It’s inevitable for an artist to get influenced by another. In Def Leppard’s case, Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant gave Joe Elliott such a piece of advice that Elliott made a drastic change to improve the sound of their latest album, ‘Diamond Star Halos.’ In a recent interview with Radioacktiva Colombia, Joe Elliott recalled how Plant helped them make an important move.
In a previous interview, Joe Elliott had shared that he secretly told Robert Plant that they were making a new album. Plant then told him he couldn’t keep it a secret as he had to tell Alison Krauss, who is an avid fan of Def Leppard. Following that, Krauss heard the news and wanted to be a part of ‘Diamond Star Halos.’ During his recent interview, Elliott revealed the details of what happened.
“Alison Krauss, a huge Def Leppard fan for decades,” said Joe Elliott, “was working with Robert Plant, who I was talking to about soccer. And then, our manager just bumped into Alison’s manager in Nashville and mentioned we were making a new record. And two and two became this, like, ‘Oh, well, if she wants to sing with the boys, she’s welcome.’ Then she got in touch, Robert said something, and all of a sudden, she’s like, ‘Yeah, I’d love to do it.’”
Elliott then continued, “So, we didn’t know which song to give her. We had the two country-ish songs, ‘Lifeless’ and ‘This Guitar.’ So we sent them both, and she literally said, ‘I can’t pick. I like them both.’ So I just said, ‘Do them both.’ So she did. But the work that she did on ‘This Guitar’ turned a very good song into an absolutely fantastic one. You know, the Queen-like backing vocal arrangements that she and her son put together — because her son’s an arranger, and he got heavily involved in the arrangement of it.”
The Def Leppard icon then stated that Krauss did a fantastic job in those songs, which they couldn’t do themselves. He further recalled, “She said, ‘You can take out any bit you don’t like.’ Then I go, ‘Are you kidding me? We love it all!’ It’s fantastic; it’s taken the song to a whole new dimension that we couldn’t have done on our own.”
So, Joe Elliott got the idea to work with Alison Krauss thanks to Robert Plant, who has been collaborating with the country artist for a long time. In the end, she gave an astonishing performance in ‘Lifeless’ and ‘This Guitar,’ and this helped Def Leppard acquire a new approach to their sound, which they couldn’t before.
