Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott Told He ‘Would Do Irreparable Damage’ if He Didn’t Stop Singing
Def Leppard recently announced they will be postponing all upcoming tour dates as they wait for singer Joe Elliott to recover from vocal issues. The band's drummer, Rick Allen, revealed that Elliott would do permanent damage if he were to continue singing and now guitarist Vivian Campbell has gone into more detail explaining the reasoning behind his frontman's condition.
Speaking with Italy's Linea Rock (video above), Campbell provided insight as to what exactly is going on in the Def Leppard camp and why they had to shut down Elliott for the time being. "Joe has been having some problems with his voice, and he saw two different doctors," the six-stringer began. He went on to detail how the two doctors gave him differing opinions. But things changed when visiting a specialist, and Campbell stated, "They put a camera in his throat to see what was going on. And of the two vocal cords, one wasn't moving at all. So this specialist that he saw on Saturday [Jan. 30] told Joe that if he didn't stop singing immediately for a couple of months, he would do irreparable damage in the long term."
In less frightening terms, Campbell clarified they expect Elliott to be fine in the end, concluding, "He's also equally confident that if Joe just stops singing for at least two months that it will naturally heal. So he doesn't have to do any surgery, he doesn't have to take any drugs, he just needs to rest. So we had to postpone those shows and we're trying to reschedule them for May."
Issues for Elliott began on Def Leppard's inaugural 'Hysteria on the High Seas' cruise, where he attempted to muscle through a set, but had to be relieved by Campbell and Phil Collen trading off vocal duties. The next set saw other singers on the cruise take the helm, including Last in Line's Andrew Freeman, Eric Martin of Mr. Big and Winger frontman Kip Winger.
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