Episode 5: Gift of Flesh (with Josh Caldwell)

This week, your Regarding…Slang hosts Wolfie, Scotzo, podcasting overlord Corey, and Chaz are joined by podcaster, musician, and self-described “boneless couch philosopher” Josh Caldwell as they crack open Slang’s most feral track — “Gift of Flesh.”

Before the amps even warm up, the gang detours through Phil Collins tributes (and coconut oil stories you’ll never un-hear), heartfelt reflections on Chaz's fallen heroe Ace Frehley, and a debate over whether harmonies are a Def Leppard necessity or just one more thing to lose in the grunge fog. Josh and Corey call out the band for ditching their signature layered vocals, while Scott wonders if “Gift of Flesh” is what happens when Sheffield meets Seattle — and Wolfie swears it’s Foo Fighters before Foo Fighters knew who they were.

The song itself? A muscular, riff-driven outburst that sounds like Adrenalize and Soundgarden got drunk together and woke up in a dive bar bathroom, with the Colour and the Shape all over their pants. Caldwell praises the raw guitar tone and the acoustic drum sound (“finally, something human”), while everyone else argues whether the vocals are gritty authenticity or just Joe Elliott forgetting he’s Joe Elliott. Somewhere in there, they discover a lost version called Black Train, debate whether Phil secretly sang lead, and compare the riff to Ozzy and Van Halen before things inevitably derail into stripper metaphors for commercial success.

This episode features:

🎸 Josh Caldwell’s tales of Phil Collins, G4 clinics, and awkward guitar god encounters

🥁 A forensic listen to Rick Allen’s acoustic drum magic

🗳️ A rare mostly-positive vote that proves miracles can happen when the riffs are good enough

🛋️ The birth of Boneless Couching as an acceptable social engagement subject

By the end, the crew’s equal parts nostalgic and punch-drunk, just like Def Leppard trying on flannel for the first and last time. But one thing’s for sure: if you’re comparing Def Leppard to the Foo Fighters, somewhere Kevin Brown’s already packing his bags for another cliff dive.

The Show

Three guys who are various stages of Def Leppard fans, and a guy who's just heard the hits (maybe...some of them.) Join the guys over a plate of Buffalo Chicken Wings as they give Def Leppard's 1996 album Slang an honest listen and try to figure out just what the hell "Slang" means anyways. Is it too late for love or can we work it out to find a way to get Slang the love and affection it deserves? Listen as we listen so you don't have to, and discover for yourself. Proudly sponsored by podcastle.ai and fourstringmedia, not by Romney's Everest Kendal Mints or Buffalo Chicken Wings in general. Do you like Def Leppard? We like Def Leppard. Yep.

GO BONELESS

Certified boneless in the state of Ohio by the Boneless Podcasting Network. Go Boneless. Boneless Makes a Better Podcast.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, the crew digs into “Deliver Me,” a dark, grungy detour in the Leppard catalogue — complete with Pearl Jam vibes, Alice Cooper echoes, and the unforgettable lyric debate over what exactly Joe Elliott tastes on his breath.

Joining Chaz, Corey, Scott, and Wolfe is special guest Schatz, who rolls in from Rush Rash to lend his drummer’s ear and discover how Rick Allen’s acoustic kit changed everything. From dissecting Rick Savage’s bass tone to calling out blatant Jeremy rip-offs, the guys find equal parts grit and laughter in the murky middle of Slang.

And hidden throughout the episode? Easter eggs and callbacks for true Regarding fans to catch.

Special Bonus: a full-on Boys Night Out moment featuring wrestling themes, sing-alongs, and a spirited takedown of the Van Halen Record Store Day fiasco.

Also:

• 📨 Mailbag mayhem — Kevin Brown’s savage review and “Who Hurt Kevin?” theories
• 🎧 The Dave & Dave Unchained shout-out that sent Chaz’s phone buzzing
• 🤘 Unplanned detours into Balance, Poison, and the Boneless Network reveal

The Show

Three guys who are various stages of Def Leppard fans, and a guy who's just heard the hits (maybe...some of them.) Join the guys over a plate of Buffalo Chicken Wings as they give Def Leppard's 1996 album Slang an honest listen and try to figure out just what the hell "Slang" means anyways. Is it too late for love or can we work it out to find a way to get Slang the love and affection it deserves? Listen as we listen so you don't have to, and discover for yourself. Proudly sponsored by podcastle.ai and fourstringmedia, not by Romney's Everest Kendal Mints or Buffalo Chicken Wings in general. Do you like Def Leppard? We like Def Leppard. Yep.

