Def Leppard's Joe Elliott goes Down 'n' Outz with Mott the Hoople

• Maryanne Bilham-Knight

Down 'n' Outz, a group of some of England's finest players that Joe Elliott originally assembled merely to open for the Mott the Hoople reunion shows in 2009, now have two albums of their own. The Further Adventures of ... is an album of covers of the very band Down 'n' Outz were brought together to support. Elliott, paying homage to his favorite band, acted as curator of the rich Hoople catalog and came out with an extensive and original view of the group's work. Though you can't say this hasn't been done before, it's totally refreshing to hear Elliott fronting a proper glam rock band, and the Hoople songs themselves glitter with a 21st century sheen. I caught up with Elliott recently to talk about the new album, his influences, the upcoming co-headlining tour with Kiss which hits Aaron's Amphitheatre Friday, July 18, and how to flatten warped records.

It's cool to hear you singing with a '70s sounding rock band.

Yeah, well that's my passion really. That's what I grew up with. I was born in '59 and grew up thru the '60s into the '70s so that's all the stuff that I was completely blown away by. It wasn't just Mott, it was Bowie and Roxy Music and T Rex, The Faces, and all that kind of stuff. Very British, actually. They didn't play much American music on British radio. I don't know why that was. But that's the kind of stuff we grew up with. Once I joined the Def Leppard it obviously went off in a different direction because that's what happens when five people get together. They make a plan. It was never going to be like "Lets sound like Mott the Hoople" with Leppard. But to actually go back, and given the chance to do this obviously, it is going to sound a bit like Mott, because they're Mott songs. It was all born by accident. It was never supposed to be a band. It was just going to be a 45-minute performance.

Just an opening set for the 2009 Mott the Hoople reunion shows at the Hammersmith?

Yeah. Ian and the boys said to me, "We just want to have you involved in these shows because we know how much you've kept the name alive for the last 30 odd years." We did the gig and that was it. I cherry picked 10 songs from the era when they abbreviated the name to Mott and got Nigel Benjamin as a singer to complement what Hoople would be playing after I finished my set. So there were no Hoople songs involved in that original set obviously. But when we finished the set we got kind of bombarded by a bunch of kids who were waiting at the bar going, "You've got to record them, you've got to make a record!" It never occurred to me to do that until I got bombarded by these fans. I just said to the guys, "While they're fresh in our DNA, shall we do this?" They said "Yeah!" So we did, and lo and behold, 2010, out came My Regeneration and two top 5 singles in the states with "England Rocks" and "Overnight Angels" which actually went to number one. So all the sudden, I've got this thing that's breathing life into itself, you know, its like a Frankenstein Monster. So it was pretty obvious after the success of the first one that we were gonna do a second record. But of course, this time I could go back to the Hoople stuff because it wasn't an album copying a gig, it was just an album that I cherry picked all my favorite Mott songs.

Did you pick out the songs before you recorded or did you jam on them and see which ones were working?

No, no, no. I just drew up a list of songs. They were quite content to just let me get on with it. They said, "Whatever you want to do, we'll do it." Then I picked all these songs that I thought were the ones we needed to do. I didn't even want to do, you know, the obvious things like "All The Way From Memphis," "All the Young Dudes," and "Roll Away the Stone." I wanted to go into the things like "Violence" and "Marionette," the stuff that you just don't hear anymore. They're phenomenal songs. I thought, well, if maybe just for five minutes us doing it shines a light on these songs so people go "Wow, I can't believe those songs are from 1973-4 and then they go back and check out the originals, then job done, you know?

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I hadn't heard the albums after Ian Hunter left until I heard your record. I checked them out. Drive On is solid.

Yeah, it's a good album, really good album.

You guys nailed "The Journey." Was there any song in particular, since these are songs you grew up on, that you were really stoked to do?

