foo Fighters; I think they’re great. But when Nirvana came out, I was, like, ‘Woah, this is amazing.’ The Sex Pistols — amazing. But I’m just waiting — still waiting.”
When the interviewer implied that the rock scene is lacking, the guitarist said, “That question comes up quite a bit. People go, ‘What about this?’ And I don’t hear anything. I hear derivative stuff and stuff that’s not inspired. You wanna get inspired. So, yeah, I’m still waiting. It’s like in every genre of music. In hip-hop, it’s the same deal. You’re waiting to hear… Or R&B. You listen to the old R&B — you listen to Stevie Wonder, you listen to Marvin Gaye and stuff like that — nothing is like that anymore and that kind of soul and vibe and everything. I think we’ve kind of comfortably got into something else that doesn’t really demand that kind of excellence. It’s rare that that kind of talent comes along.”
Def Leppard’s latest album, Diamond Star Halos, was released on May 27th. The band are currently on The Stadium Tour, with Mötley Crüe, Poison and Joan Jett. Remaining dates can be seen below.
August:
5 Boston, MA Fenway Park
6 Boston, MA Fenway Park
8 Toronto, ON Rogers Centre
10 Orchard Park, NY Highmark Stadium
12 Pittsburgh, PA PNC Park
14 Minneapolis, MN U.S. Bank Stadium
16 Indianapolis, IN Lucas Oil Stadium
19 Houston, TX Minute Maid Park
21 San Antonio, TX Alamodome
22 Arlington, TX Globe Life Field
25 Glendale, AZ State Farm Stadium
27 Inglewood, CA SoFi Stadium
28 San Diego, CA Petco Park
31 Seattle, WA T-Mobile Park
September:
2 Vancouver, BC BC PlaceSunday,
4 Edmonton, AB Commonwealth Stadium /Stade du Commonwealth
7 San Francisco, CA Oracle Park
9 Las Vegas, NV Allegiant Stadium
18 Responses
In my opinion, the best rock band to emerge over the last 20 years or so is Airbourne! More recently I’d have to go with Dirty Honey.
Yay, Airbourne!!! ❤️❤️❤️
He is 100% correct! Although there are killer “newer” bands out there that started after the year 2000 like Alter Bridge (totally different band than Creed), Rival Sons, Goodbye June, Greta Van Fleet and a few others, they really don’t have that kind of star power that the Metallica’s, Kiss’, Def Leps, Zeppelin’s, Black Sabbath had. And in my opinion the #1 reason for this is the internet, social media and technology. It has simply become too good for our own good. The mystique is gone and with no mystique there is no star power, period.
To each their own, but I personally would not even put Greta Van FleecingZeppelin in the conversation However, Rival Sons, definitely.
IMO, the next great rock band is Ghost. That band rose very quickly and is currently headlining arenas.
The rock scene is lacking cuz we lack rock stars to ipitomize it. Social media killed the rock star. Lemmy once said something along the lines of “If you’re going to be a rock star, then be a being from another planet, cuz nobody wants to see the guy next door on stage”. He’s correct, but social media’s access to these musicians kills their mystique and presents these musicians as “normal” people.
I think about this often too. Will I just be listening to my old cds for the rest of my life? I was lucky enough to be alive in 1979 which was a great year for just about every known artist. Pink floyd The Wall Was on the radio every 20 minutes. Now the radio just plays oldies or songs that are getting to be oldies. The only solution is to ban free music on the internet and it all has to be paid for. But the human race as a whole seems to be going backwards so I have very little hope that we will ever see a great day for the rock star again in my life time. The last concert that I really enjoyed was probably Stone Temple Pilots right before covid. I do love Ghost and would love to see them in concert! Also I do see the genius in Greta Van Fleet’s Anthem of the Peaceful Army cd. And we all know that Alter Bridge is a different band than the stadium band CREED.
Greta van zeppelin does not belong in a conversation about the next great rock band , however ghost and rival sons100% do , but there will never be another superstar rock band all the comments above nailed the reason no more mystery or mystique….