On the way back from Nashville on Sunday, Shane Rhyne, Tamara Rhyne, and I decided unilaterally that we needed to listen to, and spiritedly sing along with, Def Leppard’s 1983 smash hit “Rock of Ages.” We also bounced around a Spotify playlist (ugh) to their 1992 hits “Stand Up (Kick Love into Motion)” and “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad?” both of which I cite in my Def Leppard joke on the new album. Here’s the track in question:

Considering what a train wreck our experience in Nashville was, I needed something to wash the taste out of my mouth. For years, after a bad set or open-mic experience, my neurons started to fire up and jostle up some new material. That wasn’t happening this time, for whatever reason. Whichever corners of my brain were responsible for pithy observations and wry commentary were atrophied, for whatever reasons (I’m going to go with the positive reality that I’ve had an insane number of great shows so far in 2019, and maybe I’ve just become complacent).

Anyway, I listened to Adrenalize now for the first time since the cleaning night in question, and I’ll be damned if “Stand Up (Kick Love into Motion)” isn’t (1) already giving me so much inspiration with these questionable lyrics and (2) still somehow the JAM.

So, here’s my first big comedy-challenge to myself in 2019. On March 29, 2019, Def Leppard will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (along with The Cure, Radiohead, The Zombies… actually a genuinely good class). In honor of this, I’ll be releasing a 15-minute EP of jokes about or directly inspired by Def Leppard on my Bandcamp. This is incredibly stupid, and I’m incredibly up for it.