Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott Shares Memories of Gary Moore

Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott reminisced about the late, great Gary Moore, who passed away at age 58 last weekend. Elliott was asked a few questions about the Thin Lizzy guitarist and solo musician during a recent round of radio interviews, according to a Def Leppard fan site.

“Well he’s definitely up at the top isn’t he?,” Elliott said. “In fairness I think that he was probably wrongly accused of being one of these speed merchant guitarists because he could play fast. But the thing about Gary was that he actually came from the blues. Whereas a lot of the ’80s guitarists just ripped Eddie Van Halen off.”

The Def Leppard singer also talked about the time Moore opened for his band in the ’80s.

“Funnily enough, he took over from Jon Butcher Axis on our "Pyromania" tour about halfway through it and was special guest to ourselves and Krokus,” Elliott remembered. “He had Ian Paice from Deep Purple on drums. I remember like [Leppard drummer] Rick Allen was just, couldn’t – he was beside himself. He was 16 years old or 17/18 years old and his hero, his drumming hero, was third on the bill to us, you know? We were almost apologizing for it, you know?
We knew Gary pretty well and he was a lovely chap and it’s such a shame and such a waste.”


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