Pete Willis Interview from 1989!

[WARF]

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[Diamondjimi]

They fired the best part of the band. Fookin great guitarist for his age ,back then...

[Nickdfresh]

I saw him interviewed on VH1's behind the music maybe ten or so years after this?

His face was all fucked up and it was pretty obvious he was a heavy drinker...

Nothing against Phil Collen, because I think his work on "Love and Affection" was one of the best guitar moments that band had. But the original duo of Willis & Steve Clark was pretty tremendous...

[Nickdfresh]

From Def Leppard's Wiki page:

'By the end of the decade, although Guns N' Roses, M&#246;tley Cr&#252;e, and Bon Jovi had garnered more mainstream exposure, Def Leppard had sold more records than any rock band in the US during the 80's, except Van Halen.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Def_Leppard

[sadaist]

I hate Vivian Campbell

[Diamondjimi]

I hate Vivian Campbell

Vivian Campbell= Phil Collen's BITCH!:Loser:

[Full Bug]

High n Dry is still one kick ass album....One of my fav's....

[Diamondjimi]

I hate Vivian Campbell

So does Ronnie Dio... <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zOwZBo8FQvo&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zOwZBo8FQvo&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

:biggrin:

[Nickdfresh]

Yeah, Vivian Campbell is like having Sammy Hagar playing guitar in your band...

[Terry]

Vivian Campbell kicked some ass on Holy Diver and Last In Line.

Dude wasted what talent he had after Dio. No self-respecting guitar player would play second-fiddle to Phil Collen, fat paycheck or not.

[Seshmeister]

Nothing against Phil Collen, because I think his work on "Love and Affection" was one of the best guitar moments that band had.

Not the most dangerous music in the world... :)

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I guess Willis can take a little comfort in the fact that if he had stayed in the band there would be good chance that he'd be dead by now.

He's lucky he got his money(according to wikki he has a property company), so many don't.

[binnie]

Was kicked out because he didn't have a pussy?

[hideyoursheep]

Was kicked out because he didn't have a pussy?

:lmao:

[Diamondjimi]

Vivian Campbell kicked some ass on Holy Diver and Last In Line.

Dude wasted what talent he had after Dio. No self-respecting guitar player would play second-fiddle to Phil Collen, fat paycheck or not.

True as fuck!;)

Cambell has squandered his career as a hired gun . At least his early work with Dio was somewhat inspiring to guitarists (back in the day).
And playing second banana to a soulless player/wanker is pathetic ,regardless of the paycheck (which is all he's done with himself).
And have ya noticed Phildo Colon keeps a leash on Vivs solo time.
Cambell= Bitch!

[Matt White]

"In February 2003, Atomic Mass reunited at the Hallam FM Arena."

He's still playing...from the sound of it....

[Seshmeister]

I think that was a one off gig with the original members of Def Leppard at their hometown arena.

I seem too remember seeing an exert of it in a TV documentary about the band...

[Top Jimmy]

Yeah, Vivian Campbell is like having Sammy Hagar playing guitar in your band...


You guys are SO fucking full of SHITE on this one...

seriously...
This guy owns John Sykes & both Zakk Wylde AND Randy Rhoads (R.I.P.)
before Dio ever sings one damn note in this tune....

Randy Rhoads was a fucking GOD, but he never had a riff as FAT as this...
...and don't start talking about classical music, man.
this songs rips your head clean OFF, man......
This ain't no opera, man, no way....

Fucking hell, Zakk owes ten years of his career to the pinch harmonics in this song,
and you fucking know it.

Dio had the right guy for the job.

Get fucking REAL guys.



As for joining Def Leppard?

Dude gets a good paying gig playing guitar in a band
whose fan base is primarily slutty chicks and/or milfs...
(ok by now gilfs too, but whaddyagonnado? take out the teeth and gimme a gummer gramma!!)
I don't see the problem on damn bit.

He absolutely fucking OWNS it right here, OWNS it.

and the solo? What the hell you gonna say?

OWNS it.

There, I said it.
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[Terry]

You guys are SO fucking full of SHITE on this one...

seriously...
This guy owns John Sykes & both Zakk Wylde AND Randy Rhoads (R.I.P.)
before Dio ever sings one damn note in this tune....

Randy Rhoads was a fucking GOD, but he never had a riff as FAT as this...
...and don't start talking about classical music, man.
this songs rips your head clean OFF, man......
This ain't no opera, man, no way....

Fucking hell, Zakk owes ten years of his career to the pinch harmonics in this song,
and you fucking know it.

Dio had the right guy for the job.

Get fucking REAL guys.



As for joining Def Leppard?

Dude gets a good paying gig playing guitar in a band
whose fan base is primarily slutty chicks and/or milfs...
(ok by now gilfs too, but whaddyagonnado? take out the teeth and gimme a gummer gramma!!)
I don't see the problem on damn bit.

He absolutely fucking OWNS it right here, OWNS it.

and the solo? What the hell you gonna say?

OWNS it.

There, I said it.
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Vivian was the fucking bomb when he was with Dio.

No dispute over that.

He has wasted whatever talent he displayed back then in the years he's been with Leppard.

