VIVIAN: For years I wanted a Strat - I had a strat copy once - and I worked and worked to save enough for a real one. Then one summer, after I'd worked the whole holiday, my dad surprised me by buying me a Fender 'cause he'd heard me talk about it for so long. Problem was, it was a Telecaster! And a Thinline model at that - with the F-hole and humbuckers. It was totally un-rock n' roll, though they're considered cool now. I couldn't tell my dad that it wasn't what I wanted, so I thought I'd keep it a while and then later sell it towards a Strat. Then I discovered Thin Lizzy: Robertson, Gorham and of course Gary Moore. It was Gibson Les Paul from there on in. To be honest, I always thought that the Les Paul looked cooler than the Strat anyhow, even when I was on course to buy a Strat.

 
Ever since you joined DL, you've added a special dynamic to the backing vocals that I really appreciate. My question is ­ have you ever had any professional vocal training? Who are your primary influences in the vocal world and what do you do before a show to warm up vocally? -- Chris, Dayton OH

VIVIAN: I started taking vocal lessons in 1987 when I joined Whitesnake. It was something that I always wanted to do, but I lacked confidence that I could do it. After a few different teachers and a few various methods, I began to realize that the voice is a muscle like any other and singing is a skill that can be learned and built upon. I always enjoyed listening to soul singers and I believe that style grew out of blues and gospel music. The human voice is, after all, the most expressive instrument that there is both in terms of scope, timbre and nuance of sound, and in the fact that it is also translating a message or story through the use of language. I don't really have favourite singers, per se, but I was always a fan of John Lennon, Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding and the likes. Basically anyone believeable!
Thank you for noticing the Leppard vocal strength as it's something that we all pride ourselves on and work hard to maintain. We warm up before every performance using a technique that my vocal coach, Roger Love, taught the band in 1992 after I had joined for the 'Adrenalize' tour. We frequently have people ask us if we're using vocal samples or backing tapes in our live performances and, frankly, we'll take that as a compliment.

 
I can hear a really strong Gary Moore influence in your vocals and blues guitar. Which of Gary's guitar lives influenced you the most: the rock years or his blues years ? -- David Hightower

VIVIAN: I actually first heard Gary play jazz-rock-fusion as a member of the band Colosseum. His technique and passion intrigued me, even though I wasn't a fan of the genre. In later years it was his forays into rock that got my attention. To be honest, I'm absolutely not a fan of Gary's voice. That's not to say that I don't think he can sing - I think that he, too, has worked hard at and gotten much better at his technique as a singer - it's just that I don't like the tonality of his instrument. As a guitarist, however, he has few peers in terms of pure, unadulterated passion, married to a fierce and direct technique. It's testament to his brilliance as a player that he has so successfully mastered so many styles of music. But to directly answer your question, it was Gary Moore the rock guitarist who influenced me. My main blues influence - and pre-Gary guitar hero - was Rory Gallagher.

 
You have gone from the 'guitar, cable, Marshall head to cabinet' method to a monster rack in the nineties. It seems you have scaled your rig back a bit over the last 8 years or so. Can you give us your current signal path and your thought on the evolution of your gear? -- Marc Paradise, Minneapolis

VIVIAN: When I was a kid playing guitar I always lusted after gear and wanted to experiment with different effects pedals and find new sounds. When I joined Dio in 1982, I had a very direct setup of Les Paul, through an overdrive pedal, into a Marshall. In the later years I tried out various different amps, guitars, effects and switching systems. However, playing blues music over the last couple of years, I rediscovered the purity of a direct signal path. Then again, blues is very different from modern music in terms of sonics and the gear required to make them!
My setup with Def Leppard has remained basically unchanged for the last several years and consists of Marshall JMP preamps, various rackmount effects units, and Marshall and Mesa Boogie power amps all being united though a Bradshaw switching system. This amount of equipment and the versatility of a midi-programable switching system is very necessary in a band like Leppard, as our music is multi-layered with many delay-dependant programe changes, and a LOT more intricate than is blues.
The equipment I used on "Two Sides Of If" is actually all listed, song by song and in great detail, in the CD booklet itself. I wanted to include that because it's the kind of thing that would have interested me as a guitar kid!

