Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott says being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame would be "for the fans".
The ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’ rockers – who will headline Download Festival in 2019 – have received their first nomination for entry into the Hall of Fame in 2019, but the frontman says the band never got into the music business to win such accolades and if they do get inducted it would be more of a nod to their loyal following than themselves.
In an interview with Forbes magazine, the 59-year-old frontman admitted: "When we were made aware of that we kind of pushed it to one side and plowed on with our career cause the only thing we were really bothered about was making records, playing live, making more records, playing live more often in front of more people. That’s what we do. And then all of a sudden the fans get involved and then we become interested because it literally is about the important people in our lives, which is our audience. And even though, as we all know, the fan voting is one vote out of a thousand votes or whatever it’s the one vote the other 999 can’t help but take notice of because it’s all over the world. It’s in every magazine, on every website, every radio station."
The ‘Love Bites’ hitmaker says the band’s focus over the past four decades has been touring and making music, and he admits despite being close friends with fellow rock icons, such as The Who’s Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey and Queen’s Brian May, they still don’t feel like they truly "belong" to a rock and roll click.
He added: "We weren’t looking for accolades when we got together as kids. We just wanted to be part of everything we grew up listening to. It was like, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could jump on this mad crazy train and have our own carriage?’ The station we get on and get off at is kind of irrelevant as long as the ride is fun. And that’s what we’ve been doing for the better part of 40 years. And when you’ve been around this long you do tend to ricochet off different artists of your past and connect with them, whether it be [Pete] Townshend and [Roger] Daltrey last October, when we played with them in Brazil, to knowing Brian May from Queen for 35 years now. And there are a million others in between, It’s not like you feel like you belong, you just feel like you don’t not belong."
Def Leppard: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is for the fans
