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Dana Joe Elliot is the lead singer of the rock and roll band de leopard who
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leard everyone knows pretty much everyone loves Pour some sugar on me two albums that sold over 10 million copies
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each has only been achieved by five other bands in history and they're out there on tour with journey and sometimes
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Steve Miller and we got to talk to Joe Elliot the lead singer who's of course yeah incredibly nice guy he's so British
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he's so well in class you know you can't really give them a compliment well I do the best I can when did you know you
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could really sing your ass off I still don't know if I can he's incredibly likable chap still loves his job the
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guys still write together they tour they're out with Steve Miller Journey uh I'm going to see them in La
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that's a really fun one I'd go on Arizona if it wasn't 193 so I've and I have roughed in
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concerts in Arizona don't get me wrong those days are over he we for once didn't talk over him because that's true
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he had a lot of great things to say he literally in a five minute period unpacks the evolution from the Beatles
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all the way through the 70s Ziggy Stardust and then all these
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other bands scorpion I can't remember the name of the Bands comprehensive encycloped knowled into where they took
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the uh the horn yeah where it went from Punk to grung like all that and how they
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stayed through it and they're still playing stadiums I mean it's borderline impossible but uh he had a lot to say
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and we um we talked about Jo dir we talked a lot of stuff so here he is and one one other thing you'll notice that
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he refers to British money which I always find funny and we we had we had four I only had four
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quid it was 10 P for that you know I just love British money names we just
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have a dime ours is boring yeah a quid is $100,000 that's what they don't tell you
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so it's not that bad yeah they split so they split a pint they split a pint that
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was so I had four quid I had to give three quid to be mother for the bed the food you know like RoR board anyway I
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thought it was he's incredibly charming and it was a very fun interview so don't click off now and
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smash that subscribe button Smash and like that's the other podcast oh yeah
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that's right well you can smash anything you want smash some potatoes
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[Music]
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then let me get a good look you look great it's scary yeah I should hope I'm
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just out the shower cuz I was in the gym so I didn't want to stink all the way over to wherever you guys are I was in a
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big szy tub 35 M well wait a minute are
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you're not working tonight you're working tomorrow night is this your day off are you traveling yeah yeah this we was yesterday was a travel day and today
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is a well we call it a day off it's a noshow day because obviously I'm talking to you guys and then I've got to nip
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down to some room somewhere and do some Pyromania stuff and then at 5:30 we've got a private tour of the Rock and Roll
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Hall of Fame CU you know hello Cleveland IO Cleveland and it is pissing it down
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out there it's [ __ ] miserable it's like like Sheffield was when I was growing
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up Sheffield that's why yeah you don't want to grow up in California cuz I'm
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Irish Scottish Norwegian so I couldn't tell yeah look
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we're the two pastiest I look I look a little bit Irish if you think if you look at me close but I like absolutely I
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like I see a lot of European in you right there abely so you know what I'm talking about yeah I'm part of if we'd
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have grown up in California we would have had into a spy because it was you know as kids when we used to see on the
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three channels that we had in the UK BBC 1 bbc2 and ITV uh we would get you know
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stari and Hutch or whatever programs are on you know Jes of Jes of Hazard was
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more Midwest but we'd get the roller skating guy in Venice Beach or wherever he was yes and all the palm trees and
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the bikinis and think I H really don't see that where I live yeah why work we
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at one point had a British Nanny and the Brits is that is that a slang or you can say Brits yeah no that's no you can
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totally say that you Mar the ex the Brits come to La they go crazy cu the weather is you Mary Poppins Mary Poppins
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and she turned into a bit of a slapper did she sorry well I hope she didn't but you
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know she was a real slapper I love all the slang you know um we've interviewed
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Paul McCartney we haven't had a lot of musicians but we're so glad GL you decided to come on our podcast cuz we're
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huge fans Spade has already bought tickets for Sofi sep if You' have asked
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no way I wouldn't get in there and uh I love it I've seen you know where I saw you guys recently was if this is true M
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possibly the whiskey about two three years ago it was a small show Dana I got
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wind to this one grabbed Theo another comedian we went down there and it was so [ __ ] good and um they were so