No dispute over that, either.

[Diamondjimi]

You guys are SO fucking full of SHITE on this one...

:rolleyes:


seriously...
This guy owns John Sykes & both Zakk Wylde AND Randy Rhoads (R.I.P.)
before Dio ever sings one damn note in this tune....

Dude, put the pipe down and step away from the computer. Seriously!



Randy Rhoads was a fucking GOD, but he never had a riff as FAT as this...

False!
Every riff Randy had on the Ozzy albums BLOWS this riff outta the fuckin water!


...this songs rips your head clean OFF, man......


Mmm , not really. "Stand up and Shout" (ever heard of it) kicks it's ass..IMO..


Fucking hell, Zakk owes ten years of his career to the pinch harmonics in this song,
and you fucking know it.

Uhhh no ,Chief...
Zakk (the most redundant & obnoxious pinch squealer of them all) and all the rest of 'em should be paying John Sykes for trademark enfringment.
Don't believe me? Ever heard of Tygers of Pan Tang? Check out a very young Sykes on the "Spellbound" album ('81) He wipes the floor with Ms. Vivian.

While we're on the subject of pinched harmonics... A tip of the hat also goes to dudes like Rhoads,EVH,Michael Schenker,George Lynch,Billy Gibbons for exploring this technique may back when....


Dio had the right guy for the job.

Well , I'll hand it to ya there. That's one fact ya got right.;)


Get fucking REAL guys.

I am!



As for joining Def Leppard?

Dude gets a good paying gig playing guitar in a band
whose fan base is primarily slutty chicks and/or milfs...
(ok by now gilfs too, but whaddyagonnado? take out the teeth and gimme a gummer gramma!!)
I don't see the problem on damn bit.

So much for artistic credibility. He was'nt hired for that ...
He was hired as .....( :lol: wait for it)......:biggrin:.... Phil Colon's rhythm guitarist! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!!!!

Oh fuck...that shit is funny ,right there!!!


He absolutely fucking OWNS it right here, OWNS it.

He hasn't owned much in a long time...


and the solo? What the hell you gonna say?

OWNS it.

There, I said it.


Lame riff ,good solo.........glory days!

[Susie Q]

So does Ronnie Dio... <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zOwZBo8FQvo&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zOwZBo8FQvo&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

:biggrin:

Wow, was he pissed or what?! The people kept amping him up to get him to talk about Campbell too, you notice that? After a while he got in a real bad mood and decided he had enough signing those plates.

Pete Willis, he was a good guitarist, but he wasn't PHENOMINAL by any means, in my opinion.

[kwame k]

Yeah, I agree but the twin attack of him and Steve Clark made Def Lep great. They lost a ton of balls when Pete left. I will admit I liked them all the way up to Hysteria.....after that, meh.

[Susie Q]

Yeah, I agree but the twin attack of him and Steve Clark made Def Lep great. They lost a ton of balls when Pete left. I will admit I liked them all the way up to Hysteria.....after that, meh.

Yep Yep! Me too...I still wanna catch them live. I will this year if it kills me.
Steve Clark....god rest his soul 'eh?

[kwame k]

Yup....I saw them on the Hysteria tour and Tesla opened for them...that was before Tesla broke big......great show and both bands were great. If you get a chance, see them......

[Terry]

Nah, Willis wasn't a guitar god, but he and Clark were the twin guitarists for the only Leppard lineup that had any balls...certainly the only Leppard lineup that deserved to be called hard rock or heavy metal.

[Terry]

Vivian "blowing away" John Sykes, Randy Rhoads and Zakk Wylde?

Would put them all more or less on the same level in terms of my own appreciation, with Zakk Wylde perhaps a little bit lower on the scale than the other three.

[Seshmeister]

You guys are SO fucking full of SHITE on this one...

seriously...
This guy owns John Sykes & both Zakk Wylde AND Randy Rhoads (R.I.P.)
before Dio ever sings one damn note in this tune....

Randy Rhoads was a fucking GOD, but he never had a riff as FAT as this...
...and don't start talking about classical music, man.
this songs rips your head clean OFF, man......
This ain't no opera, man, no way....

Fucking hell, Zakk owes ten years of his career to the pinch harmonics in this song,
and you fucking know it.

Dio had the right guy for the job.

Get fucking REAL guys.



As for joining Def Leppard?

Dude gets a good paying gig playing guitar in a band
whose fan base is primarily slutty chicks and/or milfs...
(ok by now gilfs too, but whaddyagonnado? take out the teeth and gimme a gummer gramma!!)
I don't see the problem on damn bit.

He absolutely fucking OWNS it right here, OWNS it.

and the solo? What the hell you gonna say?

OWNS it.

There, I said it.
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Wow you must really like those three chords...

[ELVIS]

The first six seconds sums it all up...

Dumb ass...

And an awesome guitar player...


:elvis:

[ELVIS]

Why do some of you idiots always stray way off topic with bullshit about this guitar player or that situation ??

I mean, what the fuck does Vivian Campbell have to do with this thread ??

And of course, Hagar had to be mentioned... After all, this is a David Lee Roth website...


