Def Leppard’s Joe Elliot wants the music world, mostly music journalists and fans that his widely beloved rock group, Def Leppard is anything but a ‘hair metal’ act. While Def Leppard is planning to hit the road, several big-name artists that have a close association with that particular subgenre of rock – including Poison and Motley Crue, it was during a recent interview with Rolling Stone that Elliot echoed a point he made during a previous interview with the widely read popular culture publication that in his opinion, being labeled a “hair metal band” by the press was like a “case of herpes you couldn’t shake.”.
Last year, Def Leppard made this bold claim about this grunge icon. When asked if Elliot still felt that way, the Def Leppard bandmate had the following answer. In addition, Elliot would make the connection how it’s disingenuous to call Def Leppard a ‘hair metal group’ because Robert Plant has hair and that wouldn’t, in his eyes make Plant someone that fits the particular sub-genre. Credit to the outlet for the below.
“It doesn’t bother me until somebody brings it up. What bothers me is if you print in your article that we were. I’ve given people plenty of opportunities to see beyond that. And I don’t have a problem with bands being that if that’s what they want to be. I have a problem with people who can’t see that although the Sunset Strip was alight in 1985, 1986, 1987, we were in fuckin’ Windmill Lane [Recording Studios] and Holland making Hysteria. We were so far removed from all that stuff. I’m not saying we don’t f***in’ have hair, but f***in’ Paul Weller’s got hair! So does Robert Plant, lots of hair! It doesn’t make them hair metal or hair pop. To me, it’s lazy journalism. It’s just lazy.”
Elliot would also say: “We never wanted to be a part of any movement, whether it was the New Wave of British Heavy Metal or hair metal. Our theory was always if a movement dies, everything in it dies. We have to stand alone. There was the Beatles and the Merseybeat [scene]. Those were two different things. That’s how we try and stand.”