DEF LEPPARD‘s Joe Elliott has confirmed to USA Today that he and his bandmates — drummer Rick Allen, bassist Rick Savage and guitarists Vivian Campbell and Phil Collen — are working on the follow-up to 2022’s “Diamond Star Halos” album for a tentative 2026 release. That LP was recorded simultaneously in three different countries, with Elliott in Ireland, Savage in England, and Collen, Campbell and Allen in the United States. The band also enlisted Alison Krauss and David Bowie pianist Mike Garson to guest on the LP. Joe said: “We’re blessed that technology has allowed us to do this. We get together metaphorically rather than physically and do Zoom meetings all the time. This way five people can work on the same song at the same time and it adds excitement to the flavors of what you’re doing. Laptops have become Abbey Road,” a reference to the world-famous London music studio that was home to THE BEATLES and birthplace to millions of music records that helped shaped our popular culture today.
Three years ago, Elliott explained to Planet Rock that working on “Diamond Star Halos” remotely was the result of pandemic-related constraints.
“It’s been done in the past in bits and bobs,” he said at the time. “We’ve done it many times with the odd little instrument. Previous albums we may have [said], ‘Oops, we forgot to do a backing vocal on this section’ or Phil wanted to change his solo or Viv wanted to change his solo. It’s no problem. He does it at home and literally just sends it over the Internet and it gets dropped into the files and it all works perfectly. It’s just kind of a digital jigsaw puzzle, really. Having had experience of doing it and having no alternatives, we decided we would see what we could do by doing everything remotely. And when I say remotely, I mean old-fashioned remotely. We didn’t even use Zoom. We made phone calls and we used e-mails to send MP3s to each other. We didn’t literally see each other for two and a quarter years but we were on the phone every day. In fact, I probably conversed with everyone in the band more often because of lockdown than I would have done if we weren’t in lockdown, because it kind of pushes you into that scenario… And I’ll be honest with you, having made an album like this now, I don’t think we’ll ever make a traditional record ever again because this was so much more fun to do.
“When you think about it, when a band go to a studio — they all come to my house; they don’t live there; they live there for a month or two,” he added. “When they’re not working, they’re sitting around in my house. Making an album this way, they’re sitting around in theirs so when they’re not working, they’re with their family, they’re doing their own thing, which is much more pleasant, to be quite honest. It’s great having the guys at my place, I love having them over there, but it was much more beneficial for the whole band for everybody to be at home. We’re all trying to be as safe as we can and the best way to do it was just not to travel — we weren’t even allowed to travel.”
DEF LEPPARD‘s third Las Vegas residency, “Def Leppard: Live at Caesars Palace The Las Vegas Residency”, will take place from February 3 through 28, 2026 at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. These new shows follow the band’s sold-out residency successes in 2019 and 2013.
The veteran British rockers played their first concert of 2025 on January 18 at Feria Estatal De León in León, Mexico. As was the case with the band’s October 14, 2024 private show in Nashville (as part of the Daimler Truck Customer Appreciation Event),Campbell was unable to join his bandmates at the León gig and was replaced by John Zocco, who is Collen‘s guitar tech. Campbell has since rejoined DEF LEPPARD on the road.
Late last year, Vivian underwent a bone marrow transplant as part of his treatment plan for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, with which he was diagnosed in 2013.
In June, Campbell revealed that he is “completely in remission” from the cancer of the lymphatic system.
This past January, DEF LEPPARD released a cover of Ben E. King‘s 1961 classic “Stand By Me”. All proceeds from the song are going to FireAid, which raises money for those impacted by the fires that swept through Los Angeles early this year.
DEF LEPPARD‘s version of the song is featured in the Netflix film “Bank Of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger”, which was released on January 10. The band can be seen performing the track before the credits.
Campbell — who before joining DEF LEPPARD in 1992 was well known for his work with DIO and WHITESNAKE — went public with his Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis in June 2013.
Vivian underwent three separate spells of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, only for his Hodgkin’s lymphoma to return.
Six years ago, Campbell underwent spine surgery.
Vivian and his DEF LEPPARD bandmates were finally inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in March 2019 — 14 years after the British rockers first became eligible.
“Diamond Star Halos” arrived in May 2022 via UMe.
Photo credit: Ross Halfin
