{"id":479824,"date":"2018-12-13T06:15:12","date_gmt":"2018-12-13T13:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=768314"},"modified":"2018-12-13T06:15:12","modified_gmt":"2018-12-13T13:15:12","slug":"def-leppards-joe-elliott-on-rock-hall-induction-its-a-badge-of-honor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/music-news\/def-leppards-joe-elliott-on-rock-hall-induction-its-a-badge-of-honor\/","title":{"rendered":"Def Leppard\u2019s Joe Elliott on Rock Hall Induction: \u2018It\u2019s a Badge of Honor\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

It\u2019s about three hours before Def Leppard<\/a> will take the stage at the Manchester Arena, and frontman Joe Elliott<\/a> is backstage prepping for a fan meet-and-greet and trying to wrap his head around the fact that his band has just been inducted the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame<\/a> after appearing on the ballot for the very first time.\u00a0They\u2019re nearing the end of a long year of touring \u2014 including a massively successful American run with Journey \u2014 but Elliott doesn\u2019t sound the least bit exhausted as he speaks with Rolling Stone<\/em> about the honor, what might happen that night, bands he hopes to see inducted in the future, late Def Leppard guitarist Steve Clark, and the possibility of a super jam with Radiohead, the Cure, the Zombies, Roxy Music, Stevie Nicks and Janet Jackson.<\/p>\n

Congratulations!
<\/strong>Thank you! Appreciate that.<\/p>\n

How do you you feel?
<\/strong>It\u2019s one of those situations that\u2019s been on the back burner for a couple of months because once we actually got nominated we were like, \u201cOK, cool. That\u2019s stage one.\u201d I talked about it a lot with some media people in October\/November and I said, \u201cWe\u2019re not going to get overly excited until, if, we are inducted properly.\u201d Then we saw what the fan vote was doing. We aware that people around the planet were watching it on a daily basis. We were being informed daily how we were nudging ahead of Stevie [Nicks] and then there were comments like, \u201cDo you know that every winner of the fan poll over the past six years has been inducted?\u201d We were, \u201cOK, cool. That\u2019s interesting to know.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then we finally find out we\u2019re in. Now we can stop holding our breath and go, \u201cGreat! How wonderful to be in the same club as the Rolling Stones and the Beatles and the Who and Queen and etc., etc.\u201d It\u2019s nice. It\u2019s a good club to be in.<\/p>\n

Who told you that you were in?
<\/strong>Mike [Kobayashi], our manager. He\u2019d just got a call. He\u2019d come in on a daily basis and say, \u201cYou\u2019re doing really well on the fan vote, but we won\u2019t know anything until December.\u201d Then yesterday morning, I think, he told us. He gave me a big hug and said, \u201cCongratulations!\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you feel weird about being in before Mott the Hoople, T. Rex and a lot of your heroes?
<\/strong>You know what? It\u2019s a funny thing. It is a very American institution. The influence that British music has had on American artists over time, especially in the Sixties and Seventies with bands like the Rolling Stones, the Who, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Black Sabbath, was massive. But there are bands that weren\u2019t as popular as them and didn\u2019t necessarily take off the States, but were extremely influential on people. I\u2019m ecstatic that Roxy Music are in. Many\u00a0Americans probably didn\u2019t know much about Roxy Music until Avalon<\/em> [in 1982], but the truth is in 1972 when they put out \u201cVirginia Plain,\u201d between them and David Bowie they instantly, overnight changed the face of pop music.<\/p>\n

It was a huge thing that influenced everything from Siouxsie and the Banshees to Duran Duran to Spandau Ballet, Human League \u2026 there\u2019s a million artists that count Roxy Music as a major influence. For the more brick-layer rock, if you like, there\u2019s Queen and Slade and artists like T. Rex and Mott the Hoople. It is a little sad that they don\u2019t get the recognition. I imagine that\u2019s because most people on the committee are American East Coast and they go, \u201cWell, they didn\u2019t really make any impact.\u201d Well, yes they did. Not on your shores, but they did in the U.K. and that shouldn\u2019t be ignored.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost like there should be a sub-ceremony for the British Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in London that can acknowledge bands that did something over here and didn\u2019t necessarily make a big impact in America. Slade in 1973, 1974 was playing like the Beatles did 10 years previous, but it never happened in America. That\u2019s a big cultural thing for people like me that didn\u2019t step out of the U.K. until I was 21.<\/p>\n