POP/ROCK - Jan. 7, 1988

Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott is feeling mighty guilty about insulting the city of El Paso, Tex.--even though the alleged insult was delivered five years ago. But that doesn’t make El Paso Mayor Jonathan Rogers feel any better about the group. The mayor has urged a boycott of Def Leppard concert appearances since 1983, when Elliott told a concert crowd in Tucson, Ariz., that the band had played the night before in El Paso, “that place with all the greasy Mexicans.” And Rogers said Monday that the band’s five young men--scheduled to play in the border city Feb. 15--are still personae non gratae , despite entreaties from John Garcia, director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, who says “we can’t continue to hold a grudge.”