Friday, April 24, 2009

Sign Of The Times : Former Rock Band Def Leppard Nominated For Three Country Music Awards


If you still harbored any illusions that Def Leppard were still a rock band, Geoff Barton of Classic Rock Magazine is reporting :

It’s enough to shatter your achy breaky heart. New Wave Of British Heavy Metal pioneers Def Leppard have received three first-round Country Music Television (CMT) award nominations.

The Leps’ duet with Taylor Swift on their song Photograph has been nominated for both CMT Performance Of The Year and Wide Open Country Video Of The Year – whatever that is.

The Sheffield band also have a second nomination in the Wide Open Country Video Of The Year category for their collaboration with Tim McGraw on their song Nine Lives.

Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are also among the nominees, which is more understandable.

Anyhow, you can see Leppard and Taylor Swift on stage together here. If you really must.

In further news, Slayer are said to be bitterly disappointed that their collaborations with Emmylou Harris (Honky Tonk Antichrist), Kenny Loggins (Hillbilly Awaits) and Willie Nelson (At Dawn They Sleep On The Front Porch) failed to make the CMT shortlist.

For those that remember, here's a clip of the Sheffield lads (who no doubt would be aghast at what they've become) from 1983, with a live version of "Wasted" from their 1980 debut 'On Through The Night' :


9 comments:

Unknown said...

Def Leppard is still rock and they are great muscians. With Nine Lives - Def Lepp did't go country -- Tim went rock.
If any rock band from the 80's even come close to country these days - it would be Bon Jovi.
I play guitar and bass guitar. Any real musician can play both and enjoy both.
Any one that can be so DAMN derogatory about crossing music genres ain't no real music lover!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glad The 80's Are Over said...

Oh please. Apparently you wouldn't know good music if it bit you in the ass. This band hasn't been relevant since the 80's. Having lost the ability to make hits this is a last gasp effort from musicians who should have hung it up years ago.Crossing music genres for artistic worth is one thing, but for pure commercial gain is another. This band died along with Steve Clark.

Unknown said...

In your lil world maybe so but Def Lepp is still rockin. As far as the country part, they was asked to do a collaboration with Tim McGraw by Tim (Tim' manager is Robert Allen , the brother of Rick Allen the drummer).
As far as the Taylor Swift and the crossroads deal, it was Taylor's ideal cause that is her and her mom's fav band.
As far as hits - they had their original promo company to worried about promoting Metallica. I am so glad they dumped that Q-prime.
But I noticed you didn't say what great music is (might be some of what I listen to also) unless its trash like fakes like george (boy and Micheals) and Micheal Jackson.
So what now MR. Know It All...

Cheech said...

What has '9' arms and sucks?

Def Leppard.

Unknown said...

Ronnie James Dio is an egotistical lil prick. He was a bad replacement for Ozzy in Black Sabbath, and the only good album he ever did in his group was The Last In Line ( with Vivian Cambell "now with Def Leppard" on guitar).

Up The Irons said...

Def Leppard could only hope to achieve the mightiness that is Black Sabbath's Heaven And Hell, or Rainbow's 'Rising'. If you can't see that it explains fully why you're a Def Leppard fan. Go on, name a Leppard song that's better than Stargazer so I can laugh at you.

Joe Elliott has lost whatever range he may have had years ago, while RJD at almost 67 years old, still sounds as good as he did 30 years ago. Plus, you'd never see Dio on Dancing With The Stars that's for sure!

Anonymous said...

OMG CANT ANYONE SEE WHATS HAPPENING HERE? THINK ABOUT IT; SOME COUNTRY SINGERS RUN OUT OF MATERIAL SO THEY PICK A GOOD BAND TO USE AS A HELPER TO GET THEM UP AND GOING AGAIN? NOT FAIR TO JUST PICK THE LEPS OUT OF THE GROUP; AS THERE ARE SOOOOOO MANY MORE DOING THE SAME THING; EVEN RAPPERS, ETC! IT IS A SIGN OF THE TIMES; A SIGN THAT SOME SINGERS CAN'T COME UP WITH THEIR OWN SONGS; SO THEY TEAM UP WITH BANDS WITH HOT SONGS TO MAKE A COME BACK! JUST MY HUMBLE OPINION!
AND THE LEPS ROCK!!!!!!

jackie1963 said...

Def Leppard are still as good as
ever-- leave my boys alone-please...

Jeff said...

This might be more a comment on the death of country rather than rock--I haven't heard the new version of "Photograph", but the only way I can really imagine "countrifying" it is as a "nu-country" tune--i.e., a soft-rock tune sung by a "country" singer. "Country" has come to mean a general sensibility more than a fully-formed style; there was that "neo-traditional" movement around 1990 (Randy Travis and the "hats"), but as it turned out one of the "hats", Garth Brooks, subtly yanked the rug out from under that, too, and put country back on the "rockification" track almost before anyone noticed--it's just that everyone was now wearing cowboy hats and conservative haircuts instead of looking like, say, Sawyer Brown, who used to look like an '80s pop band from L.A. So here we are.

It makes sense in the wake of the "country-rock" of the '70s--looking back, we can see that that was where the country music industry would have to get their new fans, since the old country just wasn't attracting many new musicians any more. Nu-country is really a fairly close relative (more "square" and well-behaved) of '70s country-rock in the Charlie Daniels/Marshall Tucker Band vein. So there are two "stories" going on here.

In fact, I suppose the "white trash" charge has kept lots of creative people from working in hard rock and metal over the last two decades--as if it gets cooties if the wrong people listen to it (kinda like boys' names used for girls--I mean, she's hawt and all, but if this keeps up guys aren't gonna have anything to be named but "Bud" and "George" (I just noticed a girl on Suicide Girls named "Joseph", fer cryin' out loud.... Ever notice how it almost never runs in the other direction? Most "unisex" names are actually boys' names.)

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