 
I am a collector of Def Leppard guitar picks and there seem to be a whole load of different ones from you (more than any other band member). Do you keep at least one of each version yourself as well or don't you really care about that kind of thing? -- Tony Smithson, Bath (UK)

VIVIAN: I have a few, but not all of my previous picks. I didn't keep any of the early ones from the Dio or Whitesnake era at all. The reason that I've had so many is that my playing continues to change, and with that, my requirements. I always used to use plastic picks, but they kept getting heavier and heavier, till I eventually switched to using the exact same metal picks that Phil Collen uses. I've been using those for about the last 7 years or so with Def Leppard.
However, when I was playing blues so much in advance of recording "Two Sides Of If", I came to find the metal pick to be too edgy and I started to use my fingers to pluck at the strings more. After a while I settled on using a 1mm tortex pick for blues together with my fingers, and now find myself going back and forth depending on whether I'm playing rock or blues.
The one constant, though, is that I'm using my right hand fingers more and more. Also, I have always had different picks that I use for acoustic guitar. Those have always been slightly lighter plastic or tortex. I had a small batch of customized picks made with the "Two Sides of If" album title and logo also. I guess I've just got a lot of picks going on!

 
I got interested in you new blues record after I h heard some samples on your web site. All of them sound really great! Totally different from what us fans are used to hear from you. However, all songs are covers, but have you ever tried to write blues songs yourself? -- Edward, Monterrey (Mexico)

VIVIAN: I have started a few blues originals and if I get the opportunity to make another blues record then there will definitely be several originals on it. But a lot of 'new' blues music that I hear falls well short of the mark to my ears as it's difficult to work within the traditional confines of blues structure. On the surface it seems really simple, but to do something fresh within blues is a real challenge.

 
Having recently seen Def Leppard live on the ROCK OF AGES tour, one thing that I really noticed was the strength of your performance and how comfortable both yourself and Phil Collen are playing guitar together. In terms of playing Def Leppard material, have you personalised the songs in any way and have you introduced any blues-style techniques into your playing with Def Leppard? -- Richard Evans, Newcastle, UK

VIVIAN: Phil and I work very well together as we're both more concerned with playing for the whole song rather than playing for the guitar solo only. The Def Leppard sound involves many intricate guitar layers and it's rare that Phil and I play exactly the same thing at the same time. In fact, when we do play similar chords they are always of different inversions. It's also true to say that we're both very different players; I'll readily admit that Phil's a much more technically gifted player than I, but I believe that my blues-based approach lends itself to some of the more melodic aspects of Leppard's music.
To answer the latter part of your question, for the most part I don't personalize the Steve Clark solos that I play as they were often very thematic in nature and thus integral to the song. "ARMAGEDDON IT", for example, is a solo that I try to play pretty much exactly as he did. Other solos, such as those in "TOO LATE FOR LOVE" are more open to interpretation and in that case I tend to only loosely base my solos on the original. As regards bringing blues into Leppard, the only opportunity I have to subvert the perfectionist nature of the mighty Leppard is during the end solo of "LOVE BITES", where I'm given free-reign to improvise. That's where you'll hear me squeeze in my blues licks!

 
Do you plan to stay involved with Def Leppard even after "Two Sides Of If", or are you going to leave the band? -- Dagger Dias, Stephenville, TX

VIVIAN: Recording a blues album is very much a side project for me. That's in no way to say that it's unimportant to me, but I have absolutely no intention of leaving my "day job". I'm hopeful that I'll be able to record other blues records and perform shows, too, but only as the schedule with Leppard permits.

