Phil Collen reckons Def Leppard are still improving after nearly five decades, and he has a recent measure for it, of the twelve nights the band played at Caesars Palace in February, at least four rank among the finest performances of their career.
The guitarist and Vivian Campbell spoke with Paolo Phoenix of “Magenta TV” at Wacken Open Air, where Def Leppard headlined the festival’s Harder stage on Friday in the band’s first ever appearance at the German event.
Asked how the group sustains its standard of live performance after so many years, Collen pointed to rehearsal and vocals.
“Well, we love what we do. We love each other. We rehearse so much. We really sing. A lot of bands don’t really do that. We put so much effort into just raising the bar — production, everything. We are our own favorite band, so we have to make sure we keep that kind of expectation really high,” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
He returned to the Las Vegas run as evidence.
“We played [a residency in Las] Vegas in February, and we’d done 12 shows, and at least four of them were in the top five shows we’ve ever done. So we keep getting better, and I think that’s a great thing. Unfortunately, you see some artists and they kind of give up, and you see that, but we keep pushing it. We just keep raising the bar and just keep making it exciting.”
Campbell framed the band’s approach as a matter of every element mattering equally, and noted a shift in who turns up.
“Everything’s important to this band, from writing songs to recording to the live performance to the show and the production. As Phil said, the singing, the playing, all the details matter. It’s the sum of the parts that makes it so special. And as Phil also said, we all really genuinely enjoy it, and I think that joy translates in the music. You can tell that we’re not just going through the motions and phoning it in. We really feel that it’s a great privilege at this time in our life. We’re in our 60s now. It’s a great privilege to be where we are in our career and to have the opportunity to do this and to play to new audiences like Wacken. And indeed globally, our audience has for many, many years been getting younger. We now genuinely have a multi-generational audience, which is very encouraging, and that further encourages us to make Def Leppard the best band that we can be.”
He added that the room dictates the performance.
“We take our energy from the audience. We’re playing these songs — most of these songs many, many hundreds or thousands of times. So, for us, the excitement begins with what we feel from the audience, and if it’s a very exciting audience, we translate that into our performance and give it back.”
Def Leppard took the stage around 10:15 p.m. in heavy rain, playing 19 songs to the festival’s Infield, which holds up to 85,000 people. “Rejoice” opened the show, as it has throughout the tour, this time in front of the largest crowd it has faced.
It was the band’s first performance in the village of Wacken and the closing date of the summer leg of their “Live 2026” tour. Their next show is October 15 in Hollywood, Florida.
The band’s thirteenth studio album, the follow-up to 2022’s Diamond Star Halos, is scheduled for early 2027.
“Rejoice” was released in late January ahead of the Vegas residency and will open the record. Joe Elliott has said roughly 18 songs have been recorded, with 10 or 11 making the final cut, and that the album will include the fastest song the band has ever written along with their most bombastic.
Work continued through the residency itself, with the band recording in a basement at the casino on days off, and has carried on between festival dates this summer. Bassist Rick Savage indicated after the Wacken show that the break now beginning would be used to finish the record.
The European leg ran through June and July with Extreme as special guests, taking in a hometown show in Sheffield, a headline date at The O2 in London, where Nuno Bettencourt joined the band onstage for “Slang” on July 2, and the group’s first Paris concert in almost 30 years. The wider world tour opened in India in March.
The February residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace was the band’s third, following runs in 2013 and 2019, and closed on February 28.
Def Leppard were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in March 2019, 14 years after first becoming eligible.