Yeah I was actually really stoked to do "Marionette." It's such an epic piece, even though "The Journey" is nearly 10 minutes, and "Marionette" is only like four. But it's got all these mad parts in it, mad cap laughter, it's like a mini-opera, almost. Rumor has it Freddy Mercury actually wrote "Bohemian Rhapsody" having watched Mott. Mott the Hoople were the only band Queen ever supported, and on that tour Mott were doing "Marionette" every night. Fred would stand and watch it. And although the two songs don't sound remotely like each other, you can see a parallel between them. So, that was a big one for me. "Violence" was another one. "Whizz Kid." But at the same time, I wanted to do some of the standard stuff like "Rock 'n' Roll Queen" and "One of the Boys" because they're just great songs. But "The Journey," you know I had to do "The Journey." The first time I ever heard it, I remember thinking, "Wow, this is an epic of epic proportions." There's a phenomenal guitar solo from Paul Guerin on that track. Not only is it one take, its first take. That's what makes it even more special. I watched him do it, and it was (a) jaw on the ground moment, you know?

Are you guys going to get to do any shows for this record?

Yeah I hope so. Not this side of the Kiss tour but maybe towards the end of the year. I've been offered a couple of things in December that might be doable but I've also got a Def Leppard record to finish as well. They'll be coming to my place in May for a couple of weeks before we hit the road and then we'll be getting back together November-ish. So I'm hoping I'll be able to do a couple of shows come December over Christmas time. For right now, I'm just publicizing it by getting it out on the radio, talking about it. I'll tour it later if it's possible.

So the new Def Leppard won't be out this year?

Absolutely not now, because we won't even finish it til next year. But if we can get it finished early next year, we can get it out for summer, in time for a tour next year. That's always been our plan, but of course we've said that before with Hysteria. It was going to come out in 1985 (laughs). I wouldn't hold your breath.

(Laughs) Well, I think that album was worth the wait. Do you think you might do more with the Down 'n' Outz later?

Absolutely, we've got a third album already half-written. We're done with the covers. We might do the odd cover, but we're done with doing total albums of covers now. We were going to do a third album of other folks, like Paul McCartney and Wings and 10CC and all this mad stuff, but abandoned that and said, "Lets just write one." It would be way more fun to write one. So I've got some songs on the go. Some of them I've had written for a year or more, but I wanted to get the second album out before we start tackling these. It's good to have a lot of things ready. I don't ever want to get into a situation where we have an opportunity to record a record, but we've got no songs written. You know, you can have a song written for two or three years, it's still going to be a new song when it comes out.

Very true. How do you decide which band it's for? The sound of it?

Yeah, pretty much. If you've only got one outlet for your songwriting, you will kind of tend to write that way, I think. With all due respect to Townshend, cuz he's one of the best songwriters that we've ever heard: He always sounds like the Who because that's all he does. Except for a couple of solo records, and even they kinda sound like the Who. I've never actually sat down to write for Def Leppard because up until the Down 'n' Outz, that's all I've ever done. So I've just written stuff, and it's either sounded appropriate or it hasn't. And we've either recorded it or it's just gotten left to one side because it didn't sound enough like Def Leppard. I've got a third project on the go as well, with a girl called Emm Gryner which hopefully will see the light of day next year. So now, I either sit down with an acoustic guitar, electric guitar, or a piano, and see what comes out. And I can either go like, A, B, or C. That's the great thing, I don't have to manipulate the song to fit. I just let it come out in a natural way and go, "ok, I think this is a Down 'n' Outz song" or "this would sound better for Def Leppard." That's just a nice coincidence or a blessing, if you like. I actually have more than one outlet for these things at the moment. You don't have to force the situation.

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So no one is opening the Def Leppard/Kiss tour? You're both doing full 90-minute headlining sets?

I don't know, actually. I've heard rumors that there might be a third on the bill. But as of this moment in time, talking to you, I don't know if that's ever really going to happen, and if it is, I don't know who it's going to be. Both bands are playing for the same amount of time. Both bands have their full production.

I think most people are familiar with Mick Ralphs band after he left Mott the Hoople. What about his replacement, Ariel Bender and Widowmaker?

