DEF LEPPARD'S VIVIAN CAMPBELL: “ I really want to make my mark as a guitar player…”
(Music Media Magazine, July 2017)
Def Leppard’s Vivian Campbell cut his teeth playing lead guitar in Sweet Savage before he was recruited by Ronnie James Dio to join his newly formed solo band in 1983. As the right-hand man of the former Black Sabbath singer, Campbell’s melodic and soulful shred style highlighted the first three classic DIO albums which earned him international recognition. The Northern Irish axe slinger parted ways with Dio in 1986 and a year later he was approached to fill in the lead guitar spot for Whitesnake replacing John Sykes to support the multi-platinum selling 1987 album on their US tour. After his brief stint in Whitesnake he would go on to play with different acts like L.A. based blues rockers Riverdogs and also Shadow King which he formed with Lou Gramm of Foreigner. The last 25 years saw Campbell appearing as the second guitarist of Def Leppard, selling millions of records and playing arenas all around the world. Since 2013 Vivian has been battling with Hodgkin's lymphoma but even this cannot stop him. He recently rediscovered his love and passion for lead guitar playing as can be heard on Last In Line’s debut album and more currently on the comeback effort of Riverdogs called “California”. In the interview below he talks about this particular record as well as guitar playing, gear and more.
The brand new record of Riverdogs has just been released. Initially what was your main purpose when you started writing new material for this record?
Vivian Campbell: “Well, the whole reason we made this record to try and recreate the sound of the original Riverdogs album. Serafino Perugino from the Frontiers label called me a couple of years ago and told me he was a huge fan of the first Riverdogs record. He said to me: “How would you feel about making another album with Riverdogs?” But I would only be interested in releasing the record if you could make it sound like the first one, not the others.” (laughs) He was very specific! You know several years ago we got together and made a mini-album, but it was very casual. Due to the circumstances of that recording it was mostly an acoustic-driven album… It wasn’t the real band playing loud guitars just like on the eponymous first album. This time we worked with a very clear agenda. We got together and the record happened very very quickly…”
The title of the album is California. What does it mean to you guys?
Vivian: “Our singer, Rob (Lamothe) could tell you more specifically about this, but the record in many ways is a concept album. The characters in the songs are extensions of the characters in the original songs. Rob took those songs’ lyrical content as a starting point for the lyrics on this record. It’s also a little bit autobiographical, Rob refers to L.A., Silver Lake, 1989, when we were writing and recording the original album, I mean it’s a very personal sort of a record, and it’s very closely connected to the first album, not just in terms of the songs and styles but also the lyrics and the stories. So California just seem to be the perfect title, you know we all met there, we played shows in California, the first album was made there, we all lived there, so we had very close connections to the state of California and Los Angeles in particular.”
Is it true that you left Whitesnake to join Riverdogs?
Vivian: “Yes it is, yeah… But there wasn’t the only thing there were several different aspects which caused my leaving… That was one of them, yeah… Maybe I would answer for a different question…” (laughs)
As far as your guitar playing is concerned on that particular new record, you might pay a lot more attention to the solos this time around than you used to do at the previous album…
Vivian: “Well, the original Riverdogs record is very guitar intense. I was playing really well that time and there’s a lot of guitars on that one. As I said earlier you know the intention was to make it as close as possible to the original effort. So I knew they wanna hear a lot of guitars and really enjoyed playing this way again. A couple of years ago I put out a record with the band Last In Line consisting Vinny Appice, Jimmy Bain and Andy Freeman, so it’s been a real joy for me in recent years to reconnect with that aspect of my guitar playing. You know in Def Leppard the challenge is not so much for me as a guitar player. It’s much more challenging for me as a singer and a songwriter, since Def Leppard is a very vocal intense band. It’s nice to get back to there I can really discover the joy of that kinda guitar playing again in recent years for several reasons. One of them was my brief tour with Thin Lizzy in 2011. That was something really opened my eyes, because Thin Lizzy was very influential for me when I was a teenager. The guitarists in that band such as Scott Gorham, Brian Robertson and in particular Gary Moore really inspired me. Playing those songs on stage with Brian Downey on drums was amazing. I came back from this tour fully inspired and I wanted to play the guitar again. That led me to call Vinny Appice and Jimmy Bain to form the Last In Line project which led me to do this new Riverdogs record, you know? (laughs) So everything’s kinda moved along and I really enjoy my playing again. I think it’s a nice combination of the fire that I think I’ve always had in my playing and the maturity that I’ve found in recent years through my love for blues music.”
