L- Taylor Swift, R- Joe Elliott of Def Leppard; Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagicMega-selling ’80s British rock band Def Leppard may not immediately come to mind when you think of today’s music, but it turns out that some of some of pop’s biggest female superstars count the band — who are being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Fame tonight — among their influences.
“It is interesting when you see the likes of Lady Gaga mention us, and Pink and Taylor Swift…she was such a fan,” Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott tells ABC Radio. “Even Mariah Carey covered one of our songs once!”
“It’s strange how they all seem to be ladies…and some of them country!” he remarks, adding that Grammy-winning country star Alison Krauss is one of their biggest supporters.
Elliott admits, “We don’t really get an enormous amount of rockers saying that we influenced them. But [we] certainly [do] within the pop genre, because our music always crossed over into pop and that’s what we always wanted.”
In fact, Def Leppard is credited with inventing “pop metal,” thanks to massive hits like “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” “Photograph,” “Rock of Ages,” “Love Bites,” “Hysteria” and “Armageddon It” that dominated the charts and, especially, MTV.
“We loved seeing in the ’80s that one of our singles would be stuck somewhere between Janet and Michael Jackson in the top 10!” Joe laughs. “So it doesn’t surprise me that it’s more the pop-orientated people that are influenced by us.”
You can find footage of Taylor Swift singing “Pour Some Sugar on Me” with Def Leppard on YouTube.
Along with Janet Jackson, Stevie Nicks, The Cure, Radiohead and others, Def Leppard will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame tonight during a ceremony in Brooklyn, New York that will air on HBO April 27.
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