In his own speech accepting the honor on behalf the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band, Elliott said, “From all of us up here, including [founding guitarist] Pete Willis and the late, great [guitarist] Steve Clark, we all say to each and every one of you, to our collective families, especially our parents who helped us get where we are now, just simply, to our incredibly loving fanbase, two words: thank you!”
📸 Ross Halfin
via Variety
It shouldn’t be hard for anyone to accept the idea that Def Leppard is getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Oct. 9 alongside other showbiz legends. After all, the band has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide and set an untold number of heads bobbing and fists a-pumping with undeniably catchy anthems like “Photograph,” “Pour Some Sugar on Me” and last year’s glam rock callback “Just Like 73.”
And yet…
“You’re immensely proud of it, but to be a part of it is a little strange, to be perfectly honest, because we’ve always been fans of musical icons and film icons,” says the band’s bass player, Rick Savage, known to friends as “Sav.” “It’s almost like you’re talking and thinking and acting in the third party, so it’s still taking a little bit of time to sink in.”
It’s tempting to dismiss Savage’s comments as false modesty, given the flash and sparkle of the band’s music and image, along with the massive sales and their 2019 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But Def Leppard is, at its core, a brotherhood of working-class kids from the British Isles, raised by parents who lived through the deprivations of World War II. And work they do: they’ve played 2,700-plus shows across six decades and as many continents, carrying on in the face of personal tragedies as they’ve navigated career peaks and valleys, from stadiums to state fairs and back to stadiums again.
Next year, the band will settle down briefly for a Las Vegas residency — its third — at the Colosseum Theater at Caesars Palace from Feb. 3-28. In the meantime, they’re working on a batch of new recordings they hope to release next year.
“It’s a very different situation to touring,” says lead singer Joe Elliott of the Vegas residency. “You’ve got people coming from all over the world, not just all over the country, to come see us, so we try to put on a different show. The first residency in 2013, we opened for ourselves as a fake band called Ded Flatbird, and we did all the really deep stuff for 45 minutes, and then we went off and came back on and did ‘Hysteria’ and [other] stuff. Then the residency in 2019, I generally — ”
Elliott pivots mid-thought, without taking a pause.
“It’s funny, the closer things are to me, the less I can remember them,” he muses. “But ask me about 1980, I’ll tell you everything.”
Nineteen eighty was a milestone year for Def Leppard. Not only did it mark the release of their debut album, “On Through the Night,” in March, it brought them to Hollywood for the first time. Their plane touched down at LAX on May 18, and they checked into the historic Chateau Marmont Hotel on the Sunset Strip. Band members had a day or so to do a few touristy things, like pay a visit to the Rainbow Bar & Grill, famous as a hangout for British rock stars like Led Zeppelin and Keith Moon of the Who, and get scammed by a shop that sold them overpriced, faulty cameras. Then it was time for their show, opening for the Pat Travers Band at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on May 20 — the first concert on their first-ever U.S. tour.
The band moved “Hello America,” the second track from “On Through the Night,” to the front of the setlist, introducing themselves to the audience with lyrics seemingly made for the moment:
Well, I’m taking me a trip,
I’m going down to California
Yeah, I’m going to try
Hollywood and San Pedro Bay
Elliott had composed the words the previous year in his windowless six-by-six-foot basement office at Osborn-Mushet Tools in the band’s hometown of Sheffield, an industrial city 160 miles northwest of London known as a steel production hub. Never having been to the Golden State, he used an atlas to pinpoint the locales he namechecked, unaware that San Pedro Bay, the busiest seaport in the U.S., is hardly a picturesque tourist destination.
“I had a cassette playing all day, just listening to Alice Cooper, Mott the Hoople, all those kinds of [things],” recalls Elliott, who had risen from an £8-a-week apprentice to chief buyer at the company, purchasing everything from stationery to overalls. “But we had the band together by then, and I would have backing tracks to the songs that we’d worked on two days previously and be writing lyrics. And maybe last night I was watching some show that had the beach in Santa Monica on it — the palm trees and the guy roller-skating up and down the path, blah, blah blah — and I’m thinking, ‘God, get me out of here.’ And so all that was kind of a metaphorical ladder out of this factory.”
As the lights went down at the Santa Monica Civic that night and Def Leppard took to the stage, the band was relieved to hear some polite applause.
“They weren’t screaming for us, but it wasn’t total silence,” recalls Elliott. “We could just hear three or four kids shouting, ‘Wasted!’ [their debut album’s first single]. And I remember turning around to one of the guys and going, ‘Oh, my God, they’ve actually heard of us!’”
Variety’s review of the show by the late Cynthia Kirk noted the “respectable response” from the crowd and a “‘long live rock’ anthem or two that suggest the early potency of Foghat,” then zeroed on the band’s youth — at the time, they ranged in age from 20 (Elliott and original guitarists Steve Clark and Pete Willis) to 16 (drummer Rick Allen) — and Elliott’s “apple-cheeked good looks [which] offer more femme appeal than is typical for this mucho macho genre.”
