Joe Elliott has spent greater than 40 years because the frontman of Def Leppard, however the singer believes he was solely handed the job as a result of his bandmates felt sorry for him.

Throughout an look on The Rockonteurs podcast, Elliott detailed how the fledgling Def Leppard got here collectively.

“It was (guitarist) Pete Willis, (bassist) Rick Savage and Tony Kenning was the unique drummer,” Elliott recalled, noting that the band’s precedence on the time was discovering a rehearsal area.

The group finally arrange store in a closed manufacturing facility that had beforehand manufactured silverware. “This was an actual Victorian dump gap,“ Elliott famous. “I imply, it was a grotty, snotty, shitty little place, however it’s excellent for a band in 1977.”

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The singer and his bandmates tried to enhance the area, portray the partitions, placing up posters and including a sofa and a few rugs they’d discovered mendacity in a close-by alleyway. After spending many days reworking the room, the band was lastly able to rehearse.

‘Now You’ve got Bought to Sing’

“I might been within the band six weeks earlier than I even sang a word,” Elliott admitted. “It is like now, no strain, however now you have to sing. And we had been going to do ‘Stairway to Heaven.’”

The band tried overlaying the Led Zeppelin traditional, however issues did not go properly.

“I couldn’t do it,” the frontman confessed. “I used to be singing an octave down.”

“I didn’t know Led Zeppelin,” Elliott continued. “I didn’t have an older brother that was [introducing him to music]. I used to be into T-Rex. So Zeppelin, Sabbath, most of Deep Purple apart from the singles, was not my factor. Solely as a result of the scenario of my neighborhood buddies weren’t into that.”

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Elliott requested if he might attempt a distinct music, with the band finally deciding on David Bowie’s “Suffragette Metropolis.” The rendition went higher and Elliott was invited to remain within the group. Nonetheless, he concedes that his hiring probably had extra to do together with his work fixing up the rehearsal area, relatively than any expertise he displayed on the microphone.

“I feel they solely stored me out of like, you realize, they felt sorry for me,” the frontman confessed. “He’s been right here, he’s helped us adorn the place, we’d as properly preserve him on… There was no person else [to sing], although. That was the factor.”