The fire you have in your playing is similar to what Gary Moore had back in his hard rock days. How do you see it?
Vivian: “First of all I’d like to say I was influenced by a lot of great musicians, not only guitar players. Obviously, there are so many great guitar players out there. In latter years I really appreciate Jeff Beck and Mick Ronson. Jeff Beck is to my mind the greatest living guitar player at the moment because he’s so creative, and Mick Ronson is very similar to him, his tone and phrasing is so unique. When I was a younger man they weren’t on my radar so much, you know. So I would say that if I go back to my early formative years as a guitarist the two players that really influenced me were Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore, in that order. I mean Rory was the first guitar player I tried to emulate. The first album I’ve ever owned was his Live In Europe record from 1972. The first concert I’ve ever seen was Rory Gallagher’s gig, so he was the first guitar player I really tried to learn what he was doing, but I would say when I discovered Gary Moore’s playing I was fixated on that. Gary’s passion and playing has been my single greatest influence. He had incredible technique but was also a very versatile player. The first time I heard his playing when he was in Colosseum II, doing his jazz fusion thing with Jon Hiseman. After that he would back to Thin Lizzy, than did his G-Force record and a couple of other solo albums. Eventually he played the blues and he played it incredibly well. Regardless of what style of music he was playing he always put 100 percent into every single note he played. I always felt that there were so many great guitar players who were great technicians but they just went through the technique. Gary never sounded like this, he was always really there in the moment, always committed to what he was doing with so much passion and fire assigned. The single biggest thing that I took away from Gary Moore is play it like you mean it!” (laughs)
Can I ask you about the gear what you used during the recording process?
Vivian: “Sure! As I said we wanted to make the album as close as possible to the original recordings. Nick Brophy is not only a great bass player, he’s actually an engineer, he lives in Nashville and mixes all those big country hits. Nick recorded and produced the album and even talked to Jeff Glixman who produced the original Riverdogs record. They spent a lot of time on the phone talking about different mixing techniques Jeff used on the first record. Nick wanted me to use the original guitars and amplifiers as much as possible. Fortunately I still have all of that! The main guitar that I used on the first album was a Tom Anderson custom strat. I don’t play that kind of guitars anymore, I’ve been playing Les Pauls exclusively in the last twenty-something years. To be honest I probably did 90 percent of the record with the Les Paul but I played that original Tom Anderson strat for certain songs as well. I also used a 1966 Telecaster for some parts as well as a Yamaha hollow body with Bigsby bridge. As far as amplifiers went I got my old custom Soldano SLO 100 head that I used on the first record, I think I did all the solos with it. Most of the rhythm tracks was played through a Marshall JCM 800. That’s the original Holy Diver amp, I made that record with this, but it has since been modified by Reinhold Bogner back in the ‘80s. A tube Randall head that was made for me in 1986 was also used a little bit. That’s it. For the solos I used a Dunlop wah a lot, but I didn’t go through any other pedals. All the effects have been added later at mixing.”
Am I right You used solid state Randalls way back then?
Vivian: “Yes. Back in the Riverdogs days I had the same rack as I was using in Whitesnake. I did have a solid state Randall preamp in that beside the tube Randall head. I neither used the solid state Randall for heavy songs nor for clean sounds, it was useful for sort of an in-between sound, you know? Other than that the amps I mentioned to you were all used on the first Riverdogs record, and that solid state Randall can be heard on that as well.”
Could you please tell me more about your guitars?
