Def Leppard singer Joe Elliot discussed Greta Van Fleet in a new ET Canada interview. Def Leppard were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last week. ET asked Elliot if he followed new rock bands.
“Not much. I’ll be honest. But the two obvious ones – there’s Greta Van Fleet, which is the big thing at the moment. Or Greta Van Zeppelin, as somebody’s called them. [Laughs]
But, yeah, they sound like Led Zeppelin. So what? When we started out, we sounded like Queen and AC/DC. So, everybody’s gotta start somewhere. It’s okay to wear your influences on your sleeve these days, I believe.
My favorite new band, though, are The Struts. I say ‘new’ – they’ve been around for five years. Five years in The Beatles’ career is more than half their career. But things have changed a lot.
I’m a big fan of [The Struts]. I think Luke [Spiller], the singer, is an absolute star. He deserves to be on the stadium stages. Hopefully one day he will be.
But that’s pretty much it. I don’t go searching for it anymore. When I was 16, every band was my band. And now, it’s, like, unless somebody just plunks it in front of me and goes, ‘You’ve gotta listen to this,’ then I will. But I haven’t got the time.
When you start making your own music, you start to drop that ‘fanboy’ thing. You’re always a fan – I mean, I’m always a fan – but, seriously, my record collection, if I never heard anything from 1979 onwards for the rest of my life, I’d be a happy boy.
And that’s coincidentally when we started out. ‘Cause that’s when I started concentrating more on what I do rather than what I listen to.”
