Def Leppard Rockers Reveal How Their Wives Keep Them Humble on Their Sex Symbol Status: 'Not in My House!' (Exclusive)
The rockers, currently on tour with Mötley Crüe, open up about life at home in this week's issue of PEOPLE
Def Leppard may play to thousands of fans each night on stage, but at home, their wives (and kids!) are not afraid to keep them humble.
The musicians open up to PEOPLE in this week’s issue about the ways in which their rock and roll lifestyles don’t always translate offstage.
“Is that what we are?” guitarist Phil Collen jokes when asked what their wives make of the group’s sex symbol statuses. Adds lead singer Joe Elliott: “Not in my house!”
Elliott, 64, married wife Kristine in 2004, and the two share son Finlay, 13, and daughters Lyla, 7, and Harper, 3. Collen, meanwhile, married wife Helen, with whom he shares son Jaxson, 5, in 2010 (The rocker is also dad to four other children from previous relationships).
“We’re keeping it real here—they don’t think that at all!” says guitarist Vivian Campbell, who is married to Caitlin Phaneuf, and who has two daughters with ex-wife Julie. “The rug gets pulled out from underneath us if we think like that.”
Elliott adds that Lyla is entirely unimpressed with his dance moves, though he admits he likes to “dance badly on purpose” for her.
“[Lyla], on a regular basis, says, ‘Dad, you might be a good singer, but you can’t dance,’” he says. “And it’s the same thing with the wife—it’s two different lives. We get up there and do our thing, and then when you’re at home, you’re in your jammies, and that’s what it is.”
Def Leppard — which also includes bassist Rick Savage, 62, and drummer Rick Allen, 59 — are currently in the midst of a co-headlining tour with Mötley Crüe.
They admit that the hard-rocking personas they have onstage, though, are just that: personas.
“We can turn it on and off. We’ve always said, ‘Leave your ego in the dressing room,’” says Elliott. “We play rock stars on stage, but when everybody’s at home, it’s got nothing to do with it. That’s a major part of our longevity… I think it’s really important that you are actually two different people.”
Collen likens it to having an avatar of himself that he can channel when he goes in front of a crowd.
“It’s almost like method acting. The person that goes on stage has got so much more swagger than I do. I never get stage fright or any of that stuff. Never,” he says. “I actually checked my heart rate once just as we went on to do Rocking Rio, which is like, 100,000 people. I thought, ‘Let me just test this to see if it changes.’ And it didn’t. That is the god’s honest truth, because the avatar goes on and does his thing. He’s got swagger.”
That swagger will be put on display for the rest of the group’s shows on the U.S. leg of their tour, which will wrap on Aug. 18 before they head to Japan and Australia in November.
For more on Def Leppard, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.
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