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Joe Elliott

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This article is about the lead singer of Def Leppard. For the DJ of WPOI, see WPOI.

Joe Elliott

Joseph Thomas "Joe" Elliott (born 1 August 1959) is an English singer-songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the British rock band Def Leppard. He is also currently playing in the Mott the Hoople related cover band, Down 'n' Outz.[1]

Early life and Def Leppard

Elliott was born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire and was educated at King Edward VII School. Elliott met Pete Willis, a member of a local band called Atomic Mass, in November 1977 when he missed a bus. After finding out that they were both musicians, Elliott met the rest of the band members and auditioned. He admitted it was the greatest thing he had ever done in his life. The band was impressed by his singing and hired him as a vocalist. The other members even took Elliott's suggestion to change their name to "Deaf Leopard," which was later changed to "Def Leppard" to distinguish them from punk bands, as including an animal in the band name was popular in the punk community in Britain at the time. It has also been suggested that the intentional mis-spelling was partly an homage to "Led Zeppelin." Elliott soon became an integral part of the band while also contributing his songwriting skills.

As a songwriter, Elliott has drawn from his eclectic tastes in music (ranging from pop-rock to folk) as sources of inspiration. He also often comments that the lyrics to Def Leppard's music are almost never personal; they are meant to be easily accessible to the listener. He also plays guitar and drums as well as piano and electronic keyboard.

Side projects

Elliott has worked with several side projects through his career such as participating in numerous tributes to other artists like Freddie Mercury, Alice Cooper, Mick Ronson, Ian Hunter and David Bowie. He had the honour of opening the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992 by joining the remaining members of Queen and guitarist Slash to perform "Tie Your Mother Down".

He also has worked on several projects like The Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood's solo album Slide on This;" Lori Spree's Those Faces;" Ricky Warwick, The Almighty, and others.

He and fellow Def Leppard member/guitarist Phil Collen once had a side project together called Cybernauts. The project was short-lived, and the internet album that was available online has been deleted since its 2001 release.

Released in September 2003 through Sanctuary Records, Ricky Warwick's Tattoos & Alibis was produced by Elliott.

Personal life

Elliott currently lives in Stepaside, Dublin, Ireland. He maintains a recording studio in his home called Joe's Garage in which he has recorded and produced many major artists. Artists have also recorded in Joe's Garage while he has been on the road with Def Leppard. Joe married Kristine September 1, 2004, and as of Dec 2009, they welcomed their first child, a son named Finlay. Joe dated Denise Dakin from 1979–1989, his 1st marriage was to Karla Ramdhani from 1984–1996, dated Bobbie Tolsma from 1999-2003.

Incident in Detroit

On the opening night of the 2008-09 NHL season, Def Leppard performed live on stage immediately after the end of the Toronto Maple Leafs at Detroit Red Wings game in Detroit. Midway through the set, Red Wing forward Darren McCarty drove a motorcycle across the stage with the Stanley Cup on the back. Another Detroit player, Kyle Quincey, handed the cup to Elliott, who walked across the stage with the cup hoisted above his head. He then walked to a nearby pedestal where he was supposed to set the cup down and continue the rest of the song. However, Elliott placed the cup on its end with the base pointed up. Unaware of his mistake he continued back to the stage position as Quincey quickly noticed what happened and turned the trophy back over. Elliott saw this and quipped to the crowd, "Oh its upside down. Well never mind. We're soccer boys, what do we know?" This incident aroused the ire of many hockey fans.

Controversies

On 6 June 2008, in a press conference, Joe Elliott, along with Phil Collen at the Sweden Rock Festival, sharply criticised glam metal bands such as Poison and Mötley Crüe. He said: If you actually look at the way that the 'glam' bands, if you want to call it that, from Los Angeles dressed themselves up, they totally missed the point. When English glam bands from the '70s came on 'Top of the Pops', it was almost an afterthought to what they were actually doing — music always came first, and then they'd be like, 'What are we gonna wear?' . . . Bowie was very image-driven, and maybe the music came second, but a lot of the other bands, it was always about the music — the image thing was just something that they did to just upstage other bands on 'Top of the Pops'; that's what they used to do. So we were never driven to do the mascara thing or whatever these bands did. They didn't have any substance musically, I don't think, in comparison to us, so we didn't feel we needed to do it. Bands that do that are doing it to cover up the fact that there is no substance in their music. The only band — and I'm not saying it because we're here — the only band that did pull it off was Hanoi Rocks. I thought Hanoi Rocks were a good band, and they looked… Michael Monroe (Hanoi frontman) was one of the best… I would have shagged him. [Laughs] I like Michael, I think he's sexy, and I'm not gay. And I think Andy McCoy (Hanoi guitarist) does the best kind of Keith Richards... so much better than Mötley Crüe or Poison or any of those bands. They (Hanoi Rocks) were real — the rest of the guys, it was all a bit fake for me.

In 2010, Elliott criticised the British music press, which he accused of ignoring his band and narrowing popular taste: I wanted to be in the biggest band in the world. And we were a couple of times. People in Britain don’t realise. We don’t get the credit we deserve in Britain. It’s nice to walk down Oxford Street without being recognised but then again when music magazines write about us they take the piss because we’re not as cool as Johnny Marr, who isn’t as successful as us by a million miles. Jools Holland won’t have us on his show because we’re not cool enough. Rock’s ploughed its own furrow for 30 years but still music magazines don’t give rock its due and still rave on about Nick Drake. How many more front covers do Paul McCartney and Morrissey need? Our album will sell more than Morrissey’s so why don’t we get the same kind of respect? There are more people than Bono and Michael Stipe to put on the cover of a magazine. Whether it’s Simon Le Bon, Gary Kemp, Bruce Dickinson or me, there are more musicians out there. It’s not just Lennon and Jim Morrison. Bands who have sold shitloads of records, whether it be us or Depeche Mode, are becoming footnotes.[2]

Discography

With Def Leppard

Main article: Def Leppard discography

References

  1. ^ Wiederhorn, Jon. "Def Leppard Frontman Launches Mott the Hoople Cover Band - Noisecreep". Noisecreep. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
  2. ^ "Joe Elliot: Def Leppard don't get enough respect".

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