Vivian Campbell Says It’s ‘Important’ to Make New Def Leppard Album
Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell predicts the band will start work on their 12th album in 2019, despite dwindling sales of physical copies. You can listen to the full interview with 101.9 The Keg below.
“I think there's a few things that keep bands vital,” Campbell said. “For Def Leppard, one of those things is that we continue to occasionally make new albums. It's been a couple of years; I think we'll do another one. But we still do that, even though some people say, 'Why do you even bother? People just wanna hear your hits. You do very good business by just going out and playing your hit songs.' But it's important for the lifeblood of Def Leppard as a band that we continue to be a creative unit."
Listen to Vivian Campbell's Interview
He added that the band is still creatively active. “Individually, we're always writing songs,” Campbell said. “So, I know that if we decided next week to go into the studio, we would have plenty of ideas to get started on. We haven't officially discussed it yet, but I would imagine, this year, 2018, is a very, very, very heavy touring schedule for the band. We're doing 60-plus shows with Journey in North America. Then we're going [to] Hawaii, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and England, and we finish in the U.K. on December 18th. I don't think we'll probably tour quite as heavily in 2019. So, there's a very strong chance we'll probably get into the studio and at least start on a new record next year."
That said, Campbell is well aware of this era's shifting commercial paradigm: “The landscape has changed, and the music industry has changed, and how people consume music, how they acquire it and how they buy it and how they listen to it, all that is very, very different than what it was back in the '80s and '90s. But what hasn't changed with Def Leppard is we'll always try and make the best record we can, we'll always try and write the best song that we can. So, that work ethic is not gonna change in Def Leppard.”
Last year, Campbell's colleague Phil Collen said three songs had been written for a future Def Leppard project, but that it might not lead to a full-length project. "The great thing about music now is you can do it anytime with your computer," he noted. “I don’t know when it’s going to come out. It’ll probably be a traditional album, but you never know. If someone says we need a new Def Leppard song, we’ll put it out. It’s great to have every option available.”
Their last album was 2015’s Def Leppard. It went to No. 1 on Billboard's Top Rock, Top Hard Rock and Independent Albums charts, while reaching No. 10 on the Billboard 200.