:pullinghair::elvis:

[ELVIS]

Cambell= Bitch!

What does Campbell equal ??

[Hellraiser!!]

Vivian Campbell kicked some ass on Holy Diver and Last In Line.

Dude wasted what talent he had after Dio. No self-respecting guitar player would play second-fiddle to Phil Collen, fat paycheck or not.

He kicked some serious ass on Sacred Heart too, after that he fucked up everything....of course I'm a big Whitesnake fan, but I don't think he did something really impressive with the band, except touring for a great album aka Whitesnake 1987....

[Mr Badguy]

I don`t rate Pete Willis at all.

What the fuck has he done since 1982?

Leps first three LPs were definetly their best rock wise.

I think Mutt Lange, Joe Elliott and Phil Collen (to a lesser extent) should be blamed for their change in direction.

If Willis wasn`t a Bum and stayed in the band I think they would still be where they are at because, how it looks to me anyway, Joe Elliott is the boss of that band and the rest do what he tells them.

Every band who has a guy who makes the bottom line decisions: Steve Harris in Iron Maiden, Pete Townsend in The Who, Jimmy Page in Led Zeppelin etc.

In Leppard, it`s Joe`s way or the highway, always has been.

That`s probably why they got Vivian Campbell in as well.

At the time there were rumours of John Sykes joining but he would have been too forceful a personality and that would have caused clashes in leadership and direction.

[WARF]

Def Leppard died the day Pete Willis was kicked out!
End of story...

[Terry]

I don`t rate Pete Willis at all.

What the fuck has he done since 1982?

Leps first three LPs were definetly their best rock wise.

I think Mutt Lange, Joe Elliott and Phil Collen (to a lesser extent) should be blamed for their change in direction.

If Willis wasn`t a Bum and stayed in the band I think they would still be where they are at because, how it looks to me anyway, Joe Elliott is the boss of that band and the rest do what he tells them.

Every band who has a guy who makes the bottom line decisions: Steve Harris in Iron Maiden, Pete Townsend in The Who, Jimmy Page in Led Zeppelin etc.

In Leppard, it`s Joe`s way or the highway, always has been.

That`s probably why they got Vivian Campbell in as well.

At the time there were rumours of John Sykes joining but he would have been too forceful a personality and that would have caused clashes in leadership and direction.

My understanding is that Pyromania was already written and most of it had been recorded prior to Collen joining...that he laid down some solos and rhythm tracks over what was already there.

I'd agree Def Leppard morphed into Joe Elliot's band by the time Pyromania rolled around, and I'd credit Lange as much as anybody else with their commercial success (they had to scrap most of their Hysteria demos and recordings they did before Lange eventually signed onto produce, and the albums they've done without Lange are nothing special).

Willis really didn't end up doing much after Leppard in terms of projects with high visibility, and when I look at those promo vids for Bringing On The Heartbreak and Let It Go, Willis from a visual aspect stands out like a sore thumb (bit of a short, goofy looking bastard). But fact remains that High N' Dry was their last great hard rock effort. Rest of their stuff is power pop rock.

[Mr Badguy]

My understanding is that Pyromania was already written and most of it had been recorded prior to Collen joining...that he laid down some solos and rhythm tracks over what was already there.

I'd agree Def Leppard morphed into Joe Elliot's band by the time Pyromania rolled around, and I'd credit Lange as much as anybody else with their commercial success (they had to scrap most of their Hysteria demos and recordings they did before Lange eventually signed onto produce, and the albums they've done without Lange are nothing special).

Willis really didn't end up doing much after Leppard in terms of projects with high visibility, and when I look at those promo vids for Bringing On The Heartbreak and Let It Go, Willis from a visual aspect stands out like a sore thumb (bit of a short, goofy looking bastard). But fact remains that High N' Dry was their last great hard rock effort. Rest of their stuff is power pop rock.

I`m pretty sure all Phil Collen played on "Pyromania" was a few leads, the ones Pete Willis was too pissed to play.

If only he`d joined UFO.

Being that gassed was part of the CV for any of their guitarists.

It may only be the way I hear it, but "High N dry" sounds very AC/DC while "Pyromania" is very close to Foreigner`s "4" album, two bands produced by "Mutt" Lange either side of Leppard.

A coincidence?

[Seshmeister]

No. I remember hearing a Bryan Adams song a few years back that was identical to Def Leppard.

I wasn't surprised to find out Lange produced it.

[Nickdfresh]

Not the most dangerous music in the world... :)



Danger? Ha! If I want danger, I'll get a Haitian, smack-addled, hooker with frequent blood transfusions...

The song has one of the best melodies I've heard in a rock song. Not the album version so much, but when it was played live pre-release at Donnington in 1986...



I guess Willis can take a little comfort in the fact that if he had stayed in the band there would be good chance that he'd be dead by now.

He's lucky he got his money(according to wikki he has a property company), so many don't.

That shows that DL were probably decent guys and right after all is done and said...

[GreenBayLA]

Pete drank himself out of the band, I guess Steve Clark did too.
High n Dry is far and away the best Def Lep album in my opinion.
Pyromania was good but they lost me after that. Too poppy and commercial.