Def Leppard Guitarist Says Band is a Family

In an interview with Rock Cellar Magazine, Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen discussed how he and his bandmates have been able to maintain genuine friendships for so long where other groups have fallen short.

"I don't understand how the other bands do it," Collen responded. "You've got this dream job and occupation. If someone said to me, 'In your 60th year, you're gonna be running around half naked and people are gonna be going crazy while you're playing these sold-out shows and you're gonna be able to play guitar and sing like you've never dreamed possible,' I'd say, 'Really, that could happen?' and it does happen.

"Def Leppard is a family," he continued. "We've spent more time together than with any blood relative we've ever had; my parents included. You spend 16, 18 years with your folks, we've been doing this constantly for 30 something years so you get to know each other intimately. It's the same thing as any kind of friendship or family thing. It changes and goes on.

"I think if you respect that you've had all of these amazing experiences together, you've written these songs together and played all these show together," Collen added. "You've been through birth, death, marriages, divorces. You've been shoulders to cry on and you've needed shoulders to cry on and it's all been within this structure. I don't see how that could fail, personally. Plus we were all raised by very working-class English families and we have that thing in common as well."

Def Leppard's concert film "And There Will Be A Next Time - Live From Detroit", was released earlier this year on Eagle Rock Entertainment, and the band is set for a three-month run with Poison April 8th.



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Lindsay OConnor     March 31, 2017