DEF LEPPARD's JOE ELLIOTT Says VIVIAN CAMPBELL May Be Out Of Hospital By Mid-November

November 1, 2014

DEF LEPPARD singer Joe Elliott spoke to Billboard.com about the status of guitarist Vivian Campbell, who is undergoing stem-cell treatment in his continuing battle with Hodgkin's lymphoma.

"The latest that I'm aware of with Viv, they were harvesting stem cells from him and do whatever they do in a Petry dish with them, and then they were gonna carpet bomb him with chemo for a week and he was gonna be kept in the hospital...Then they're gonna put the stem cells back in and do whatever they do, wave the magic wand and say 'Abracadabra,'" he said. "Hopefully by the middle of November they're gonna let him out. We were under the impression he would be in the hospital until Christmas, but the last email he sent me, which was about two weeks ago, said, 'It looks like I may be able to get out of here by mid-November."

Elliott added that he and the other DEF LEPPARD members "don't bombard [Vivian] with emails and phone calls every day going 'How are you doing? How are you doing?' 'cause it's like saying, 'Has your hair grown any longer since yesterday?' It's a slow process, so you're best waiting. He'll contact us when he's got something to say, but it's all fingers crossed and thumbs up and very positive vibes going around — coming from him, which kind of rubs off, really. It makes us think there's a good outcome for this."

DEF LEPPARD has tapped TRIXTER guitarist Steve Brown to fill in for Campbell.

Brown made his live debut with DEF LEPPARD on September 28 at the pre-game show at the first of this year's three NFL International Series games when the Oakland Raiders hosted the Miami Dolphins.

Video footage of Brown's debut appearance with DEF LEPPARD can be seen below.

Campbell — who before joining DEF LEPPARD in 1992 was well known for his work with DIO and WHITESNAKE — went public with his Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosis last year, but announced in November 2013 that he was in remission.

The term "remission" means that the symptoms of the cancer have either been eliminated or reduced. When the tumor is completely gone, doctors call it "complete remission."

However, Campbell revealed earlier in the year that the cancer had returned and he was battling the disease with a new high-tech chemo treatment.

Find more on Def leppard

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).