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great I mean you rarely get to see him that that up close and person it's on YouTube I saw it is it on YouTube it is
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indeed yeah it was the first show that we did for the diamond star Halos tour with we went out in the stadiums with
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Motley so we launched the album by playing the first time we'd ever played there I think you know cuz we as being a
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British band we weren't like you know we weren't [ __ ] of the Boulevard in the '
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80s we didn't do like the trador or or the Roxy or the ra well the rainbow we
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went to a couple of times but that wasn't a gig was it there was there was there was the The Roxxy there was the
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Whiskey the tri the whiski and the trador you know and we we went there to
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see a few bands but never played there yeah must be cool though to go back I mean you guys were such a stadium band
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to play in a little tight place like that was so fun and I think i' had seen you obviously in the old days um I lived
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in Arizona so you guys that would usually be on the route you know we' usually get pretty good bands in uh Scottdale
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Phoenix and yeah you know it's funny cuz if you're out with the crew I was always thinking like I call him the crew day
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and it's lingo for M crew I that's I that's pretty H yeah and uh so it's
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always funny when I see these bands that tour together I saw Joan Jet Hart and uh
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chap trick and I went thinking it was Joan Jet first and it was cheap trick
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first and I was like oh my God I just missed most of Chief Dr how do they figure that out I guess it's just pure
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ticket sales or something it it must be you know popularity for bands that are
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still existing since the 70s or whatever it rides the waves you sometimes you
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just takes one song like you think about journey in The Sopranos and it elevates
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their entire touring they dation all that kind of stuff Joan Jet
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May well have had a song that resonated some where at that particular time that
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elevator above chip trick I mean I don't know cuz there everybody you just mentioned there their bands that we all
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grew up listening to I mean I Saw The Runaways um in 76 at the Sheffield
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University in fact I gave Joan Jet a photograph uh two years ago uh that was
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taken from behind the stage and you can see me this 16-year-old me about four
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you know they were all crammed down the front I was my head pop popping up between two two guys and there it was a
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16-year-old jants on stage yeah watch throwing my pants on stage to Cherry Curry cuz she was in the
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middle you know but uh I'm honored by the way to be on the same podcast as as Paul McCartney because wow you know what
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a great coattail to ride on you know yeah I don't know he was big over there
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yes he was quite popular wasn't he he was big I mean you know for as casual be fans in my age group you know it's
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always the the tease of what did Paul do and John do there were certain songs
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clearly a John song clearly a Paul's song but when they were collaborating you always wonder and I think Paul has a
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little bit I wouldn't call it a chip but he likes to point out that you know I played the bass on that you know and I I
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wrote the middle like you I'm like you I you know we've had these discussions where you on some long overnight on the
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bus and you're listening to The Beatles for whatever reason and a song comes on and you go McCartney wrote that bit
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that's a lenon bit you know and the the greatest example for me is day in the life because yeah you've got I heard the
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news today oh boy and then it gets a middle bit got up got out of bed D home
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across my head and you go yeah that's the Vaudeville McCartney that that gives
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it it gives you a break from this kind of yeah you needed to go away surrealism that that lenon supplied um because you
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think about the Lenin stuff you know Tomorrow Never Knows or whatever it was called you all the kind of weird stuff
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it was just brilliant and MH and then McCarney was always very capable of
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writing a great rock song I think Helter Skelter was was one of Paul's but he could also write When I'm 64 which I
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doubt lenon could or would actually want to yeah but it balances out sometimes you have to have a song like that to
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kind of showcase the one before and after it and bring them to the light you know every you name your favorite album
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of all time there's a 10th worth worst track on it or if it's only an eighth track album an eighth worth track well a
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worst track you know a secret Beatle album but it was it's sort of a a mashup
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because I think Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane might be the best 45 ever
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released aside bside but there wasn't really on an album but then on manical Mystery Tour which people don't really
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mention they put on IM a wall or strawberry fields and Penny Lane you kind of like well that's that's a good
