DEF LEPPARD - Joe Elliott's COMPLETE Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Speech

thank you thanks for having us good to be here first of all massive massive love and gratitude to our very dear friend Brian May brother Brian for such a flattering introduction we love you mate and congratulations on the incredible success of the movie couldn't about no nicer chap I'm also like to congratulate our fellow inductees tonight it's been a real honor to be able to share this stage of the likes of Roxy Music and Stevie Nicks and the zombie's artists that we have admired from a distance for many many years alright so down a business we'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge a few people and some significant moments that have played a very important role in getting this band to where it is today starting off with our parents now back then we were just a bunch of teenage wannabes living at home dreaming the dream and you know so without their help and encouragement it would be a lot tougher to be standing up here on this stage tonight my mum for example taught me my first three chords when I was 8 years old I've learnt two more since and I've come to realize you know actually really need them at all my dad who lent is 150 pounds to make our first-ever record in Bakke 1978 which was absolutely the launchpad for this very wild ride that we have been on ever since that's two that's just two examples of what our folks did for us along the way and I could stand here all night with great tales of parental you know support and what-have-you but as basically as a major significance it goes without saying that without their their help and their financial support or otherwise things would have turned out very very differently so thank you mums and dads thank you very much Rob today another significant moment in this band's birth was the simple act of missing a bus which is something that I did on 1 August night in 1977 by deciding to walk home instead of waiting for the next one fate would have it that I would bump into a young kid who I knew to be a pretty good guitar player that kid was a guy called Pete Willis Pete was the co-founder of this band and one of the best right hands in the business now sadly Pete couldn't be with us tonight but I want to emphasize how very important Pete's role was in this band in the early days he he was a terrific player he had a very mischievous sense of humor but he brought many plenty plenty of great musical ideas to this band and it was bleeped after a chance mate in in a college canteen both reaching for the same guitar magazine introduced us to the late great Steve Clark over the I would have following 10 years Steve made a massive musical contribution to this band is incredible and unique riffs helped shape some of the most important songs that we will ever write and it really does go without saying that we love him and that we miss him every day [Applause] two gentlemen who helped take us to a level that we could only previously have dreamt about were cliff Bernstein and Peter Mensch they formed Q prime management and they looked after us for the best part of 25 years we will always appreciate the fact that Peter bankrolled this band for years until things started to take off and boy did they take off but not before the most significant contribution that Peter and cliff ever made which was introducing our music to our future producer co-writer and mentor mr. Robert John Mutt Lange how we first worked with Mott on an album in 1981 an album called high and dry which was a good record but it was 1983 that saw us moving our whole new orbits with the phenomenal success over the album pyromania where we were properly introduced to our new boss for the first time our wonderfully loyal fan base without whom we would not be up here tonight for that I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever so thank you thank you thank you you have stayed on board with us for the best part of the following 36 years and supported us through some tough times along the way where those tough times have helped us make this band what it is today it's solids it we're appreciative of who we are and what we stand for those songs written over the years were always our main priority you only just have to check out our misguided fashion sense over the years and you will understand where I'm coming from here and although it seemed that there was always a looming sense of tragedy tragedy around every corner we just wouldn't let it in but it is true it did seem that every time that we made some musical headway life would just knock us back down someone pyromania is a raging success and then Rick Rick has a life-changing accident he survived it and came out the other side stronger [Applause] recalling everybody [Applause] hysteria gave us the global success that we'd always craved but then we lost Steve but we survived and we came out the other side stronger people and that's the way that it's always played out throughout our career so let's face facts people here if alcoholism car crashes and cancer couldn't killers the ninth is at no chance [Applause] so finally I'd like to just bring this into the now and thank some people who have been helping keep this beautiful machine on the road hopefully for many many more years to come our manager might call by a she Mike I can love you man they took over the reins from Howard Kauffman who looked after us from 2005 until his sad passing in 2017 how did an incredible job breathing new life into this band at a time when he could have gone either way and Mike continues to do so so thank you Michael you to our friends at Universal Records past and present especially present and to our families to our wives to our children who help keep us grounded honey how much did that first cost really they give us a good reason to keep doing what we do unless but absolutely not least my fellow bandmates here [Music] [Applause] we're not blood but were the closest thing to brothers that this only child has ever known I couldn't and I wouldn't want to do it without these guys thank you [Applause]

Channel: DEF LEPPARD

Views: 418,117

Rating: 4.9101572 out of 5

Keywords: def leppard, rick savage, joe elliott, rick allen, phil collen, vivian campbell, steve clark, def, leppard, def leopard, love bites, pour some sugar on me, hysteria, pyromania, adrenalize, rock hall, rock hall 2019, rock and roll, rock & roll hall of fame, hall of fame, rock hall of fame, rock hall def leppard, rock hall joe elliott, joe elliot, def leppard brian may, brian may, queen

Id: Cc_mc_4Dwmc

Length: 10min 25sec (625 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 30 2019