Def Lep can’t promise hard rock album

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 No promises: Def Leppard

Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell says he and fellow axeman Phil Collen are hoping the band’s next album is a hard rock outing – but they can’t guarantee it.
The band will start writing their next record when they hit the road in June following a year off after their Songs from the Sparkle Lounge album and tour.
Collen has already said he’d like their twelfth studio opus to lean towards early works On Through the Night and High ‘n’ Dry, and Campbell says he agrees with the sentiment. But it won’t necessarily be their call.
Campbell, who’s coming to the end of his “dream come true” stint with the 2011 lineup of Thin Lizzy, tells Guitar International: “Phil and I are championing it – but it takes a little more patience for us than for other bands.
“We all agree and know on a certain level we can make it happen. If we were on a major record label and they paired us with Rick Rubin, I’m sure he would strip us down and have us doing it.
“But it’s easier said than done. Def Leppard were in a different headspace with what they did 30 years ago – they played and wrote differently then.
“And back then Rick Allen had two arms. Although we can represent ourselves very well live, it’s difficult for Rick to jam. If I were to come into the room and show the guys a riff, Rick would have to stop and think about how he was going to join in. It’s not like other bands where you can kick out the jams and see what happens.”
Campbell thinks the band have already changed tack significantly with Songs from the Sparkle Lounge, which makes their ambition easier to achieve.
He says: “We’ve been guilty in the past of conceptualising the LPs – it’s like we decide we need to make a certain type of LP before a note is even written. Sparkle Lounge wasn’t like that at all. I’m glad to say it was a selection of songs we wrote individually and decided to record as Def Leppard. I thought it was a better record for that, and easier to make.”
And he’s hopeful that, even if the band don’t go back to basics in any specific sense, they can still deliver a hard rock record in 2012.
“It might actually be disingenuous of us to force ourselves to do a record like High ‘n’ Dry,” he says. “I’m not saying we’re not going to do it – we’re going to try to do something like that.”