GO BONELESS

Certified boneless in the state of Ohio by the Boneless Podcasting Network. Go Boneless. Boneless Makes a Better Podcast.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, your Regarding…Slang crew — Wolfie, Scotzo, podcasting overlord Corey, and Chaz — are joined by Darren Paltrowitz and Duane Hoffman as they take a long, sometimes painful look at Def Leppard’s third single from Slang: “Breathe a Sigh.”

The song itself? Joe Elliott goes full falsetto crooner over a groove that sounds more R&B than Daryl Hall going to his "special place". Some of us hear a tender ballad, others hear the band wandering into karaoke night at the wrong pub. Just to make things messier, we spin the rough mix — and suddenly the track takes a turn for demo hell, raising questions about what the band (and producer Pete Woodroffe, whose résumé gets its own hilarious breakdown) thought they were chasing...clearly they were trying to tickle Kevin Brown's berries.

This episode features:

🎤 Chaz trying to defend Joe’s vocal tightrope walk while the rest of us squirm

🍗 Duane’s live taste test of pumpkin-spice wings, because apparently Slang isn’t weird enough already

📀 A blow-by-blow of the rough mix vs. album cut, and whether either version actually lands

🧾 The Pete Woodroffe résumé conversation you didn’t know you needed (boy bands and girl groups pay attention!)

🤔 The inevitable debate: hidden gem or bathroom break?

Hidden throughout: off-mic laughs, tangents about mullets and Spotify bots, and a few moments where even we admit Def Leppard may have reached too far.

Special Bonus: A detour into Boys Night Out — a digression that adds yet another layer of WTF to the Slang era.

The Show

Three guys who are various stages of Def Leppard fans, and a guy who's just heard the hits (maybe...some of them.) Join the guys over a plate of Buffalo Chicken Wings as they give Def Leppard's 1996 album Slang an honest listen and try to figure out just what the hell "Slang" means anyways. Is it too late for love or can we work it out to find a way to get Slang the love and affection it deserves? Listen as we listen so you don't have to, and discover for yourself. Proudly sponsored by podcastle.ai and fourstringmedia, not by Romney's Everest Kendal Mints or Buffalo Chicken Wings in general. Do you like Def Leppard? We like Def Leppard. Yep.

GO BONELESS

Certified boneless in the state of Ohio by the Boneless Podcasting Network. Go Boneless. Boneless Makes a Better Podcast.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 5: Work It Out

This week, your Regarding…Slang hosts Wolfie, Scotzo, podcasting overlord Corey, and Chaz welcome back Van Halen expert David "Loud Dave" Criblez from the Dave and Dave Unclained podcast, as they tackle Def Leppard's second single from Slang: "Work It Out."

It's straight into why this Vivian Campbell-penned track might be Def Leppard's most commercial underrated gem—or at least the one song that proves Joe Elliott doesn't need to hit the stratosphere to sound great.

The song itself? Written entirely by Vivian Campbell, it sits perfectly in Joe's lower register and strips away the signature Mutt Lange production sheen for something that feels like you're watching the band rehearse. It's got industrial touches without going full Nine Inch Nails, a 40-second instrumental section that lets the music breathe, and lyrics about actually working through relationship problems instead of just rocking out or walking the effin dog or taking out the trash...

This episode features:

🎸 David's passionate breakdown of why this is Joe Elliott channeling his inner Iggy Pop

🤔 The eternal Def Leppard dilemma: half experimental songs, half playing it safe, like Joe's mullet "business up front, party in the back"

🗳️ The revelation that this was Chaz's only Def Leppard song to make his wedding playlist

🎵 Bonus tracks: Vivian's original Dublin demo

🎵 🎵 B-side "Move With Me Slowly"—a Stones-flavored jam that sounds like five guys who actually know how to play their instruments

Hidden throughout: Mullet references, Michael Anthony's "flag on the back of his head" hair, and the growing realization that when Def Leppard strips away the candy coating, they're capable of so much more than their hit formula suggests.

Special Bonus: The episode includes "Move With Me Slowly," a track so effortlessly cool and Stones-influenced that it becomes everyone's new favorite Def Leppard song by episode's end. It's proof that sometimes the best music happens when a band just plugs in and jams. Pay attention, Kevin Brown.

