Joseph Thomas Elliott (born 1 August 1959) is an English singer-songwriter, best known as the lead singer and one of the founder members of the

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

band

Def Leppard Def Leppard are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Since 1992, the band has consisted of Rick Savage (bass, backing vocals), Joe Elliott (lead vocals), Rick Allen (drummer), Rick Allen (drums), Phil Collen (guitar, ...

. He has also been the lead singer of the

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

tribute band the Cybernauts and the Mott the Hoople cover band Down 'n' Outz. He is one of the two original members of Def Leppard still in the band and one of the three to perform on every Def Leppard album. Elliott is known for his distinctive and wide ranging raspy singing voice.

Early life and Def Leppard

Joseph Thomas Elliott was born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

to Joseph William Elliott (1930–2011) and Cynthia Gibson. He was educated at King Edward VII School. Elliott met

Pete Willis Peter Andrew Willis (born 16 February 1960) is a retired English guitarist, best known as a founder member of the hard rock band Def Leppard. He was with Def Leppard from 1977 to 1982, when he was fired from the band and replaced by Phil Coll ...

(a member of a local band called

Atomic Mass Atomic mass ( or ) is the mass of a single atom. The atomic mass mostly comes from the combined mass of the protons and neutrons in the nucleus, with minor contributions from the electrons and nuclear binding energy. The atomic mass of atoms, ...

) in November 1977 after missing a bus. Upon finding out that they were both musicians, Willis invited Elliott to meet the rest of the Atomic Mass members. The band spent hours talking and listening to records in Elliott's bedroom. Elliott tried out as a guitarist and, though the band had not heard Elliott sing, they were impressed by "his attitude and his ideas about being in a band" and he became the band's vocalist instead. The other members also took Elliott's suggestion to change their name to "Deaf Leopard." Elliott had invented the name for a band in his youth. Bandmate Tony Kenning suggested they change the band name to "

" to distinguish them from contemporary punk bands like The Flying Lizards and

the Boomtown Rats The Boomtown Rats are an Irish rock/ new wave band originally formed in Dublin in 1975. Between 1977 and 1985, they had a series of Irish and UK hits including " Like Clockwork", " Rat Trap", " I Don't Like Mondays" and " Banana Republic". T ...

. The band claims that any apparent similarity of the name

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...

to Def Leppard was unintentional.

Personal life

Elliott's first marriage was to Karla Ramdhani in 1989; they divorced in 1996. Elliott met Kristine Wunschel in 2003 while she was working on the crew for the X album tour, and they were married on 1 September 2004. Their first child was born in 2009, and they are also parents to a daughter born in 2016. He announced on SiriusXM in March 2022 that he and his wife Kristine had another daughter who was born in 2020. Elliott previously co-owned a Sheffield sports bar with Tim Cranston, a Canadian ice hockey player for the local Steelers. Elliott is a supporter of Sheffield United.

Controversies

During a performance on 7 September 1983 in Tucson, Arizona, Elliott attempted to rile the crowd during the "Rock of Ages" crowd sing-along. He told the crowd: "Last night, we played in El Paso, that place with all the greasy Mexicans, and they made a lot more noise than that." Then, on 30 September, he apologised on an El Paso radio station for the racial slur he made while referring to the city on 7 September. The band later followed up the apology with donations to Hispanic charities. In 2010, Elliott criticised the British music press, which he accused of ignoring his band and narrowing popular taste:

Discography

;With Def Leppard *'' The Def Leppard E.P.'' (1979) *'' On Through the Night'' (1980) *'' High 'n' Dry'' (1981) *''

Pyromania Pyromania is an impulse-control disorder in which individuals repeatedly fail to resist impulses to deliberately start fires, to relieve some tension or for instant gratification. The term ''pyromania'' comes from the Greek word (''pyr'', 'f ...

'' (1983) *''

Hysteria Hysteria is a term used to mean ungovernable emotional excess and can refer to a temporary state of mind or emotion. In the nineteenth century, female hysteria was considered a diagnosable physical illness in women. It is assumed that the bas ...

'' (1987) *'' Adrenalize'' (1992) *''

Retro Active ''Retro Active'' is a compilation album by the English rock band Def Leppard, released in 1993. The album features touched-up versions of B-sides and previously unreleased recordings from the band's recording sessions from 1984 to 1993. The a ...

'' (1993) *''

Slang A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...

'' (1996) *''

Euphoria Euphoria ( ) is the experience (or affect) of pleasure or excitement and intense feelings of well-being and happiness. Certain natural rewards and social activities, such as aerobic exercise, laughter, listening to or making music and da ...

'' (1999) *'' X'' (2002) *'' Yeah!'' (2006) *'' Songs from the Sparkle Lounge'' (2008) *'' Mirrorball: Live And More'' (2011) *'' Viva! Hysteria'' (2013) *''

'' (2015) *'' The Story So Far – The Best Of'' (2018) *'' Diamond Star Halos'' (2022) *'' Drastic Symphonies'' (2023) ;With Down 'n' Outz *'' My ReGeneration'' (2010) *''The Further Adventures Of...'' (2014) *''The Further Live Adventures Of...'' (2017) *''This Is How We Roll'' (2019) ;With Kings of Chaos *'' Re-Machined: A Tribute to Deep Purple's Machine Head'' – " Never Before" (2012) ;With Cybernauts *''Cybernauts Live'' ;With various artists : *''Beside Bowie: The Mick Ronson Story'' – Vocals on "

All The Young Dudes "All the Young Dudes" is a song written by English singer-songwriter David Bowie, originally recorded and released as a single by the English rock band Mott the Hoople in 1972 by Columbia Records. Bowie produced the song, which he had given t ...

" and "This Is For You"

References

External links

Joe Elliott
at DefLeppard.com
Joe Elliott on Planet Rock
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott, Joe 1959 births 20th-century English male singers 20th-century English singers 21st-century English male singers 21st-century English singers Def Leppard members Down 'n' Outz members English expatriates in Ireland English heavy metal singers English male rock singers English tenors Hard rock singers Living people Musicians from Sheffield People educated at King Edward VII School, Sheffield Cybernauts members Kings of Chaos (band) members