In a new interview with Stereogum, the Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott addressed Chuck Billy and Chris Holmes’ accusations about the band using backing tracks.

He said:

“I don’t normally comment on this kind of stuff, but a friend of mine just sent me some link to something on YouTube, a recent posting by, forgive me, I don’t know his name, Chuck something from Testament. I think it is, and Chris Holmes accusing us of using backing tracks.”

Here’s the twist: Elliott isn’t mad. Instead, he is flattered that people think that way because it means something completely different:

“I don’t get angry at this. I’m flattered because their standards must be very different to ours. For anybody that thinks we use backing tracks, it must mean that when they hear us, they can’t believe how good it is for real.”

The singer was clear that Def Leppard doesn’t rely on recorded vocals, but he did admit they use some other tricks on stage. He added during the same interview:

“We don’t use backing tracks. We use effects. God, who wouldn’t? When there’s four people singing, we use effects. There’s no tapes of backing vocals.”

They are not done with only using effects though:

“We use keyboards. We use a few drum loops because, in fairness, two-armed drummers use drum loops, but Rick Allen, to play a song like ‘Rocket’, it’s a cacophony of toms that one arm couldn’t play. So, yeah, we use a triggered loop, which is part of his drum kit, but [U2 drummer] Larry Mullen’s been doing that for years. So have thousands of other drummers to enhance a sound. But backing tracks or playing along to a backing track — we’ve never done that, never. We’ve never mimed to the vocals, or we’ve never had multiples of stuff on tape. It’s literally live.”