Guitarist Vivian Campbell has his main gig with Def Leppard and his side gig with former Dio members, Last In Line. While his work with Def Leppard gets most of the attention, Campbell said in a new interview how much playing in Last In Line helps him in Def Leppard.
“I do enjoy the freedom to experiment a bit more in Last In Line, ‘cause I am the only guitar player; I am the only melodic instrument in that band,” said Campbell. “So it does really require me to focus more, to be a hundred percent. That’s another benefit for me for doing the Last In Line project. It’s really elevated my playing. Because I’m playing so much with Last In Line, when I go back with Def Leppard, I am absolutely one hundred percent confident in my guitar-playing abilities. I don’t think I’ve ever played better in my career than I have in recent years, and it’s been because of being in two bands.”
“There’s a different discipline as a guitarist when I play with Last In Line than when I play with Def Leppard.” Campbell continued, “In Leppard, we play for the song. In Last In Line, it’s much more loose; it’s much, much more freeform. We can go off on tangents. In Def Leppard, it’s a very scripted show; it’s very high production. We have to stay within the parameters of what the show is.”
And also the vocals in Def Leppard – that’s really the challenging part, is to play guitar to the level that Phil and I play in Def Leppard but to also sing to the level that we do on top of that. That’s really what is the difficult aspect about being in Def Leppard,” said Campbell. “Conversely, in Last In Line I refuse to sing. Even though Andrew [Freeman, Last In Line singer] always wants me to sing background vocals to help him, I just refuse to; I just wanna put my head down and murder my Les Paul.”
“So they’re two very, very different disciplines for me as a guitarist, but I think that both bands really benefit from my being in the other band. It’s really given me so much more confidence in my ability as a player in recent years,” Campbell concluded.
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