In a new interview with Classic Rock, Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott answered questions about touring with Mötley Crüe last year and addressed the ‘banter’ the press apparently made a big deal about.
“It did, it was a really great time,” the frontman recalled. “We’ve known those guys for a long, long time, and whatever b*tchy banter might have been printed in the press over the years, me and Nikki have been mates for ever. I don’t want to blow their myth, but they’re not the same people they were in 1983, and nor are we, so it wasn’t debauched madness, but it was all fun.”
Elliott isn’t the only Def Leppard member to share their thoughts about Nikki Sixx. In fact, it appears that the Mötley Crüe bassist is ‘one of the nicest’ people ever.
“It was great. [I] absolutely loved it,” Def Leppard bassist Rick Savage said of their tour together in another interview. “We’d known Mötley Crüe over the years — well, obviously for 30 years — but we never knew them really well as friends. But we’d met each other in different circles.”
“Literally from day one, the relationship between Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe was very, very tight, very, very close. Nikki Sixx is one of the nicest men I’ve ever met, one of the funniest people I’ve ever met, apart from David Bryan from Bon Jovi. But [they’re] just good, good people. And like I say, it just made for a really, really enjoyable tour,” the bassist added.
Def Leppard isn’t currently on tour, but the band will be headlining Harvest Nights Festival for two days from November 22 to 24.