Vivian Campbell joined Def Leppard in 1992. Before that, he’d tried many other venues for success in the music world, playing with Dio, Whitesnake, Riverdogs, and Shadow King. None of it worked out, but eventually he was invited to audition for Def Leppard.
The audition process wasn’t anything like you might imagine. Instead of just playing music, the band members spent a lot of time with Campbell outside the studio. As the guitarist described in an interview on “dopeYEAH talk,” even movies and sports were on the table (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar):
“It was more about getting to know each other and seeing if the personalities fit, rather than… they knew I could play guitar, they didn’t know I could sing, like I said, that was a bonus. But we did social things together. We went and we played football together. We went to dinner.”
“I remember, we went to the movies, went to IMAX, to see the Rolling Stones, you know, the big 30-foot screen. And then we’d go back to the rehearsal room the next day, and we’d play again, the same songs. And this went on for like, two weeks or something.”
“It was like a courtship, getting to know each other’s personalities and to see if it would work. And then, I remember they went and locked themselves in a room and talked together for four hours, and I’m thinking, ‘What the fuck are they talking about? Just taking this long,’ it’s like, either it’s working out or it’s not.”
“So it turns out there were a couple of other guys that they played with, John Sykes, again, was one, and another guy, Huey… forgive me, I can’t remember his last name, it’s been so many years, an English guy from Birmingham, and so they’d had these guys that they were playing with.”
“And again, it was less about the playing and the singing, because John Sykes, I know he’s a motherfucker of a guitar player and an incredible singer.”
“So I’m thinking, ‘Well, if it’s just about guitar playing and singing, I think John’s got the gig.’ But it wasn’t. It was about having that personality fit to make it work. So, like I say, it’s been 31 plus years, and so far so good, but it is an incredible band.”
“I mean, Def Leppard, it is so, so different. Having had the benefit of being- this experience, of being in so many different bands, there’s nothing, absolutely nothing that compares to Def Leppard.”
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