I’ve done a few stories on bands who were banned from cities after inciting a riot
or when their fans misbehaved, but this is a unique story. This story involves the band def
leppard and how one of their members made some disparaging remarks about a particular city
resulting in rock radio stations not only pulling but destroying their music.
It also resulted in the then mayor of the city calling for a lifetime ban on the
group from performing in the city. Let’s explore what happened in today’s video. .
In january of 1983 british rockers Def Leppard had released their third studio album pyromania.
The album was a passive seller moving over 10 million copies in the States.
By September of 83 the band were touring America playing a show in El Paso Texas.
It was during the show that several members of the audience who frontman Joe Elliot identified
as being mexican threw objects on stage. The next night during a gig in Tuscon,
Arizona during the eight songs of the set rock of ages there’s a part in the live performance
where there is a fan singalong. It was normal of elliott to reference the band’s previous live show
to get the audience’s energy up. According to the arizona star he reportedly referred to the
band’s previous show in El Paso as and i quote “that place with all the greasy Mexicans and
they made a lot more noise than that” (and then he used a derogatory term to describe mexicans).
Elliott did’t think much of the comments and thought it wouldn’t ruffle any feathers as
he thought his humor was in the same vein as comedians Cheech And Chong. Also unbeknownst
to Elliott was that in the audience that night in Tuscon was a reporter from the Arizona Daily Star
who passed on his comment to DJ’s and reporters in El Paso. Keep in mind el paso’s population
at the time was 65 percent mexican-american. El Paso up until this point had backed Def
Leppard as the band had played several shows in the city starting in 1980.and again in 1981. A
few days after the incident a recording of the slur being used would surface and it was at this
point all rock stations stopped playing the band’s music. The controversy also drew the ire of El
Paso’s mayor Jonathan Rogers started proposing a permanent boycott of the band from ever being
allowed back into the city. Even Erin Michaels who was the program director for the local radio
station KLAQ in El Paso was photographed ripping the album sleeve of Pyromania. Hispanic groups
in the city meanwhile demanded an apology from the band. The band by this point was
now in Japan doing press and promotion and it would take about three weeks for word of
what was going on in El Paso to reach the band. The groups would get their ask as on September 30
Elliot who was in Japan at the time would call into local radio station KLAQ
and give a brief 10 minute interview apologizing for his remarks.According to the book Nothin but
a good time joe elliott would remark “that comment i swear was aimed at five hispanic
kids who were spitting at us, throwing jack daniels and kung fu stars at the band,
not at anybody else in El Paso. I was slagging off those five bastards. I’m a cheech and chong
fan and they used that term all the time.” To make ammends Elliott offered to fly two
fans from El Paso to see the band in Europe, The offer wouldn’t be taken up by anyone and instead
offended . Elliott publicly apologized for his remarks and offered to pay for two people from
El Paso to fly to Europe and attend a Def Leppard show. The El Paso Herald Post would
interview the district director of the league of united latin america citizens or LULAC who
was offended by the offer telling the paper ,. “He’s trying to buy off El Paso and we won’t
have it.” Since no one from el paso traveled to europe to see the band the band instead donated
10,000 to a hispanic charity in los angeles. The issue would haunt the band for two months
and on november 23rd elliot would host a press conference in california to address the comments
stating in the book nothing but a good time “the last thing that mexican americans need
as they try to rid themselves of the stereotype is for me or anyone else to make such statements.
It was stupid of me to make such false accusation” The ban would only last until the end of 1983. Def
Leppard was once again scheduled to play el paso in 1988 as part of the hysteria tour, but there
were still a lot of hurt feelings.Local radio stations in el paso polled their audience about
how they felt five years later with 60 percent of the audience at KPRR were still upset about the
comments, but rival station KLAQ had 85 percent of their listeners being in favour of the group
returning to the city. Ahead of the band’s show in el paso in 1988 the group’s manager claimed
the band would hold a press conference to discuss the five year old comments and make amends. But
the show would eventually be canceled. Bobby Welch, director of special events
at the university and promoter of the El Paso concert would tell UPI.com that several reasons
led to the cancellation including death threats, protesting of the show and a possible disruption
during the show. Some people though, were willing to forgive including John Garcia, director of
the League of United Latin American Citizens, would tell the LA Times “we can’t continue to
hold a grudge. The band would play their first shows in mexicao shows in 1993 without incident
and they ”would finally return to play El Paso in the year 2000 on the Euphoria Tour,