In a new interview with Sweetwater, the Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell revealed Thin Lizzy asked Joe Elliott’s permission to borrow him. Talking about taking some time away from the band, the rocker reminisced about the day the Thin Lizzy members called Elliott to borrow him while he was not touring:
“I always get itchy fingers when we take that amount of time off. As it happened, Scott Gorham was getting a version of Thin Lizzy back together with Brian Downey, the original drummer, and Darren Wharton, the keyboard player. First of all he called Joe Elliott and said ‘Joe, I hear you’re not touring, can I borrow Viv?’ Joe said, ‘Absolutely, yeah.’ So he had to ask permission and then Scott called me and I was like, ‘Hey, yeah.'”
He then went on to explain how Thin Lizzy affected his life and music career:
“Lizzy were such an important band to me, I gotta say. When I was 16, 17, whatever, when I was really focusing on my craft and really trying to find my way as a guitar player, Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham, the two original guitar players. I knew every lick of ‘Live And Dangerous.'”
Campbell’s Favorite Solo Was Played By Another Guitarist
Campbell has a history with the Thin Lizzy hit ‘Don’t Believe A Word.’ It turns out that the guitarist initially believed another guitarist played the solo, but upon conversing with the other guitarist, it became evident that it was actually his solo. Following in the same interview, he continued with the story:
“And it’s a funny story about that. So we got into the rehearsal room and ‘Don’t Believe A Word,’ which is a Brian Robertson guitar solo 100%, and I started playing the solo when rehearsing, and Scott was ‘Whoa whoa whoa, what are you doing?’ I said, ‘Well, I’m playing Brian’s parts, you play your parts because you’re Scott Gorham.'”
The rocker even shared his disbelief with Gorham:
“He says, ‘I played that solo.’ I went, ‘No, you didn’t. Sorry, Mr. Gorham, no, you didn’t.’ He says, ‘Well, I play the second half of it.’ I said ‘Are you sure?’ He says ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Okay, I’m not gonna argue,’ so we trade it off.”
Phil Lynott Is Campbell’s Rock God
In an earlier interview, Campbell was the highlighted guest during the ‘Rock God’ segment. The Def Leppard guitarist selected the late Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott as his rock God and stated that witnessing Thin Lizzy and Lynott get internationally successful was really cool and that they were one of the coolest bands in the industry back in the 70s. In addition, Lynott also helped him and his former band to ‘move beyond what it is that we see around us in our daily lives and to dream big.’
You can watch the interview below.
