RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE guitarist Tom Morello joined DEF LEPPARD on stage last night (Wednesday, July 16) at Ottawa Bluestfest at LeBreton Flats Park in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to perform the British rock legends’ recent single “Just Like 73”. Professionally filmed video of his appearance can be seen below.
DEF LEPPARD commented: “It was an absolute honor to welcome Tom Morello to the stage for ‘Just Like 73’. Thanks for rockin’ with us at Ottawa Bluesfest.”
The studio version of DEF LEPPARD‘s “Just Like 73”, featuring a guest guitar solo from Morello, was made available in June 2024. The following month, DEF LEPPARD guitarist Phil Collen told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about how the collaboration came about: “Well, Tom heard my original demo of the song with just me on it, and maybe Joe [Elliott, DEF LEPPARD singer] doing a vocal. And he’s, like, ‘Oh my God, this is great.’ So he told our friend Brian Monaco, who is actually president of Sony Music, and Brian‘s, like, ‘What do you think about Tom being on it? He loves this thing.’ And it was, like, ‘Yeah, that’d be awesome.’
“You know, I love RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE. I think Tom‘s really, really cool and his guitar style is so unique and he really didn’t let us down. I remember talking to him about it. He said, ‘Well, what do you hear?’ and I said, ‘Well, you gotta do your Tom Morello thing.’ And he did. [I] heard it back and said, ‘This is absolutely perfect.’
“The song is about us discovering the music that kind of shaped our lives, you know, the [David] Bowie/T. REX period of the very early ’70s, and he totally got it, and kind of nailed it. So we’re overjoyed about that.”
In June 2024, Collen told SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” about the writing process for “Just Like 73”: “We started it when we were doing [2022’s] ‘Diamond Star Halos’ [album], and anyone who doesn’t know, that’s a line from a Marc Bolan song [from] T. REX. He says ‘hubcap diamond star halo’. And me and Joe [Elliott, DEF LEPPARD singer] have always used that phrase to describe the time that we got really baptized into music. I remember seeing [David] Bowie on ‘The Old Grey Whistle Test’ and ‘Top Of The Pops’ and was, like, ‘Oh my God. This is my guy.’ I was, like, 14 or 15. I’d already seen DEEP PURPLE; it my first concert, which was amazing. So, then all of a sudden this glam stuff came out. So we would always describe that as ‘Diamond Star Halos’.”
Phil continued: “I was writing a song with Dave Bassett, who I wrote ‘Kick’ with. And the same deal — I really want to put a SLADE slant on the backing vocals and just make it very much about ’72 or ’73. And Joe heard the demo and he’s, like, ‘Why can’t you have both?’ So we did, and then Joe started writing some lyrics because he’s obviously really tapped into that, and all the verse lyrics and all the imagery from exactly that ‘Diamond Star Halos’ period ends up on this song. We actually hadn’t finished it, so the rest of the band hadn’t even heard the demo, and we played it to everyone and they all loved it. They all put their stuff on it. Viv [guitarist Vivian Campbell] played guitar, Sav [Rick Savage] did [his bass tracks], Rick [Allen, DEF LEPPARD drummer] put his part on and then we had some vocals — everyone had sung on it — and before you know it, it came out like this. So, we’re really thrilled. It actually sounds better than the stuff on ‘Diamond Star Halos’, to my ears. So I’m really excited about that. And it seems that everyone really digs it as well.”
“Just Like 73” arrived on seven-inch vinyl in August 2024 and was made available in a special color variant only through the band’s D2C store and in black at all retailers.
DEF LEPPARD teased “Just Like 73” on social media earlier in June 2024, sharing an image with two different phone numbers for U.S. and U.K. fans to call.
“Light up the fuel. Just Like 73. Hotline Now Open,” the band wrote in an accompanying caption.
Fans who called the phone numbers were able to hear Elliott singing lyrics from the song, which marked the band’s first new original music since the “Diamond Star Halos” album.
DEF LEPPARD‘s 12th studio album, “Diamond Star Halos”, came out in May 2022. A year later, the band followed it up with “Drastic Symphonies”, a collection of reimagining of some of DEF LEPPARD‘s greatest hits with London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road. The album spent 15 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Current Classical chart.