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record that's three of that great bits of work in the in the kind of past 60s you know there was the touring beetles
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in the the black and white beetles if you like and then there was the colored beetles and they went it went multicolor
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with things like Strawberry Fields when they started taking vitamins they they uh their output uh got way
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more creative and and weird which was great you know yes one one thing I wanted to ask you because you're our
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guest today but I love talking about music in general is that you play the guitar but then I find that you know
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bands really need the a front man a band like yours or the Rolling Stones you
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need someone with a voice so when did you discover that were you singing as a
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little kid or when did you realize you had this voice this raspy perfect hard
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rock voice I'm not sure I ever even got there yet to be quite honest but as a as
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a kid I thought so you know when my mom was when I was about eight so it be 1967
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68 my mother bought an acoustic guitar through one of these cataloges that you pay on the weekly and
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they post it out to you and you sending a coupon and you know it was a 20 quid guitar and she probably paid a a pound a
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week for it and I used to be sat there fascinated with this woman who had this
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like Americana um playing a day kind of Bert Weeden book or whatever teaching
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herself to play um Pete Seager type songs of Bob Dylan John bers and what
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and the woman just picked it up real quick and she had a really sweet voice she's a really really great singer my mom um bless is still alive 92 years old
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doesn't sing so much now but she was great she was only 36 years old you know and I was just sat there thinking well I
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got to have one of these and rightfully so my father said well if you learn to play your moms we'll think about getting new one for Christmas so I spent the
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next six months or whatever it was trying to learn what my mom was doing which is essentially about four chords
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and as this book said I think if you know three chords there's 2,500 songs right
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there so cons once I'd learned to play the first thing I ever learned to play was she'll be coming around the
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mountains because it just happed to be the first thing my mom learned exactly it was all very um g c d
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yeah yeah it's all very dueling banjos in it in its you know pres presentation
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um so consequently for the next six months all I did was play around those things oh there's another song there I
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can do so I never really learned to play the guitar I learned to play the four chords and then I that progressed mhm
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literally as I joined the band really was about 18 I learned to play better chords and more different chords and
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stuff but so consequently it was never my thing to be able to go Dilly Dilly dly dooo on the guitar I was happy
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enough to be the Rhythm player like you know Malcolm Young in ACDC or Bob Dylan
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for his own music or whatever just to accompany my voice and I was had as a sweet voice as a kid but then puberty
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comes along and then your voice goes down and all of a sudden I and then of course I also discovered girls and
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Wimbledon and the US Open and soccer and stuff like that so I always came back to
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music at night having gone and done whatever's going on during the day so it it was always there in my life it was
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never a consistent where I would be really crafted at my craft because I
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came and went to it but I was always anchored to it if you know what I mean but you were like 12 13 14 like the
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formative years what what was the music you were listening to everything British
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pretty much because the way that the world was set up my life was set up we had the one National Channel which is
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the BBC One which played the pop music so it was a top 40 channel so
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occasionally some rock music would infiltrate that chart you know we had all the British Glam bands so we had
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T-Rex we had Bowie Roxy Music Slade sweet you know and queen came I mean
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some yeah absolutely Mo the hoop some great bands um and we also had the top
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pop top of the pops every Thursday night for half an hour would would you know
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you would have to sift through the crap because there'd be tire yellow ribbon and this kind of stuff and then you'd
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get come on feel the noise by Slade and then something else you know and then
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you you know but youve actually learned to realize that everything you listen to it it influences who you are because the
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stuff you hate makes you not go there anymore and it makes you it cement you to John I'm only dancing or Stardust or
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something like that you know so we didn't get a great deal of American music over there the only bands from the
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states really infiltrated big time was like Credence Credence clearw Revival had
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loads of hits in the UK I don't know why they just did they are great though when I say bands we've got to forget the 60s
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when it was the Four Tops of Temptations din Ross in The Supremes all that stuff was just a no-brainer hit after hit
