In a new interview, Joe Elliott clarified that Def Leppard is not a heavy metal band.
During the conversation about his chat with Judas Priest guitarist Glenn Tipton, the frontman revealed that Tipton told him his band wasn’t a heavy metal band. Agreeing to Tipton’s comments, the frontman recalled the incident:
“Glenn Tipton says to me, ‘Def Leppard are a fantastic band, but no way are they a heavy metal band.’ I’m like, ‘Hallelujah, Glenn.’ It was just crazy that bands within [the genre], Anthrax’s the same thing. I met Scott Ian loads of times and Joey Belladonna was like, ‘You’re great but you’re not metal.’ I’m like, ‘I know.'”
Elliott’s Problem With The ‘Heavy Metal’ Term
Def Leppard might not essentially be a heavy metal band, but Elliott has a problem with the term.
In another interview, the frontman clarified that he doesn’t think his band fits the heavy metal label. Elliott’s comments highlighted his frustration with genre labels that he believes don’t represent the band’s sound. He said:
“I have an issue with the term ‘heavy metal’ because everybody outside of rock always thinks if you’re a heavy metal band, it’s like bad news… You get this impression that everybody’s a moron.”
He then named a few bands that were mistaken to be heavy metal bands:
“[AC/DC] were a blues rock band. UFO and Thin Lizzy were not heavy metal. Motörhead, even they had a blues influence to them… Queen were never a heavy metal band, but they had a couple of heavy metal songs, thanks to Brian May. And I think we were pretty much the same way. It was rock — absolutely heavy rock, for sure.”
The whole interview will be out on Sunday, but until then you can see the snippet here.