 
I first saw you live at the Spectrum in Philadelphia with Dio on the "Last In Line"-tour and have been a big fan of your playing ever since. Also saw you live with Whitesnake in Philly when you opened for Motley Crue. And, I bought the Riverdogs and Shadow King records! I'd love to know what your favorite recorded tracks are from throughout your entire career. - Colin McCormick, Ireland

VIVIAN: Although I was unconvinced at the time, upon listening to my early work on the first two Dio albums recently, I can finally appreciate the fire that I played with. I didn't have a lot of technique compared to most of my peers, but that's not what music always calls for. Try telling me that at the time, however!
I didn't get the chance to record with Whitesnake, with the exception of one guitar solo on "Give Me All Your Love Tonight". So obviously there's not a lot to choose from. However, I did have my favourite spots during the live show and one of those was playing the solo on "Is This Love" which was a particularly melodic solo as recorded by John Sykes.
With Riverdogs I basically overplayed! Every time I hear that record I wish that I'd played with a bit more restraint. Sure, there are songs where it's appropriate, such as "I Believe", but other than that, I just threw too much into it. At the time I was getting a lot of pressure from the record company and the producer to have the album feature lots and lots of guitar as they wanted to trade upon my associations with Dio and Whitesnake. That totally missed the point of the band, however, but that's record companies for you! Still, I'd like to think that in the context of the live shows we performed my playing was a bit more what it should have been ­ away from the leering eyes of over-zealous record company execs!
The Shadow King project was never something that developed in the way that I had hoped and had been led to believe it would. The original premise for the band was that it was to be like a modern-day version of Free, as Lou Gramm and I were both big fans. Obviously it didn't turn out anything at all like that! I actually didn't play much (if any) of the rhythm guitar on the record as I was in constant dispute as to how it should be done. In the end, I left the rhythm playing to bass player and principle writer, Bruce Turgon, and I returned to do the solos a few weeks later. It's not something I consider a high point of my playing history, which is a shame really as I believe that it could have been really great if it had been allowed to nurture along the original lines.

 
How did you end up getting your own Kramer model, the Nightswan, and do you still have some of them? -- Tim

VIVIAN: Immediately prior to my stint as a member of Whitesnake in 1987/'88, I was in Dallas, TX attending a guitar show. Whilst there I met a chap called Buddy Blaze who built custom guitars and, after much discussion about what I looked for in an instrument, he offered to build one for me. Buddy ended up getting a job at Kramer Guitars a few months later and the guitar in question developed into the Nightswan model which I used for the entire Whitesnake tour.

 
During Def Leppard's "Adrenalize" tour, you mainly played Tom Anderson guitars but now you hardly even mention them anymore. Any thoughts? -- Danny, New York, NY

VIVIAN: I still have those Anderson strats - six in all - that I used on the "Adrenalize" tour. They're great instruments, but after that tour I re-evaluated where it was I wished to go as a guitar player and I found myself back where I started; playing a Gibson Les Paul. I haven't played a whammy-bar guitar on stage in years and every time I pick one up I feel a little uncomfortable with it. My style of playing has gone through many changes over the years, and I had my time playing strat-style guitars and using whangy-bars, but in the end I went back to the basics with a fixed-bridge instrument, and I'm glad that I did as I feel that it challenges me to focus more on the fundamentals of guitar.

 
When Def Leppard performed on VH1 Storytellers, Joe Elliott said that he would like to play "DESERT SONG" live but no one else in the band does. Are there are any Def Leppard songs that you dont like playing and are there any songs you rarely play or haven't played that you would like to perform live? -- Richard, UK

VIVIAN: I enjoy playing just about all of the Leppard songs live, but generally speaking, ballads are not as much fun to play live as the uptempo tunes. "DESERT SONG" wasn't a hit single so it would be hard to justify playing it at the expense of one of the band's other better-known songs. We're fortunate in that we have a vast array of (near) hit songs to draw upon and as such we need to appease the majority of our concert-going fans who expect to hear those songs. If we were to substitute a better known song for something more obscure I doubt that "DESERT SONG" would be at the top of anyone's list of 'to do' songs. Except maybe for Joe's.

