After leaving the rock band Girl in the early 1980s guitarist Phil Collen got the break of his life when he was asked to join Def Leppard. For the past 30 years Collen has been one of the most talented, successful, and underrated axeslingers on the planet.

Recovering from a British tour and festive period, Collen is back in warmer climes chatting to me on the phone from his garden in an “unseasonably hot” California. The Def Leppard and Manraze guitarist had much to talk about including milestone anniversaries for “˜Lep, fantastic second Manraze album Punkfunkrootsrock and, erm, Tom Cruise. No Foolin’.

Geeks of Doom: First of all I want to say Happy New Year!

Phil Collen: Thank you, you too. Cheers!

Geeks of Doom: How was your Christmas and New Year?

In 1992, Vivian Campbell joined the mega-success rock group Def Leppard, stepping into the second lead guitarist slot left vacate by Steve Clark, who had died the year before. At the time, Campbell had gone a few years out of the spotlight after leaving David Coverdale’s rock supergroup Whitesnake before signed on with the Leps, a position he’s had for nearly 20 years that remains his most high-profile gig to date.

The Irish-born Campbell, who got big break back in 1983 as Ronnie James Dio’s hot-shot lead guitarist in the former Black Sabbath frontman’s newly created solo band, Dio, has always said that the guitar parts in Def Leppard weren’t really challenging to him and he was fine with that. Now, the guitarist is finally bitching about it, complaining that fellow Lep guitarist Phil Collen gets all the good guitar parts. Let’s just say, I told you so.