10 Musical Collaborations That Didn't Really Work
8. Nine Lives - Def Leppard and Tim McGraw
It's not the worst idea for some rock stars to turn to country as they grow older. You can get a lot more perspective in the music industry over time, and some of the best writers in the world tend to turn to Nashville to get some more experience under their belt. When you try to do country on rock's terms though, it doesn't really come together in the same way.
As Def Leppard were coming off of their covers record Yeah!, hearing them work with country superstar Tim McGraw feels more like they were trying to get him for name recognition than actual songwriting expertise. While Tim does a pretty respectable job behind the mic, most of this just feels like your standard Def Leppard song that just tacked on a guest verse from someone else to just make it sound finished. And for all the acts to go country, it makes zero sense to see Leppard going that route.
Here was a band that are damn proud of their rock roots, down to the fact that they have the word in a lot of their songs, and now they're suddenly trying to put themselves in the good graces of Nashville. Even though the rest of Songs from the Sparkle Lounge was a return to form, this is the kind of music that feels like it's supposed to soundtrack a middle aged biker rally than actually push the genre forward.