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after hit when it came to like rock bands we had the who we had the Kinks we had the stones and the Beatles and then
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it went on to like Zeppelin Sabbath durah Heap and then it was Bowie and then there was all the prog rocks of
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like URI yri he came along yes all these bands were album bands and they'd be on
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the old gry whistle test which is the nighttime show once a week so that's where you learned that that was grown-up
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music everybody on the whistle test had a beard or a mustache and they could they could play really serious music
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where it's top of pops is all platform boots glittery top hats and come on feel the noise or Ballroom Blitz you know and
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that was what we grew up with you know and it's always been part of our DNA and what the bridge like from Glam or you
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know Bowie who was transcendently different than Zeppelin and so forth and
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then there was Punk and then yeah there was the idea of grunge and maybe grunge
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was later but the that you weren't required to sing on key or play play
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very well it could it was just little mess thanks for noticing yeah a raw emotion no but I mean you guys were a
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bridge to you influenced and then you took it in another Direction uh which is always very interesting listening to you
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this timing is everything yeah Dan it really is timing is everything when when when Glam kicked in I was 11 10 11 12
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years old T-Rex the first hit they had was s a song called R White Swan and then it was hot love and then it was the
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the big one in America you called it bangagong because there was a song called get it on in the charts but it was get it on to us and T-Rex it there
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was just t-rextasy for two years 717 into 73 then Bowie came along mid 72 and
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he wasn't just Bowie he was like this Almighty Lord shining down from another planet because he released Ziggy
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Stardust he produced All the Young Dudes he produced transformer for Lou Reed so
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he had walk on the wild side and he did raw power for Iggy Pop and then you know
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you go through this 72 73 into 74 and a lot of those bands started to weighing a little bit M split in
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74 um and then we started reading about people like the New York Dolls yes and
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and then we get to 75 and there's a there's a stirring going on in London and then in 76 there's a full like
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seismic event with the pistols and The Clash coming along and these bands had
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the Integrity supposedly to not do top at pops but other New Wave punk bands
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said [ __ ] that we're doing it so you had Generation X which was Billy Idol's first band and you had the Damned and
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you had uh Eddie and the hot rods who played these three minute fast songs
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with really short solos singing that was more Alice Cooper than Paul Rogers let's put it that way
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you know it's like portrayed the vocal brilliant there was a great band from the UK called The Heavy Metal kids who
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were absolutely weren't heavy metal but they were loved by rockers and punks the same way that very very early ACDC were
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yeah so you you had this you had this kind of mixture of those type of bands
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and then Hard Rock breaking through at the same time Thin Lizzy UFO the
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Scorpions were all starting to take off in the kind of mid late 70s 7778 Deep
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Purple was that purple was 70 purple was 68 by by the mid 70s they were already
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done with d Coverdale never mind Ian Gillan you know I mean there were split by then and we had rain we had rainbow
00:19:05
instead and we had white snake instead there was no Deep Purple till back in they reformed in ' 84 so we had this
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massive mixture of St I mean I was always jealous of every single city in America had two or three radio stations
00:19:20
that played rock music 24 hours a day yeah we had a 2hour specialist show on a
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Saturday afternoon when you're most likely going to be a soccer game yeah so and you couldn't tape it back then or
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record it onto some hard drive you missed it you missed it so we were really had to mine for everything that
00:19:38
that became part of us and it sticks with you which is why I can I I always used to think it was an age thing that I
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can't remember last week's chart but I can remember the chart from 71 and the bsides and the catalog numbers of those
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singles but I do think it's because we were it was all real it was it was
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analog it was you know you could touch it the record could they had a smell you walk into a secondhand record store now
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I get a boner on because the smell of the cardboard you know it's CU well the
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sound of a needle dropping is yeah you can't get one of those when you're pushing a button on your
00:20:13
laptop we but it benefits both ways I mean look you can't listen to your records on the treadmill or on an
00:20:18
airplane so IOD or your phone is perfect you know it's better that's a discussion
00:20:23
that we can have well vinyl one one flash point vinyl I think last year for the first first time outsold CDs so that
00:20:31
went full circle now we're digital and all that but we have which is fantastic you know
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right but you know it all those things you know album covers are 12 in square
00:20:41
so you could really go to town on the artwork you know look at album covers by say Elton John good by yellow brick road
00:20:48
or even better Captain Fantastic King like yeah you could go right in and look
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at all these little details like and then it came to like CDs and we go what about the album say well it's only 5 in
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square so somebody's going to spot that from a mile away on in a CD shop it's got to just have a big star in the
00:21:06
middle that's beeping up you know so you had to change your thought about presentation visual presentation have
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the fun growing up Jo is for me pipsqueak in Arizona was uh you get the
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ELO album or you get whatever album and then you just think it's so cool then you pull it out then you open it up then
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sometimes they have the words and so you just keep playing it over and over and you look at the words words cuz you didn't know the words you're like oh
00:21:30
that wasn't what I thought and sometimes when CU I was you know I went into writing later but that really got me
00:21:36
going because I like the way the songs are written so when I go back to songs I go oh it means more when I figure out
00:21:42
what it's about then you go oh there's something going on there I never knew they were little stories they were this I just thought it was noise and fun and
00:21:49
so that means a lot to me when I go back and hear something or even a simple one like from the old days and you can hear
00:21:56
it and understand it that's why I'm a mud in when I can't hear you said something did you say it betrayed the
00:22:02
vocals is that what you said about Punk uh no no I thought you said something about vocals they stylized
00:22:08
them they they basically what happened was when punk came along it was it was a
00:22:13
reaction to prog rock you had all these people that were singing Siberian katru
00:22:19
or you know in the court of the Crimson King and it was all you know look how
00:22:24
fast I can play or how high I can sing they wanted to rough it up there was some kids that knew they didn't have
00:22:29
that kind of talent but they wanted to be on stage so they sang I am the Antichrist or they sang white Riot you
00:22:34
know and and they just barked it out there were a few singers like that in the past there was you know MC5 Iggy
00:22:42
Alice Cooper and I I'm really not critici I love Al I've got every record
00:22:47
he ever made I'm a huge Alice Cooper fan but when it comes to singing his voice is not like the guy at Kansas in S car
00:22:55
on my wayward son or Paul Rogers or Lou Graham from or Brian Adams who can sing
00:23:00
the phone directory he have to portray the song and he was a big influence was
00:23:05
Alice Cooper on the punk movement and then you had David Johansson who was like a kind of an alternative MC Jagger
00:23:12
and MC Jagger himself wasn't exactly what you'd call a a singer in the sense
00:23:17
of like hitting every note but there's no better singer than MC Jagger because it's not about being able to hit the
00:23:23
notes like an opera singer it's how you port portray the lyric that you've written and when sure when you hear
00:23:28
Jagger sing one one of my favorite vocals of all time is Street Fighting Man by the Stones I just think they
00:23:36
caught Jagger on a day where everything just worked and then when you listen to
00:23:41
um when you listen to things like SYM for the devil and you hear him like please allow me to introduce myself he's
00:23:49
doing like a Bob Dylan you know you don't have to hold the note long long you hit it somewhere you've hit the note
00:23:55
you know and I'm a big fan of that bails me yeah every every time well he's really his voice is uh pretty strong at
00:24:02
80 I've seen it unbelievable recently and maybe part of it is that you know
00:24:07
Paul McCartney was singing just these high ranges he's writing at age 2122 you
00:24:13
know and seem like Springstein and Jagger have a certain frequency or an area that they sing in and they still
00:24:20
can really but Jagger's voice is really strong well I think that the diamonds D
00:24:25
Hackney diamonds album which came out like n months whatever it was yeah the latest one angry angry and the one they
00:24:33
did with sweet sounds of heaven with Gaga yeah it's that's one of the greatest songs that they've ever written
00:24:39
and I think Jagger is showcased on this record so brilliantly it's produced by a guy called Andrew watt who did the last
00:24:46
couple of Aussie albums he did um I think he did the new pear jam but he did the solo album by Eddie veder he's he's
00:24:53
a fantastic producer and he got the best out of those guys it was lovely it was a beautiful song like wild horses if you
00:24:59
think that was 60s and there he is 20 years later he defies gravity he defies
00:25:07
logic you know and he and he's something for to Aspire to I'm I'm I'm 65 in two days time so I can get a bus pass and
00:25:15
you know all that kind of stuff push my C Town yeah and then I can retire yeah
00:25:21
and I look at Jager and I think you know like he's 16 years older than me he's 20 years older than certain people in this
00:25:26
band you know and he still out there doing 2hour shows it's incredible it really
00:25:35
is well it seems like you guys part of your brand is like when I watched you um
00:25:41
the on those YouTube clips at the whiskey Agogo it was like okay the flag is not touching the ground at all we are
00:25:47
loud we are you know you guys are not there's not like remember they used to be DEA leopard so they I think a lot of
00:25:55
it is a mindset or a competitive nature with yourself that you don't want to be they used to
00:26:00
be de leopard they are de leopard I mean that's what I'm getting from you guys it's a challenge it's been a challenge
00:26:06
all our lives you know ever since you mentioned grunge a while back grunge didn't really come in until like 92 and
00:26:13
even then people were suspicious of is this just a passing fad you know I remember when the all the the Rolling
00:26:20
Stones and you know these kind of magazines go it's all over for us thumbs down because here come Nana and Pearl
00:26:25
Jam but during that tour for the adrenaline albums 92 93 we were still doing multiple Arenas around America
00:26:33
because it hadn't really kicked in where it started to pull us down was in the mid 90s like 96
00:26:39
when basically our own record label were like going uh really and so you had to
00:26:45
you are still here yeah so you have to look at it you know I often use the
00:26:51
phrase like it's just like a plane going through a turbulence in a cloud as long as you still got the power to keep going
00:26:58
sooner or lat you're going to come out the other side to nice smooth blue skies you know and we never split up we never
00:27:04
stopped believing in ourselves we just had to reconvince the world who we were
00:27:09
was that euphoria that got you out of that sort of well it's that was the start of it you know that was the end of
00:27:16
the yeah it was 99 we had this kind of one kind of semih hit off it called promises which was us working with mut
00:27:23
Lang again for the first time in about eight years um and then it was the
00:27:29
Touring that did it really we've really only taken we took 2004 off in 2010 and
00:27:34
there hasn't been a year except for during the pandemic years well we haven't toured um there's always been
00:27:40
somewhere in the world that wanted us at a certain level and we've built it up and built it up and build it up to the
00:27:45
point where in 2018 we were doing a double header with journey and it was going so well that they added 10
00:27:51
stadiums on the end of it and they all sold out so this then all the business people are looking at was going yeah ah
00:27:58
because a lot of the bands that people would always pigeon allers with were playing bowling alleys and we were like
00:28:04
no we're not going to go there you know you you look at the success of bands like Bon Joi or you two or slightly
00:28:11
different music but you know still rock you like dep mode even Duran Duran they
00:28:18
were they had audiences that weren't really going anywhere they'd waned a bit but there was a their core audiences and
00:28:25
our core audiences were always bigger than everybody else's because when we were de leopard in the ' 80s if you like
00:28:31
we were selling 10 million albums or we was just behind Michael Jackson and then in 1988 we were the biggest selling
00:28:37
album of the Year even if some fans go away that core audience has B 10 million
00:28:43
records other bands that might have been number you know in the top five with you maybe only sold one and a half or two
00:28:48
million records so when their audience shrinks percentage wise it's a lot smaller than ours would have been so
00:28:54
there was always if we could keep them on side by continuous coming out and entertaining them and
00:29:00
being as good as we could be and making new music and not relying on the old stuff because the one thing that this
00:29:05
band will never be is a Nostalgia Act of course we'll play the hits would you want to go see the stones or M here
00:29:14
satisfaction or you know Love Me Do or whichever beat you have a lot of hits to point at there's a lot of people these
00:29:20
days that don't have hits hits they're there are songs that if we don't play we wouldn't get out to building alive and
00:29:26
we aware of that yeah and you know we call it the Peete towns in factor that within the band we call it's like does
00:29:32
he really want to play My Generation probably not do we want him to
00:29:37
absolutely you know so you you do it for your crowd and it's fine yeah you have to have a respect for the audience and
00:29:44
your own self dignity if you like to realize that sometimes you just have to get over that hump of like oh God not
00:29:50
this song again I think it's totally legit to say that in rehearsals I mean seriously when we got back together
00:29:56
after covid we hadn't seen each other for two and a half years never mind played together and two days into
00:30:02
rehearsals we got to like Rock of Ages and photograph and I just remember me and Phil looking at us they going do we
00:30:07
have to because we know it you know we did and it sounded just like when we left
00:30:13
off you know in 2019 um but you do you know you have to give it the the respect because that's
00:30:20
of all songs is the one everybody wants to hear is play well and sing well so you have to put the effort in and sooner
00:30:26
or later you get over that hump and just becomes part of your day like when we become adults unless you want a big
00:30:31
beard you shave you know what I mean just be like I hate it but you got to do
00:30:37
it and it's like rehearsals it's the same thing you it's part of what we do and a lot of artists get sick of doing
00:30:44
the same stuff and they they live on that and they Thrive off it and certain artists it works for when when Bob Dylan
00:30:50
does a song and the audience come out they go I didn't even recognize that was hard rigns going to fall because he's
00:30:56
done it for so long that people expect him to be like that this like kudin nice
00:31:02
word that you used earlier on whereas with us we're more like the stones if you're going to play sympathy of the devil play it like it sounds on the
00:31:08
record oh yeah you know and because that's that's why they're coming they're not coming to he regay version
00:31:15
ofes that's the work part I mean I was asked once how do you how do you turn someone on and I just spontaneously
00:31:21
thought turn yourself on which you know so you have to you Joe have to get
00:31:27
turned on PO pour pour some sugar it's not hard when you get up on stage at the side ofed in and there's 35 38,000
00:31:36
people in the stadium and you can see them cuz they haven't put the house lights down yet and you stood behind the screen and you're just looking we're all
00:31:42
high-fiving each other going can you believe this is amazing people that work with us that have worked with other bands go I can't believe you guys get so
00:31:49
excited about doing this and we're like well where we came from as kids you have to understand one in a billion gets the
00:31:57
chance right there's five of us here doing it you know this is like we won the lottery twice you know I mean we won
00:32:03
it once and then we won it again the next week sort of it's like it's it's amazing so turning ourselves on is not
00:32:09
that difficult it really isn't you know comedians all want to be rock stars you know that it's not just a cliche and
00:32:16
with there's some really funny uh YouTube clips out of you backstage seeing Georgia and you're about to go on
00:32:23
and then it plugs in and yeah I I I get it that stadium and then you've got your band mates uh which sound fantastic the
00:32:31
your the guitars yeah we all want to you know you guys want to be rock stars we want to be comedians it works out really well you
00:32:38
know it's like I think there's the grass is always greener on the other side so we think but once you realize you get
00:32:43
over there and you go this is not as easy as I thought you know I think like Keo Reeves does you really want to do a
00:32:49
tour for nine months in the back of a Transit van or do you want to make John Wick five and then 20 million bucks you
00:32:55
know I mean it's it's a tough one you you got to have such immense willpower to battle through the being lazy you
00:33:04
know tough with us it's never been that difficult to be to you know we' never been lazy we work really hard like I
00:33:10
said this is a day off and we're doing loads of press because there's stuff to be talked about and it's a pleasure
00:33:15
because if it wasn't me it'd be somebody else and then we we start to sink down the plug all you know so it's like you
00:33:22
everything we do is is part of keeping the momentum of the band going from America we always heard that uh you know
00:33:28
workingclass Lads like Aussie Osborne are you guys I mean are you guys considered workingclass I don't know
00:33:34
what economics no no but when you grew up um yeah yeah and I mean it's it's a
00:33:39
ridiculous term because we work harder than we ever worked as workingclass kids
00:33:45
I used to work in I used to work at factory in Sheffield right when I was I
00:33:50
started when I was 16 and I left when I was 19 and a half so it like almost a quarter of my life I worked in this
00:33:55
Factory where you clock in clock out and you're thinking 50 years of this [ __ ] and you're watching everybody else
00:34:01
going in and they're all like zombies you know they're taking the paycheck they go own to their 3.2 kids and the
00:34:08
mortgage and this kind of and you know when and we also had you know the benefit of having all these punk bands
00:34:13
giving it some thinking Jesus Christ I'd rather do that for 18 months than this for 50 years so you know we were
00:34:21
absolutely were working class you know when we first started this is absolutely no lie when we first got together as a
00:34:26
band we all had day jobs but it was traditional to give half your wages to
00:34:31
your mom because now you're paying bored for the food for the laundry for the bed
00:34:37
and no so my first pay packet was £8 and I think I gave three of it to my mom so I had five quid to last me the week and
00:34:44
if I went out to bought a ticket for a gig it' be a p25 A50 after your money's gone your borrowing money by three days
00:34:52
before payday that was working class we used to go to the Sheldon Pub just around the corner from our rehears room
00:34:58
and we would buy one pint and get five straws okay now okay and if we bought
00:35:05
the Pint it meant that we were walking home because that was the bus fair you know and we went through that for 18
00:35:11
months two years before we you know it got any traction as a b but the ones
00:35:17
that let left by the wayside were gone you know our first drummer Tony didn't last for more than a year Rick came in
00:35:23
and then we were the same lineup um right up until 1982 when Phil joined and we we had to part company with Pete
00:35:30
Willis our original guitar player and that lineup would have stayed the same had Steve not died and this lineup now
00:35:36
has been together for 32 years because we have something in common that you can't buy I mean I don't
00:35:43
like using the phrase X Factor because of the show but that X Factor that hidden Gene that we've got that's kept
00:35:49
us all focused and on the same page and willing to try different things and not
00:35:55
just shut stuff down at first suggestion of going off the rails a bit we've all
00:36:01
we've all grown into finishing each other's sentences if you know what I mean because it that's a true example of
00:36:06
a band I mean 32 years saying five people pretty impressive when you think of the health issues that we've all been
00:36:12
through Vivian's currently dealing with cancer and has been for four 10 years
00:36:17
you know Rick's got one arm how many one arm drummers are out there you know we've survived we've survived a hell of
00:36:24
a lot of crap that's been thrown at us whether it be from the media or just life General sure and when people say
00:36:29
why do you do it we go wouldn't you I mean you think about take five random people off the street and say what's
00:36:36
happened to you over the last 40 years I think the Downs would be very similar
00:36:42
death divorce you know okay what's your UPS compared to
00:36:47
ours wouldn't be close wouldn't be close because look at what we've been to we we
00:36:52
went down to come up so you appreciate a second wave so much more than you do the first time round we have all the same
00:36:58
all the same feelings in our our lives too absolutely feel grateful I got a question for Mr Joe uh you're you're on
00:37:05
tour as we're plugging with uh I think it's Steve Miller and joury yeah um is that right okay uh the question about
00:37:12
obviously joury has a I'd say new singer but it's been a long time who's great I'd seen him uh with no offense to him
00:37:20
with Steve Perry did you know Steve Perry and will he sing again or is there something where he's just he's done that
00:37:26
is actually a question for Neil Sean but um in my world uh I wouldn't know any of
00:37:32
their internal politics except for all the infighting that was going off between him and Jonathan Kane before the tour started which I don't know on the
00:37:39
surface appears to be you know sorted you know so they they're going on stage and doing it I don't I don't think
00:37:46
they'd be able to I certainly wouldn't be able to go on stage with people I didn't like so I don't but their Dynamics maybe different to ours I did
00:37:52
meet Steve Perry once in 1983 in Lexington Kentucky um I know it's a
00:37:59
bizarre thing to remember we were playing the night after them and we were in the day before so we got invited down
00:38:04
Brian Adams was the opening act it was 1983 I think I saw that and um we were in the dressing room just having you
00:38:11
know just talking to these guys that we'd bought their records and we' seen them on tour in England and then Steve
00:38:17
Perry roller skated into the dressing room so these are the things that you remember CU he like I've never seen that
00:38:23
before you know now the breakup makes sense no I'm just kid I don't know maybe dancing on I voice he's so good and
00:38:30
incredible you know but Arnell arnell's got almost exactly the same voice works
00:38:36
you know of course you think about say Van Halen they totally reset themselves
00:38:41
after they parted company with David Lee Roth sure and they got Sami Hagar in it was almost like a different band or it
00:38:46
was like it was almost like Eddie Van alen joined the Sammi Hagar band because you the the flagship thing is always the
00:38:53
voice and Samy didn't sound anything like David ler Roth whereas um ANL
00:38:58
sounds exactly like Steve Perry cuz he used to be in a in Indonesia he used to be in a journey cover band that's how
00:39:04
they they found him on YouTube well I have a question just like you guys sit around
00:39:09
like first of all I just want to observe that comedians have a like ability quotient I could point to David or Adam
00:39:16
Sandler or friends of mine the audience really likes them I say that your band is really likable and you exude joy and
00:39:23
when I've seen stuff about you guys writing or working together you're kind of giving each other credit like you
00:39:29
came up with a little guitar lick that became Pour some sugar on me and then I think it was Phil just said oh then yeah
00:39:36
that that was that was Joe's and then I put it here I don't know you guys don't seem to compete in that way do you have
00:39:42
any how do you write you sit around with guitars how do you make your songs what's your process well in those days
00:39:48
yeah when we were writing in we'd all be sitting around in a room and it was you see the thing is with this band the boss
00:39:55
is the song it's not me it's not Phil not Sav the the song is the boss and we
00:40:00
work for the song and we bow down to the song and we used to sit around and it
00:40:06
was like literally it would be musically it would always be coming mostly from a guitar player and say well I've got this
00:40:12
riff and then they would play the Riff round and we go okay can we sing any Melodies over that and then it's like
00:40:17
okay where do we go from that riff that's the verse now we need a bridge and a chorus and so people would just
00:40:22