 
What was the last album that you bought that really kicked your ass? -- Yann, France

VIVIAN: Nothing new, I'm afraid. That's not to say that there's nothing new worth buying - I'm sure that there is, it's just that new music doesn't always get the mainstream exposure that it needs in the current climate of music business politics and, personally, I can't afford the time to go and search for it. The last album that I bought that really piqued my interest was "Fleetwood Mac in Chicago 1969". Not exactly cutting-edge, eh?

 
What's happening with the Riverdogs now?? -- Steve, UK

VIVIAN: Alas, not too much is happening with the Dogs currently. We started writing and recording some new songs - some of which are finished - a few years ago, and we even played a few live shows in Southern California last August, but being that we now all live in various different parts of the USA, have children and demanding 'day jobs', it's proving very difficult to get us all on the same page at the same time. That said, we haven't given up on the notion that some day (soon, we hope) we'll get together and finally finish the job. Of course, even when we get to that stage we still have to secure some sort of record deal to release the work. Any offers?

 
You once famously said that during the time you were in Dio, you didn't even like hard rock or heavy metal, and over the years you've often shared your affection for pop music. However, most (if not all) of the bands you played in, were all (hard) rock. How come someone who doesn't prefer hard rock keeps ending up in rock bands? -- Stan, San Lorenzo, CA

VIVIAN: It's not that I don't like hard rock, or that I never liked it, it's simply that I don't subscribe to the belief that you can only enjoy one kind of music. After all, I eat and enjoy many and various different kinds of food - doesn't everyone? I think the confusion comes from the fact that during my Dio days I was discovering my passion for other music outside of guitar-driven hard rock which had been my staple musical diet during my teenage years.
As a teenage guitar kid, I was focused only on music that glorified the guitar. Obviously hard rock and heavy metal are the genres that satisfy that craving. But later, when I was playing that genre day-in and day-out, I found myself drawn more towards melodic, organic and soul-inspired music. I still enjoyed the energy derived from hard rock, but on a personal level I found myself not wanting to listen to it in my free time. Since then I have even found enjoyment in classical and, believe it or not, country music - a genre I despised as a teen!
I believe that as human beings we are in a constant state of growth and change all throughout our lives. We all have are favourites, but even they can change with the passage of time. Fortunately for me, being in Def Leppard can satisfy both the hard rock and the pop/melodic yearnings at the same time. The organic side of music, however, is not Leppard's area of expertise and thus I find myself from time to time engaging in extra-curricular activities such as playing with Clock or recording albums of blues standards.

 
Attached is a picture from the very first Dio show at The Concert Barn in Antioch, California on July 23, 1983. Yes, I was there.....as were several of my friends. One is currently Green Day's tour manager and he related this story to me today:
Green Day went to the VH1 Big In 2005 show last night to receive an award. As they were walking down the backstage stairs, Def Leppard were walking up. Somebody off to the side asked the Leppard guys what they were going to play. Vivian Campbell kiddingly answered that he didn't know but he hoped somebody told him soon. Then I told him they should play a Sweet Savage song, maybe "Eye Of The Storm." The look on his face was amazing -- complete shock. He went, "Oh wow! That's a good one" and pointed at me. Full on groupie moment! It reminded me of when he came out to the line in Antioch to sign autographs and was bombarded with Sweet Savage questions!
I'd love to find out Vivian's thoughts on the incident if possible. My friend was not making fun of him - we've been fans of his guitar playing for THAT LONG! So the encounter was quite amazing to us. -- Brian, San Francisco, CA

VIVIAN: It certainly took me by surprise - not only did he mention Sweet Savage, but this guy actually knew the songs, too! It's an interesting picture of me with my original Les Paul, #72987537. I'm very flattered that people remember Sweet Savage after all these years.

Do you have a question for Vivian? Send it to Ask@VivianCampbell.com and maybe you will see it answered here soon!

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