Ghost and Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott on ‘Spillways’ collab: “It was this big love-in”

nme.com:

Ghost frontman Tobias Forge and Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliott have spoken to NME about working together on their collaboration ‘Spillways’, as well as their morning spent together in an Irish pub and why Måneskin are proof that the rock revival is real.‘Spillways’ originally featured on Ghost’s 2022 album ‘Impera’ but earlier this year the theatrical rockers released a reworked version featuring the Def Leppard icon.

Speaking to NME, Elliott described it as “this big love-in.”He has been a fan of Ghost since the release of 2015’s ‘Meliora’ after being introduced to them by band Phil Collen and really loved ‘Impera’. “I played the shit out of Ghost’s music on my [Planet Rock] radio show, and then we saw that they had been bigging us up in the press,” said Elliott.Forge then revealed that a lot of ‘Impera’ was actually inspired by Def Leppard.“I’ve always been a fan but with this album, I really looked at their songwriting,” he said. “I have always been in awe of several Def Leppard records, but especially the big ones like ‘Pyromania’ and ‘Hysteria’.

Not only are they great, but they achieved such commercial success that they’ve become a great example of how a lot of arguments in the pop world are wrong.”Forge continued: “We’re constantly told we need to get to the chorus quickly, that songs need to be short and to the point but Def Leppard songs are often the complete opposite of that.

I wanted to do something similar with ‘Impera’.”With a lot of very public, very mutual respect, Ghost and Def Leppard’s respective teams started talking about possible collabs. “Out of nowhere, I got word Joe would love to collaborate,” said Forge.However, those conversations were happening while Ghost were in the middle of an ambitious.