Joe Elliott recalls Def Leppard audition: “They felt sorry for me”
While Joe Elliott has been a member of Def Leppard for over 45 years and appeared on all of their studio albums, he wasn’t a founding father of the hard rock group.
Elliott proved to be the final piece of the jigsaw that placed the band in a strong position to announce themselves in British musical folklore. However, it wasn’t an instant fairytale and it took many years of dedication for Def Leppard to become established with Elliott admitting that he was far from the finished article upon joining.
Before Elliott, Def Leppard had already been through two lead vocalists and were desperately looking for someone to fill the role on a permanent basis, but by the frontman’s own admission, the group were an amateur operation.
During an appearance on the Rockonteurs Podcast, hosted by Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt, Elliott revealed they didn’t even have a rehearsal place to practise their craft. “This was a real Victorian dump hole,“ Elliott said of their first residence. “I mean, it was a grotty, snotty, shitty little place, but it’s perfect for a band in 1977.”
Due to not having anywhere to play, Elliott had become their frontman for an extensive period before his bandmates had even heard him sing as they had focussed on making sure the rehearsal space was in a somewhat acceptable state, recalling, “I’d been in the band six weeks before I even sang a note. It’s like now, no pressure, but now you’ve got to sing. And we were going to do ‘Stairway to Heaven.’”
Unfortunately, the Led Zeppelin cover didn’t go according to plan, with Elliott messing up his part, revealing, “I couldn’t do it; I was singing an octave down.”
He admitted: “I didn’t know Led Zeppelin. I didn’t have an older brother that was [introducing him to music]. I was into T-Rex. So Zeppelin, Sabbath, most of Deep Purple except for the singles, was not my thing. Only because the situation of my neighbourhood friends weren’t into that.”
Out of sympathy, Elliott was given a second opportunity to sing for his supper, choosing upon ‘Suffragette City‘ by David Bowie. While he didn’t pass the test with flying colours, it was enough to stop him from being removed from the band, which he believes has more to do with his DIY work in the rehearsal space rather than his musical abilities.
Elliott stated: “I think they only kept me out of like, you know, they felt sorry for me. He’s been here, he’s helped us decorate the place, we might as well keep him on… There was nobody else [to sing], though. That was the thing.”
Although it was a rough start for Elliott, he soon found his voice, and helped Def Leppard on their ascent to becoming one of the biggest rock acts of the 1980s. If it wasn’t for his generous work as a handyman, this may have not turned out to be the case.
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