The Show

Three guys who are various stages of Def Leppard fans, and a guy who's just heard the hits (maybe...some of them.) Join the guys over a plate of Buffalo Chicken Wings as they give Def Leppard's 1996 album Slang an honest listen and try to figure out just what the hell "Slang" means anyways. Is it too late for love or can we work it out to find a way to get Slang the love and affection it deserves? Listen as we listen so you don't have to, and discover for yourself. Proudly sponsored by podcastle.ai and fourstringmedia, not by Romney's Everest Kendal Mints or Buffalo Chicken Wings in general. Do you like Def Leppard? We like Def Leppard. Yep.

GO BONELESS

Certified boneless in the state of Ohio by the Boneless Podcasting Network. Go Boneless. Boneless Makes a Better Podcast.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 4: All I Want Is Everything

This week, your Regarding…Slang hosts Wolfie, Scotzo, podcasting overlord Corey, and Chaz are joined by Michael Pastore as they tackle one of Def Leppard’s saddest turns into balladry: “All I Want Is Everything.”

Before the song even spins, the guys detour through RushFest Toronto stories, bot-spam in the DMs, and a full-on Chazgasm about why Joe Elliott should get more credit as a lyricist. From there, things go off the rails: Corey calls the track “U2-like” and “Tom Petty-esque,” which is basically the podcasting equivalent of pushing Kevin Brown off a cliff in a straight-jacket. Somewhere out there, Kevin’s ears are bleeding while Chaz argues this is a dirge, Wolfie swears it’s hopeful, and Michael Pastore just wants to call it a breakup song.

The song itself? A stripped-back, unusually sad moment in the Slang experiment, or even the entire Def Leppard catalog, with Joe saying it’s about “birth, death, and divorce” while Rick Savage once claimed it was about a man dying of AIDS. Whatever the truth, there’s no sugar or sparkle—just regret, grief, and one of Leppard’s rawest ever recordings.

This episode features:

🎸 A fight over whether Joe Elliott’s lyrics are Dylan-esque genius or just “serviceable”, and why Paul Simon is a "punk"

🥁 Why the stripped-down recording makes it sound almost live in the studio

🤔 Debating why Peter Gabriel gets praised for world music experiments while Def Leppard gets their nuts roasted

📻 A completely unnecessary but inevitable and enjoyable digression into Traveling Wilburys fan casting

🗳️ No clear verdict—just confusion, conflict, and the creeping suspicion Kevin Brown may never speak to Corey again

Hidden gem? Funeral dirge? Def Leppard’s most un-Leppard moment? Whatever it is, the Tom Petty-esque comparisons will send Kevin Brown screaming off a cliff — and we’ll be listening for every second of the fall...

The Show

Three guys who are various stages of Def Leppard fans, and a guy who's just heard the hits (maybe...some of them.) Join the guys over a plate of Buffalo Chicken Wings as they give Def Leppard's 1996 album Slang an honest listen and try to figure out just what the hell "Slang" means anyways. Is it too late for love or can we work it out to find a way to get Slang the love and affection it deserves? Listen as we listen so you don't have to, and discover for yourself. Proudly sponsored by podcastle.ai and fourstringmedia, not by Romney's Everest Kendal Mints or Buffalo Chicken Wings in general. Do you like Def Leppard? We like Def Leppard. Yep.

GO BONELESS

Certified boneless in the state of Ohio by the Boneless Podcasting Network. Go Boneless. Boneless Makes a Better Podcast.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode 3: Slang

This week, your Regarding… Slang hosts Wolfie, Scotzo, podcasting overlord Corey, and Chaz are joined by Middle-Earth's own, podcaster Kevin Brown — a man who openly loathes Joe Elliott’s voice — as they take on the funky, polarizing, and utterly un-Leppard title track: “Slang.”

But before we get to the track, there’s a winding path through podcasting mission statements, Chaz’s questionable decision-making as a Def Leppard evangelist, Kevin’s blunt assessments of Joe’s pipes, and the age-old question: What the hell is wrong with Chaz for trying to sell a hater on one of if not the weirdest song this band ever released?

The song itself? It’s got Rick Allen on a full acoustic kit for the first time since his accident, guitars that pop and snap instead of roar, and lyrics that may or may not be about phone sex. The band thought it was a bold lead single. The fans? Well…

This episode features:
🎸 The song’s origins - a Phil Collen/Joe Elliott bass groove with a “Billie Jean” feel, aiming for a band-in-a-room vibe rather than Mutt Lange’s polished assembly line.
🥁 Rick Allen’s return to acoustic drums – and why it changed the song’s feel completely
🤔 The ongoing mystery - what the hell is “slang” in this context? Phone sex? Throwaway lyric?
🗳️ A unanimous Fade Away vote – proving that even if it’s funky, it’s not for everyone

