OTHER TECH

Is there one thing you weren't able to cover for this project that you'd still like to do someday? We've pretty much gotten those out of our system with the bonus tracks. Everyone did their own. Sav [Rick Savage] did a Queen song ["Dear Friends"]; he sang it and played every instrument. I did [Bowie's] "Space Oddity," and also sang and played every instrument, and Phil did "Search & Destroy." Vivian [Campbell] did "American Girl."

In fairness, I would have loved to have done "Street Fighting Man" by the Stones, but we made a pact not to go near the Beatles and the Stones, so we didn't. "Won't Get Fooled Again" by the Who would have been f--- all to do, but Van Halen have already been there and done it. "Behind Blue Eyes" would have been another one to do, but I think Staind or somebody...

It was Limp Bizkit, unfortunately. Oh, well, they ruined it forever. There's a bunch of things. I could make a living doing cover songs since I'm such a fan of music.

A Def Future

Since you love you day job so much, do you see the band going until you can't go no more? Are you gonna be this generation's Stones and just keep going? As I speak on this particular day, yes, that would be the intention. We'd love to keep doing it. I don't see any reason why we'd want to stop. As long as there seems to be an outlet for what we're doing. You know, I think we're cooler than we were 10, 15 years ago. I'm enjoying every single minute of this rollercoaster ride that is Def Leppard. It's a lot of fun, and very artistically satisfying. There's a lot of artistic freedom that a lot of people don't have a chance to experience. It's a gift. It shouldn't be abused.

I like that you guys don't mind taking chances with projects like Slang and X. I don't think our fans just want us to make albums only "for the fans." The Stones will always be the Stones, and with AC/DC and Aerosmith, you know what to expect, and that's kind of the beauty of it. You kind of know what to expect with us, but you're not entirely sure. It's a path that we're gonna cut through this big field, and you know the big field is our kind of thing. We just have to decide what particular path we're going to take. We're always gonna wanna write pop songs, rock songs, and melodies with big choruses. Maybe one day we'll just do an acoustic album; who knows? We'll do whatever we feel like doing.

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