Interview: Def Leppard branches out with CMT awards performance

If you saw Def Leppard last month on the CMT Music Awards show, don’t worry, it hasn’t gone country.

The band will be playing its ’80s rock hits when it performs in Virginia Beach on Saturday night with Poison and Cheap Trick. The guys were just stretching out a bit with a foray into country music.

In November, the band had teamed up with country princess Taylor Swift for an episode of CMT’s “Crossroads,” in which both sang each others’ songs, including Def Leppard’s “Photograph.” That episode earned DL and Swift a couple of nominations for their joint performance of the 1983 rock anthem. The collaboration didn’t win them a “Buckle” award, but DL and Swift closed the awards show broadcast with a rocking performance of “Pour Some Sugar on Me.”

We chatted with Def Leppard’s Phil Collen and asked him a few questions about the country experience and his other band, Man Raze, which plays in a rock-punk-reggae style.

The guitarist was in Cleveland for DL’s second stop on its 40-city tour that evening, and he mentioned that he has a Virginia Beach connection.

His daughter, Samantha, 4, lives there with her mom, Michele. He said the little girl was born in California, where Collen still lives, and Mom moved back to Hampton Roads with Samantha a couple of years ago.

Def Leppard on a country awards show, did you feel out of place?
No, actually we didn’t. I was looking at some of the older country acts, and they looked out of place. I think where it’s going, it’s got nothing to do with country at all. The segue between awards was like MTV-style metal music – it was pretty weird actually. The next night I went to see Alison Krauss at the Grand Ole Opry, and that was real authentic. Even the vibe was different; everyone was ever so humble. It was such a different world from the CMT thing. As much as I enjoyed both, it was a very sharp contrast.

On the “Crossroads” episode, what was the most noticeable difference when performing a Swift song versus a DL song?
None, really. The biggest shock to me, which I noticed when I was learning the songs, was I loved the chord progressions – and even some of the melodic things were very familiar. Taylor got into singing because of Shania Twain and, obviously, with the Mutt Lange connection. He wrote a lot of songs with us. It was almost seamless.

Taylor Swift wasn’t your first collaboration with a country artist. How did the Tim McGraw “Nine Lives” project happen?
Actually, very natural. It wasn’t like some record company trying to put these artists together. I kind of had an idea for a song, so when I met Tim at one of our shows, I hummed it to him in the corridor. We pretty much got the basics of the song in about a minute. Then over the next year we recorded it.

What’s happening with Man Raze?
We just recently played the Download Festival in England and the week before that, played a show in Dublin. I’m the lead singer in Man Raze, so sometimes I’m rehearsing twice a day – once with Man Raze, once with Def Leppard. We’re going to be playing the U.K. – we’ve got a little bit of heat going on over there. The record is out over here (U.S.), we’re just waiting for the right time to tour it.

Patty Jenkins, (757) 446-2298,
patty.jenkins@pilotonline.com