As the Regarding… crew digs into “Slang,” they wrestle with its identity: a noble experiment, a funky misfire, or just Def Leppard having a mid-90s identity crisis? And more importantly — can Raw Joe make Kevin Brown flinch a little less? With more wank than Spanked, it's Corey's go-to to stroke his...desire for a Leppard sound he finds familiar, like a creepy Uncle's hand on your knee...he just doesn't want to get his hand's dirty. Join us for an utter cluster-cluck of a listen. Yeti-Yeti-Yeti-Yeti-Yo

The Show

Three guys who are various stages of Def Leppard fans, and a guy who’s just heard the hits (maybe...some of them.) Join the guys over a plate of Buffalo Chicken Wings as they give Def Leppard’s 1996 album Slang and honest listen and try to figure out just what the hell “Slang” means anyways. Is it too late for love or can we work it out to find a way to get Slang the love and affection it deserves? Listen as we listen so you don’t have to, and discover for yourself. Proudly sponsored by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcastle.ai⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fourstringmedia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, not by ⁠⁠Romney's Everest Kendal Mints⁠⁠ or Buffalo Chicken Wings in general. Do you like Def Leppard? We like Def Leppard. Yep.

The Show

Three guys who are various stages of Def Leppard fans, and a guy who's just heard the hits (maybe...some of them.) Join the guys over a plate of Buffalo Chicken Wings as they give Def Leppard's 1996 album Slang an honest listen and try to figure out just what the hell "Slang" means anyways. Is it too late for love or can we work it out to find a way to get Slang the love and affection it deserves? Listen as we listen so you don't have to, and discover for yourself. Proudly sponsored by podcastle.ai and fourstringmedia, not by Romney's Everest Kendal Mints or Buffalo Chicken Wings in general. Do you like Def Leppard? We like Def Leppard. Yep.

GO BONELESS

Certified boneless in the state of Ohio by the Boneless Podcasting Network. Go Boneless. Boneless Makes a Better Podcast.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to Season 4 of the Regarding…Series of podcasts, the fan-based critical evaluation podcast where we listen to albums that require real effort to get through. Albums where the artists need their fans to invest a little more than a casual listen to comprehend or even mildly appreciate what they were trying to achieve.

This season, your hosts Chaz Charles, Greg “Wolfie” Wolfe, and Scott D. Monroe and joined by CMPU podcasting legend Corey Morrissette as cohost for the dive headfirst into Def Leppard’s most polarizing release: Slang.

Episode 1: Truth?

This season opener is equal parts nostalgic concert chatter, honest critique, and therapy session for fans who’ve followed Leppard through more "Eras" than Taylor Swift. The boys spend time getting Wolfie up to speed on the Leppard sound, and why this record was such a departure from what fans were expecting from the 5 lads from Sheffield in 1996. Has it aged well? Is it stuck in time? Is there anything redeeming here? It was a tough time for the guys, does the work hold up as a statement to artistic integrity or a swing and a miss that ushered in a new era and reality for the band.

Join us as we roll into Season 4 with sitar loops, heatwaves in Saskatchewan, and the humble realization that after four seasons of this show… we’re still finding things to appreciate about these elusive works that would otherwise have turned to dust in our collections.

The Show

Three guys who are various stages of Def Leppard fans, and a guy who’s just heard the hits (maybe...some of them.) Join the guys over a plate of Buffalo Chicken Wings as they give Def Leppard’s 1996 album Slang and honest listen and try to figure out just what the hell “Slang” means anyways. Is it too late for love or can we work it out to find a way to get Slang the love and affection it deserves? Listen as we listen so you don’t have to, and discover for yourself.

Proudly sponsored by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcastle.ai⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fourstringmedia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, not by Romney's Everest Kendal Mints or Buffalo Chicken Wings in general. Do you like Def Leppard? We like Def Leppard.

The Show

Three guys who are various stages of Def Leppard fans, and a guy who's just heard the hits (maybe...some of them.) Join the guys over a plate of Buffalo Chicken Wings as they give Def Leppard's 1996 album Slang an honest listen and try to figure out just what the hell "Slang" means anyways. Is it too late for love or can we work it out to find a way to get Slang the love and affection it deserves? Listen as we listen so you don't have to, and discover for yourself. Proudly sponsored by podcastle.ai and fourstringmedia, not by Romney's Everest Kendal Mints or Buffalo Chicken Wings in general. Do you like Def Leppard? We like Def Leppard. Yep.

GO BONELESS

Certified boneless in the state of Ohio by the Boneless Podcasting Network. Go Boneless. Boneless Makes a Better Podcast.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.