Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell take you behind the scenes of their first album in seven long years, Diamond Star Halos, and talk Bolan, Bowie, Ronson and Reed
By Joe Bosso
IT WOULDN’T EXACTLY be an understatement to say that the Covid pandemic threw a king-sized monkey wrench into Def Leppard’s plans. In June 2020, with just two weeks before the band was about to embark on a 30-date stadium tour that would also feature Mötley Crüe, Poison and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, the group was forced to reschedule the entire run for the following summer. Nearly a year later, however, with Covid cases continuing unabated, the band announced that the rebooted tour was postponed yet again and would commence this year.
“Let’s face it — no band likes to cancel concerts,” says guitarist Phil Collen, “and obviously, Covid has been a shitty time for people all over the world. On that level, it is what it is. But to be honest, this is a band that’s been through a few situations that derailed us for a bit. We’ve learned how to handle those times and persevere. No matter what, we press on.”
Fellow guitarist Vivian Campbell echoes Collen’s sentiments: “It was very disappointing when we had to postpone those tours, but here we are now. We’ve got the places booked, and we’re ready to go. We’re definitely playing this time.” He adds, “There was something positive that came from it. The time off led to an opportunity for us to make a great album, so now we’re in a position to do a huge tour with a fantastic record to go with it. So it’s all good.”
The album Campbell refers to is Diamond Star Halos, Def Leppard’s 12th studio recording and their first in seven years. As the title suggests — it’s a pluralization of a lyric from T. Rex’s “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” — many of the songs contained in the set draw inspiration from the band’s early musical influences. To be sure, there’s an unmistakable Seventies glam-rock spirit on power rockers such as “Kick,” “Fire It Up” and “Gimme a Kiss,” and for good measure the band even enlisted David Bowie’s legendary Spiders from Mars keyboardist, Mike Garson, to perform on a pair of stirring ballads, “Goodbye for Good This Time” and “Angels (Can’t Help You Now).” Notably, there are a couple of detours to modern-day Nashville — Alison Krauss turns up to duet with singer Joe Elliot on the country-laced poppers “Lifeless” and “This Guitar�
