By Gary Graff
Q: "Sparkle Lounge" sounds like a kind of default Def
Leppard album, something that's almost "easy" for the band to
make.
Joe Elliott: Well, yeah, I suppose that's one way of
putting it. There was a thought process behind it that we
wanted to deliver a specific kind of record, but that specific
kind of record was, if you like, a nonspecific kind of record.
We weren't going to try to theme it to the point of
"Pyromania," where it's got a drum sound that was definitive in
1983 ... (or) "Hysteria," when we had a definite, like, overall
'80s sound.
With this one it was a case of, "Let's just hone in on the
songwriting and we'll use 2008 production techniques, if you
like, to make it sound more like a '70s record." It sounds very
complicated, but it actually wasn't.
Q: Did doing a covers album (2005's "Yeah") before this
have any impact on "Sparkle Lounge?"
Elliott: I think a lot of it is overspill from the "Yeah"
album. When we went in to do the covers record we didn't have
to worry at all about one word or one note from a writing point
of view; all we did was ... record these songs that made us
all, (at) the age of 10 or 11 or 12, plead for our first
guitar.
So then when it came to this one, it was a case of,
"Alright, let's try to sit down and write some songs that, if
we were out buying records, they would be the kinds of songs we
(would) want to buy." So we all just sat down and wrote what we
thought were meaningful songs.
Q: Was the Sparkle Lounge on the road a place where songs
were written or did you already have the ideas?
Elliott: Well, we're notoriously terrible at writing on the
road. We just can't do it. You can't write a song like you can
build a cabinet; the best idea is you lock yourself away in a
room and you just do it, and it might take three or four days
until it comes to a natural ending. What we did with (the
Sparkle Lounge) was we took a lot of songs that were already
half-written, and it was a lot easier. We'd go in and really
work on these songs, and by the time we started recording them
we knew them really well, and there was not that much of a
learning process ... So it was probably the best recording
situation for new music we've ever had.
Q: How did the Tim McGraw collaboration happen on "Nine
Lives?"
Elliott: I'll try to make a long story short. (laughs)
Sav's (bassist Rick Savage's) brother Robert is Tim's tour
manager. We've kind of known Tim and Faith Hill are huge
Leppard fans and have been for many years. When we played the
Hollywood Bowl in 2006, Tim happened to be in L.A., so we
invited him down; it was one of those, "Hey, man, you want to
get up and do something?" So we did "Pour Some Sugar on Me,"
which went down really well.
We had a good laugh that night, and lo and behold, when we
came through Nashville just a short while later, he came down
to soundcheck and we ended up in the Sparkle Lounge, and that's
where the song was conceived.
Q: And now everybody thinks Def Leppard is going country!
Elliott: (laughs) People have been bringing that question
up: "You guys have gone country?" "No! Tim went rock!" And
truth be known, that's really what he did. If you listen to the
record, he goes off on his own kind of twangy tangent for the
beginning part, but after that, even me and him could barely
distinguish one from another.... So he really stepped up to the
plate in the rock sense.
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Reuters/Billboard
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