In a recent interview with Eonmusic, Def Leppard’s Phil Collen recalled the time Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith was auditioning for Def Leppard back in the early ’90s after he left Maiden in 1989 and possibly replacing the late group member Steve Clark, who passed away in 1991.
Collen recalled the audition process and explained why former Dio guitarist Vivian Campbell stepped in:
“We invited five people we knew, five friends, and Vivian just fitted in straight away. It was like it was meant to be. Adrian’s great, (and) he’s a great singer, and that was one of the other things [we were looking for]; if you can sing.
“There was some other people. We played with John Sykes, also an amazing player, and amazing singer, but Vivian’s voice was just unbelievable. But more than that, he just fit in the style of what we do. […]
“With Adrian, he played in context with what we were doing when we were rehearsing. I mean, we were doing Def Leppard songs, we weren’t doing Iron Maiden songs, we weren’t doing Dio songs. So, whoever comes into our house has to play by the same rules.”
1 comment
Wow ,who would have thought !!!