WILDMAN JOE INSISTS IT'S TILL DEF DO US PART.
The Mirror (London, England); 11/19/2004
He's known as Ireland's wild man of rock but Def Leppard star Joe Elliot is really a big pussycat. The infamous frontman has had 20 years of women throwing themselves at his feet in an attempt to share his fame and fortune.
But the 45-year-old proudly claimed he had never given in to temptation. He said: "I like to see women the way it was meant to be - from the stage three feet up.
"When I was 20 years old I remember thinking, 'Oh my God look at all the women' but then I just thought hang on a minute I didn't get into this to s**g girls, I got into this because I wanted to write songs.Rock and Roll is mad. Ninety-nine per cent of those who people called groupies are just autograph hunters - there's one per cent who try to get in your room for a s**g. One per cent of that one per cent get in. People do what they want to do but I've never been that way inclined. I've always liked having a relationship with somebody.But we're very fortunate that 65 or 70 per cent of our fans are women. It is a lot more exciting to perform a two-hour show in front of a bunch of really pretty girls than it is in front of a bunch of guys. I was talking to Jon Bon Jovi recently in Chicago and he said, 'I can't believe you've got guys at your gigs, I've only got women at mine'. But I think we've the perfect audience - girls and guys. Hopefully most of them come for the music as opposed to taking bets in the bar before they come out about who is going to sleep with the singer tonight."
Joe's love life has been hot gossip since the band shot to fame more than 25 years ago.And his split from first wife Karla was much publicised nine years ago. But the singer has finally moved on and is now head over heels in love with his new wife Kristine, who he married in a lavish ceremony in September.
Joe admitted: "Married life is two months old and great. We have a lot of respect and support for each other. She is somebody I've been looking for all my life and I finally found her at the age of 44. That is typical of me, I never gave up. If someone throws adversity in front of me I kick it in the face and move on. And married life is fantastic, I love every minute of it. We were dating for about 15 months before we got married. It was quick but there have been quicker marriages that have lasted for ever. I wouldn't even remember my experiences with Karla now.I have this fantastic ability to forget the things that I don't want to remember. Like everything in life you learn from your mistakes, I suppose, but I can't pinpoint anything in particular in the Karla situation. I don't think the Karla split affected my career, it affected my personal life. It didn't change how I did my job but it did affect how I think about things. And I hope this marriage to Kristine will last for ever."
Rumours were rife that the reason for Joe's split from Karla was because she wantedchildren and he didn't. But the honorary Irishman isn't ruling out having kids with his new wife.
He said: "I don't know if we are going to have kids. We haven't thought that far yet, one day at a time. I never, ever, thought I'd be a dad. I always thought that in this line of work I'd never make a good dad because I'd have to decide between going on tour and my child. I wouldn't want my kid not to know who their father is.But, saying that, everyone else in the band has children so one more Leppard offspring probably wouldn't make a huge difference. Myself and Kristine have never really discussed having babies, but I wouldn't rule it out because she is female. They always want kids so when the time is right everyone will know about it."
As far as Joe is concerned he's not short of a family - he already has the other fourmembers of Def Leppard and their entourages.The rocker, who lives in Dublin, said: "I am constantly in touch with the other guys. When I got married on September 1, three of them were at the wedding. Sav, Vivian and Phil were there, but Rick couldn't make it. Sav got married two weeks after me and Phil and I went over to London for that. We talk to each other all the time, the fact that I'm here, Sav is in Sheffield and the other three are in California doesn't matter. We are only apart when we're not working. It's good to get away. I think you love and appreciate each other a lot more when you don't live on top of each other. One of the main reasons we've stayed together this long is because we live our separate lives. We've been through births, deaths, marriages and divorces and we've been there for each other when it has happened. Most of the time we're like one big happy family. We do bicker about the important things like our music. If one of the band goes off to cloud cuckoo land for a while and just kind of loses it then we let him gobecause we know he'll come back. If one of the band is just going through a period when they are a bit out of sorts then you have to let them do their own thing. For me I don't wake up in the morning and think it's great to be me. I just get up and do the same as everyone else. You maybe get a flash of excitement when you are standing behind a curtain before it drops and you can see through a hole in the curtain that there are 20,000 people waiting for the house lights to come on. That's when we all look at each other with that grin like we just scored the winning goal in the last minute. Life doesn't suck when you have moments like that. But there are other moments when you are pulling your hair out because you can't come up with the goods. It has been 25 years since our first album came out, that almost puts us in the same bracket as Aerosmith and U2."
But after a quarter of a century in the business Joe can still remember the moment when it all began.
He added: "I remember I was pretending to be Paul McCartney when I was four years old on a plastic guitar - I always loved music. Then Mark Bolan from T-Rex inspired me to join rock and roll. When I was about 11 I was watching Top of the Pops and Mark Bolan came on and I remember thinking something went off in my brain and I thought 'God I so want to do that."
posted by ES84 @ 9:22 AM |
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