Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott on Chumbawamba and Writing Sports Arena Anthems

While many musicians have a diverse palette of interests, we'll admit that we were a bit surprised when Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott went straight for the pop-culture jugular and quoted '90s one-hit wonders Chumbawamba during a recent interview with ESPN.

Talking about the current Def Leppard single 'Undefeated,' Elliott claims that there is no band who goes through their careers without at least some trouble, explaining, "You don't lose, you get knocked down." He then remarked, "But as Chumbawamba would have said, you get up again."

Sure.

Elliott says that while he heard sports-anthem potential when Lep bassist Rick Savage wrote the song 'C'mon C'mon' a few years ago, 'Undefeated' wasn't a conscious attempt to repeat that successful formula.

But even Elliott knows that some things are just inevitable: "The second I had the chorus, I just knew that I'd done it without trying. I just started humming noises and singing phonetic phrases, and then when it got to the big punchline of the chorus, sooner or later I just blurted out the word 'undefeated.' And I thought, ooh, that works well. Once you've got the chorus down, the rest of it falls into place."

The interview covers a lot of sports-related ground, interwoven with moments from the band's rich history. There's even a stray chess reference to round it all out. Def Leppard will be on tour with Heart this summer.

Watch Def Leppard Perform 'Undefeated'