Vivian: “The first Tom Anderson that I’ve ever had was a blue model. Once I joined Def Leppard Tom built me some more, I have six of them. I used this blue one on a few different rhythm tracks and can be heard on the solo of the song called “I Don’t Know Anything” as well. You can hear the tremolo bar on that particular solo and that’s the main reason why I don’t feel comfortable playing with the tremolo bar anymore. It’s a whole different thing… I started playing guitar on a Les Paul, I was playing on Les Pauls exclusively until the first DIO album and the first tour. From the second DIO album onwards I was using those Charvel custom strats with the whammy bar. It was the ‘80s and the culmination of that was all the way through the other guitars I played and I ended up playing the Tom Andersons which were the best of all of those hot rodded strats. I was even using them on my first tour with Def Leppard. Once we were in the studio with Def Leppard recording the Slang album in 1996 I started using the Les Pauls again. I felt a lot more comfortable because it’s where I started and more natural for me. On certain things I can benefit from having a guitar like the Tom Anderson model which has single coils, 5 way switch and floating tremolo bar, but I’m basically a Les Paul guy. You can beat the shit out of a Gibson Les Paul, it can take some abuse. It’s fine for me because I’m a very physical guitar player. My two fundamental influences were Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore and both of them could really beat the shit out of that guitar! (laughs) I have that kind of sensibility in my approach to playing guitar, I play very very heavy with my right hand…”
What kind of strings do you prefer?
Vivian: “I’ve gone through the extremes… I think I’ve played the .009 gauge in Sweet Savage and the early DIO days, later I progressed up to .010 and possibly .011 gauge before I went all the way back to very light strings. The lightest string gauge I’ve ever played was a .008 set on my custom Kramer Nightswan guitar that I used in Whitesnake. It was just ridiculous! I was trying to play with a much lighter touch that time, but after about a year I realized that’s not serving my interest as a player so I started getting heavier and heavier. When I did the first Riverdogs record I was probably using a .010 gauge. When I started playing the Les Paul again in Def Leppard about 20 years ago I started getting heavier again and went all the way up to .011, .012, and even .013 gauge. You know I wasn’t playing too much lead guitar in Def Leppard, I was playing mostly rhythm guitar. To my ears rhythm guitar always sounds better with really heavy strings that’s why I was using the .013 gauge. Once I started the chemotherapy I went down to .012 and .011 because chemo really screws up your skin and it was quite painful to play on the .013 gauge. Right now I’m using a custom set from .011 to .050. It’s .011, .015, .018., .030, .040, .050.
Do you guys have any plan to tour with Riverdogs in the not too distant future?
Vivian: “Unfortunately not… It was difficult enough to find time to make the record. It’s not that easy to go on and play shows especially because we don’t live in the same city anymore. There is great expense involved even in just getting together to rehearse. If we were agreed to do it we would have to play songs from the first album that would require us learning those songs again, rehearsing, getting a crew… You know, there’s no time for that and certainly no budget for it. This is a very very low budget record… The time element is the major consideration, I am very committed to not only Def Leppard but Last In Line. I’ll start another Last In Line record in September, I’ll do shows with this band in Europe and in America too. Currently I’m on tour with Def Leppard, I have two children and I’m also dealing with cancer, so I guess there’s a lot going on!” (laughs)
By the way, how is your health condition these days?
Vivian: “I’m happy to say at least of my concerns I’m very fortunate, for the last two years I’ve been a part of a new clinical trial. I’m taking a new experimental drug, which is a part of the new wave of cancer treatment. It’s working for me and I’m very fortunate because it only works for 20 or 30 percent of people who tried it so far. Over the years I’ve done so many different treatments like chemotherapy, stem cell transplant, but the cancer kept coming back. This new treatment has minimal side effects so I’m able to continue my life and my work with very very minor applications to it.”
You always talk about cancer so positively. Has your battle with it changed your mind?
Vivian: “Yes it has actually, I mean, I’d like to think I was always a very positive person, my glass has always been half full, and you know, I’ve never taken my life and my opportunities for granted. It really makes me appreciate that life is a final thing if you know what I mean… When you’re twenty years old you think you would live forever… Now I know we all live on borrowed time, you know? (laughs) But it makes me even more appreciate it and that’s another reason to rediscover my original passion in life which is playing aggressive rock guitar. I think it’s definitely been fueled by the cancer diagnosis as well. I really want to make my mark as a guitar player. Perhaps it’s not very evident when I’m in Def Leppard but I can actually play more than that! So it’s important to me to have Last In Line and Riverdogs…”
Photos by Kelsey Danzeisen
