In a recent interview with Raised on Radio, Joe Elliott reflected on his time traveling with Mötley Crüe around South America, his health issues, and the reason the band members chose to make fun of him.
Rocker from Def Leppard recently made news for a health crisis that led to his hospitalization in Colombia. Later, he declared that there was no need for concern and that his scheduled event will not be postponed. However, this innocuous event appeared to intrigue Mötley Crüe, and the rockers made the decision to spend their time making fun of the British rocker.
Elliott talked about how it was common for the two acts to make fun of one another through simple, ‘childish’ jokes since it made the long journeys more bearable. Therefore, Mötley and Def Leppard regularly played practical jokes on one another, so it wasn’t unusual when Mötley Crüe members pulled out their phones and began recording Joe on stage while anticipating his impending collapse following his hospitalization.
This kind of comedy made things enjoyable and facilitated the rapid and effortless bonding of the two acts, which was advantageous for the vocalist given that the recent health worry was actually only mild altitude sickness.
Elliott talks about his touring, laughing a lot with Mötley Crüe, and how the musicians chose to make fun of him:
“When you’re a legacy band, as we like to call ourselves because it sounds better than boring, old… you know what. We’ve looked at this from both sides now; as Judy Collins’ saying… We always say one-on-one makes three that in these kinds of situations. We’ve done these double headers with Bryan Adams, we’ve done them with Journey.
Then [we] do it with Mötley because it’s just so much fun. Those guys split up and got back together because of the movie, and they’re just a good laugh. I mean some of that stuff we got up to on the plane. If somebody fell asleep they’d get up because they just covered in stuff… and pictures were taken of them, and it kind of was very childish but in a very kind of funny way.
When we were in Bogota in Colombia… I had altitude sickness, and they kept me overnight for observation in a hospital. Luckily, it was a day off, and when it came to doing the gig, everybody got their cell phones out, waiting for me to fall over, including all the Mötley guys; it was set aside stage; I know it’s not gonna happen, ain’t gonna happen… We had a really good laugh.”
These amusing, ‘childish’ jokes made life on the road easier because it may get difficult after a while to spend hours in buses or airplanes when touring the world with the same individuals. Fortunately, Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe were never afraid to laugh loudly, which made their joint tour even better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS_DmjODPrM
