Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell says he’s not to blame if the band’s upcoming album “comes out being wussy.”
Work has been continuing on the record, with frontman Joe Elliott recently revealing they were back in the studio working on fresh material.
Campbell played during the new record’s initial sessions before he stepped back to undergo surgery for Hodgkin’s lymphoma. And he says when he was involved, the tracks they worked on were purely rock songs – although that might not be the case now.
He tells Canadian radio station Free FM: “Well, it’s never finished until it’s finished, but when we first started playing we did track as a band, and when we do that, we tend to write more rock songs. The first four or five tracks we cut were on the heavier side, but I have no idea if they will actually make the grade.
”The way Def Leppard records work, the last guy in the studio gets to have the final word. So who knows? I’m not gonna be there because I have too much medical stuff going on. I’m kind of done at this stage. There may be a final session in January or February that I’ll not be party to, so I have no idea what the final thing’s gonna be.
“All I can tell you is my involvement was with the first part of the record, and it was a hard rock record at that stage, so if it comes out being wussy, I’m not accepting blame. I’m throwing my hands in the air.”
He’s recuperating after his recent stem-cell transplant but reveals the band hope to release the follow-up to 2008’s Songs From The Sparkle Lounge next summer, with a single out before April.
He adds: “I would guess that the record will be released by the middle of the year, but we’ll certainly get a track on the radio sometime in the first quarter of 2015.”
Campbell also adds that he’s feeling well after his recent op and is setting his sights on 2015 to be back to full health.
He adds: “I am actually doing really, really well. I got a stem-cell transplant, and I’m recuperating from that and getting ready for next year. Everything is going as well as it could.
“So I am expecting a full recovery as well as a growth of hair.”
