Joe Elliott recently joined forces with Ghost to record an alternative version of their ‘Spillways.’ It turns out that he and Tobias Forge decided to collaborate when they found out they both admired each other’s music. Recently speaking to Planet Rock, Elliott admitted it was Phil Collen who introduced him to Ghost’s music.
“I’ve been a fan of Ghost since Phil Collen introduced me to them about eight or nine years ago,” the frontman revealed. “I read an article a little while ago about how Tobias was a bit of a fan of Def Leppard, and so we both put two and two together and realized it kind of made five!”
He continued, expressing his admiration for Ghost’s ‘Impera,’ “I’ve been saying out loud for a long time now how much I love the ‘Impera’ album, and how much I really love the song ‘Spillways.’ So, when Tobias got in touch and asked me if I wanted to have a crack at it, I said, ‘Yeah, I can do that!’”
“It was all quite organic,” Elliott said about the collab. He also added, “‘Spillways’ wasn’t broken, and it didn’t need fixing; I just sang it as it is, and I think we sound pretty good together. The video was shot in my local and co-directed by Tobias, and that was a lot of fun too. It was good to actually meet in person and trade stories, ideas, and a few scoops!”
Ghost announced the highly-anticipated collaboration on January 25 with a hilarious video posted on YouTube. In the video, Elliott decides to sing ‘Spillways’ as his karaoke song but struggles to sing along. However, a poltergeist-like spirit overtakes his body, helping him to sing the song.
As Tobias Forge had admitted that they were inspired by Def Leppard’s sound while making ‘Impera,’ and Joe Elliott revealed he’s a big fan of the band, it seems like this collaboration was fun for both sides and indeed exciting for the followers of the two sides.