I saw Widowmaker in '77 or '76. I don't remember much about the gig because I used to go to like five gigs a week. And sometimes, you know, certain gigs, you went, and it would be like trying to remember a meal. You go, and its like, "Ok, whatever." I was never that big a fan of Widowmaker. In fairness, I was never that big a fan of Bender. I mean, he wasn't Mick Ralphs. Mick Ralphs was tasty, Bender was flash. And he was great live. If you listen to The Hoople record, and this is not my opinion, this is what I've read, it's a very piano driven record for a reason. Because Bender didn't bring much to the table. And in fairness, by the time that record came out, he was pretty much gone. Then they brought Mick Ronson in, and that didn't last, sadly. Bender is a great player, but sometimes people just don't fit in. It's like a certain quarterback for a football team, he might work great with one team but not be good for another. Bender always looked fantastic, I'll say that much for him. He looked absolutely phenomenal. A lot of the time that I've heard Bender I've thought "Wow, it sounds a bit off," I've been told afterwords it's because they were like wrestling on the floor while he was playing. (laughs) But, because I wasn't there, I wouldn't know that. So I don't want to slag the guy off because I don't really know. He was an eccentric player, no doubt, because you listen his playing on things like "Marionette" and "Crash Street Kids" and he's very unique. I'll say that much. And, it's memorable. But if I had to pick somebody, I'd way prefer Mick Ralphs.

I saw Leppard the last time you were in Atlanta (2012) and all of the band's background vocals were spot-on. Your voice in particular has held up well. Any tips on how you keep your vocals in shape?

Well, depending on what date you catch me, because I'll be honest with you, if you have the flu or you get a cold it doesn't hold up. It has nothing to do with talent or ability, that's just down to being on the road and having to do a gig when you should probably be in bed. I work extremely hard to maintain what voice I have, that's the best way I can put it. I warm up. A lot of people don't think its cool to warm up, but I think its actually the coolest thing you can do because what's worse than going onstage in front of your own fans and sounding somewhat not like what they expect you to sound like? Everybody in this band works really hard at getting their voices to work. The one thing we've always said we would never do is tapes. We've been accused of it so many times that we end up taking it as a left sided compliment these days. We used to get really angry when they (critics) said, "Their backing vocals were all samples." You're going, "No they're not! Just because most bands that you will review can't sing, doesn't mean to say that the ones that can are faking it." We work really hard to get that blend right. As for me, it's just a case of resting up. I don't go to nightclubs til 5 in the morning after a gig and scream over a DJ. I rest my voice, and I look after it. Especially at my age, because chances are the older you get, your voice just goes deeper and deeper and deeper. The only singers other than maybe me that I can think of that still hit the notes as best they can are Stephen Tyler and Sammy Hagar. Those two guys still really pull it off. A lot of other signers, they change the melodies, they change the keys, they tune down. We tune down, but we've always tuned down. That's just because we do 200 shows a year. That little semi-tone pitch drop, everybody and their grandmother does it these days anyways. In fact, a lot of the speed metal bands go down a tone and a half. You know, as long as we can hit the notes with a certain amount of quality. You've got to put on a show as well so its never going to be totally accurate. If you listen to Viva Hysteria for example, that's totally, totally live. There's not a drop in, not a cheat on that at all. And the same thing goes for Mirrorball. We've always said: "The day we do it with tapes, I'm not going to be in this band." I'd rather we sound shit than sound fake.

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You guys started out like most any other band and released your own record, The Def Leppard E.P., to get your music out there. Did you save any?

I did. Yeah, for the longest time I had a box load of them because they were warped when they came from the manufacturer. We had 1,000 made up and at least 125 of them I couldn't sell because they were all warped. And what I did, I put them away in the cupboard for years, and by accident heavy things got stored on top of them. And lo and behold, about ten years afterward I found them and they were all flat. But over the years, I've given them all away. Now I think I've got like two. The rest of them are all up on e-Bay for $1,000.