dig out little bits that they've been saving on cassettes or in their head and say Well about I glue this bit together
00:40:27
great example is the song the song hysteria the jangle over the verse was Sav the bridge I think was Phil and the
00:40:36
chorus is Steve and me and mck came up with the Melodies and the lyrics mostly I think Sav came up with the lyric for
00:40:42
the bridge um so it was a total team effort but we've kind of changed a bit
00:40:48
because I think we were a little uncomfortable or not confident enough to walk into a room and go I've got this
00:40:54
song MH we always said I've got this idea for a song Because it's what you did as a band you put it all in the part
00:41:01
and stirred it around but then when you spend more time away because you do a tour and then you get into your 30s and you're married with kids you tour maybe
00:41:08
a bit less and you're at home more you tend to just pick up a guitar or sit a piano or pen and paper and you start and
00:41:14
you finish you don't leave it off finished for somebody else to do so our songwriting changed we still do write as
00:41:22
a team we were doing that as recently as two albums ago but then during the
00:41:27
pandemic when we were going to get together and see what we had when we couldn't get together we wrote literally
00:41:34
individually and presented each other with finnished songs for the most for the first nine and then the following
00:41:41
five Phil did say to me I've got this half idea and he'd send me an MP3 and I would fill in the gaps um so you know
00:41:49
there's a couple of songs that are written by three of us but most of the songs on diamonda Halos were written by
00:41:54
one person um because we all just got confident over the last 12 15 years have
00:42:00
been able to write songs on our own so it just depends on the time of you you know prob kind of feel what works we're
00:42:07
writing jokes and after years you can just think I think this one will work just from so much experience of you guys
00:42:14
playing you might go we need something like this this is a good one what you guys need is this one how do you turn a
00:42:20
duck into a soul singer how I don't know you put it in a
00:42:25
microwave until it's buil with us [Laughter] finally one we haven't heard that's good
00:42:32
B wi my favorite yeah he my favorite joke of all time and it's clean it's amazing and it's music related you can
00:42:37
have that guys you can have that
00:42:44
one I have something for Joe uh I know we're going to wrap you up Joe in a little bit but we appreciate you the
00:42:50
tour and everything and uh talking about it but I will tell you this is not a quickie but it's a story of when we were
00:42:56
doing this movie Joe Dirt Dana I don't think you know this we we um so Kid Rock
00:43:05
was the bad guy so two things one we did get a good song for the trailer and and getting songs in movies is so hard and
00:43:11
especially if we a lowbudget movie you know you go out to Ted nent we go out to you know Joe Dirt was like a rocker and
00:43:18
Joe Dirt loves de leopard right so we cleared wearing a de leopard shirt and
00:43:23
Joe may or may not know the ins and outs of this kind of stuff but so so we have to clear it with somebody and so I wear
00:43:30
as Jo D this de leopard shirt and you have to use a shirt in a positive manner
00:43:35
it's kind of part of the deal you can't be derogatory you can't say negative things it's so weird but it's I get it
00:43:42
so he's my favorite band and now we're doing a scene in Kid Rock and iron an argument and when I leave I said hey
00:43:48
yell to me de leopard sucks because that's like the worst dagger you could say to me so he goes and Death Leopard
00:43:53
sucks and I go you know it's like the last thing I I want to hear so just to finish me off so then we're
00:44:01
not allowed to use the scene because we're breaking the deal with the lefford
00:44:06
so either me or someone got on with someone from the record company maybe
00:44:12
never got to Joe but explained the situation and they said oh so the good guy likes def yeah that's fine you can
00:44:18
keep it or that would have been gone and that's one of my favorite things in the movie and so a he was part of Joe Dirt
00:44:25
this the band was and B we got that one in I think I wore a DEA leopard t-shirt
00:44:30
as as g under you did I remember it well it was a two movies out of two yeah
00:44:37
godamn wow that's yeah David you may well have forgotten this but in 1998
00:44:43
maybe 1999 I met you in the riot house and it was just after that film had come out
00:44:50
yeah yes you don't remember I because we were both drinking um and I remember I
00:44:57
went up to you I said I I've got to do this just for fun I said I heard what you
00:45:04
wrote and then you you looked you went dude I was on your side it was just it was Kid Rock It Wasn't Me said the same
00:45:11
[ __ ] story so cut to about 15 minutes later we were talking at the bar and then we just looked over and there
00:45:17
was Chris Rock Kid Rock and Justin ttim Timber Lake all at the bar and we all
00:45:24
stood as a five for love it hours talking a power five dude yeah and and
00:45:29
Chris Rock broke into singing fooling and then he looked at me like dude black man can't like your music you know it it
00:45:36
was hilarious and then me and Kid Rock went down to a nightclub to watch this
00:45:41
band called Kids In America who did at his covers MH and he dragged me up on stage to do Pour some sugar on me with
00:45:48
him and right in the middle bit when he goes to this little breakdown guitar he went into a rap over the drums and then
00:45:54
we seamlessly came straight back out it until and then back into the song like we'd rehearse it a 100 times love it and
00:46:03
that's that was the same night go I love it wow yeah that's so funny because Kid
00:46:08
Rock is funny because uh he's good to jump on stage he goes this guy gave me a
00:46:14
50 Grand to sing two songs his birthday and I go does he give you another 50 to get
00:46:22
off he stays for two hours um [ __ ] well that's great man that's so fun I love it
00:46:29
um well thank you Joe Danny you got anything else for this young man just a huge fan uh have fun on the tour I I you
00:46:36
got another six weeks or something yeah that's right I'm so glad that you guys actually just did cop on and wear those
00:46:43
de leopard shirts all those years ago because people still doing it now it's just Ur man babies in them I mean it's
00:46:49
czy it was a great shirt it just had a great design I don't know where and we don't care if you take the piss out of us at all because that's life you know
00:46:55
we take the piss of ourselves more than you ever could well I love it man thank you for talking to us and good luck we'll see
00:47:02
you there so far thanks guys be good yeah absolutely come say hi I probably will I yeah absolutely you better I'll
00:47:08
remember it all right than Joe enjoyed it thank you man bye bye this has been a
00:47:13
presentation of Odyssey please follow subscribe leave a like a review all the
00:47:18
stuff smash that button whatever it is wherever you get your podcast fly in the wall is executive produced by Dana
00:47:24
Carvey and David Spade Jenna Weiss of Odyssey and Heather Santoro the show's lead producer is Greg Holtzman