Unlike the Foghats of the world, they weren’t scruffy men pushing middle age who looked like they stank of stale beer and cigarettes — they were as young or younger than many in the audience. They also weren’t pouty New Romantics sporting makeup and frilly shirts like other emerging British acts of the moment, such as fellow Sheffield natives the Human League and Heaven 17. They were pretty, but undeniably masculine, and they didn’t stand stock still, poking out one-finger parts on a synth. They could play, sing, shake, prance and pose with the best of them, as evidenced by a bootleg video of their second show on the tour the following night in Fresno that has surfaced on YouTube.
WHO | HONOREE Def Leppard
EMCEE Sirius XM radio personality Bob Buchmann
GUEST SPEAKERS Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Resnikoff, President & CEO UME
WHAT Dedication of the 2,825th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
WHEN October 9th, 2025 at 11:30 AM PT
WHERE 1750 N. Vine Street in front of the historic Capitol Records Building
WATCH LIVE The event will be streamed live exclusively at www.walkoffame.com
Def Leppard will be honored with the 2,825th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday, October 9th at 11:30 am PT at 1750 N. Vine Street. Def Leppard will receive their star in the category of Recording. Joining emcee Bob Buchmann will be Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Resnikoff.
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce administers the legendary Walk of Fame for the City of Los Angeles and has proudly hosted the globally iconic star ceremonies for decades. Millions of people from here and around the world have visited this cultural landmark since 1960.
In Episode 8 of Behind the Tour 2025, Sav takes an incognito tour of the stage, Phil X pops in, the guys test out some pyro and perform on America’s Got Talent and more!
Our Summer 2026 UK/EU Tour is heating up and we’ve got one more for ya! We’ll see you all 8 July in Paris with special guest Extreme! Rock Brigade pre-sale starts Thursday, tickets on sale Monday.
Don’t miss out, these shows are selling fast!
June 13 – Rättvik, SE – SOLD OUT
June 16 – Helsinki, FI – TICKETS*
June 19 – Zurich, CH – TICKETS*
June 23 – Dortmund, DE – TICKETS*
June 26 – Belfast, UK – TICKETS*
June 28 – Glasgow, UK – TICKETS*
June 30 – Sheffield, UK – TICKETS*
July 02 – London, UK – TICKETS*
July 04 – Birmingham, UK – TICKETS*
July 06 – Manchester, UK – TICKETS*
July 08 – Paris, FR – TICKETS*
July 30 – Wacken, DE – TICKETS^
Aug 02 – Dubai, AE – TICKETS
The show, recorded in 2023 in the band’s hometown of Sheffield at Bramall Lane during “The World Tour” with Mötley Crüe, will be available on Blu-ray+2CD, 2CD and 2LP. Pressed on red, white and black splatter, the vinyl nods to the home kit colors of Sheffield United FC, who play their home matches at Bramall Lane. Additionally, the 4K UHD will be the band’s first 4K release and includes One Night Only Live At The Leadmill, previously released last year.
Marking the start of their co-headlining European tour with Mötley Crüe this concert on May 22, 2023 in Sheffield, England served as a homecoming show for Def Leppard, 47 years since the bands inception. Performing their second ever hometown stadium concert to a sold-out crowd of almost 40,000 fans, the Blu-ray+2CD & 2CD and 2LP versions include classics “Photograph” and “Pour Some Sugar on Me” as well as UK live debuts “Take What You Want” and “This Guitar”, the latter dedicated to the band’s late great guitarist Steve Clark.
On the eve of the band’s tour, Def Leppard revisited their club days and played an intimate show for just under 900 die-hard fans from the historic Sheffield venue, The Leadmill. The concert featured a mix of hits and rarities spanning their entire catalog from On Through The Night to the band’s most recent album Diamond Star Halos. This specific show, One Night Only Live At the Leadmill is available for the first time in the 4K UHD format on the Diamond Star Heroes 4K release.
Track Listing:
1. Take What You Want
2. Let’s Get Rocked
3. Animal
4. Foolin’
5. Armageddon It
6. Kick
7. Love Bites
8. Promises
9. This Guitar
10. When Love And Hate Collide
11. Rocket
12. Bringin’ On The Heartbreak
13. Switch 625
14. Hysteria
15. Pour Some Sugar On Me
16. Rock Of Ages
17. Photograph
From their humble beginnings at a school hall gig in Sheffield in the 1970s to a mega-million-selling, stadium-filling rock career, it’s fair to say that Def Leppard are one of Great Britain’s biggest ever rock bands.
Ahead of their headline appearance at Radio 2 in the Park at Hylands Park in Chelmsford on the 7th of September, Shaun chats to frontman Joe Elliott and guitarist Phil Collen from Def Leppard about their lives in rock, tales from the road and the stories behind some of their biggest hits.
A Listen Production for BBC Radio 2.
America’s Got Talent is rockin’ out to Def Leppard’s performance of “Pour Some Sugar On Me”
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LIVE AT CAESARS PALACE THE LAS VEGAS RESIDENCY FEBRUARY 3-28
ROCK BRIGADE PRE-SALES TUE. JULY 22 @ 10A PT
TICKETS ON SALE FRI. JULY 25
Let’s do this- Vegas, We’re gonna set the strip alight! Very excited to announce Live at Caesars Palace – The Las Vegas Residency February 3rd – 28th at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace!
Rock Brigade members get first access to tickets and VIP packages starting tomorrow, Tuesday, July 22 at 10a PT. To join the Rock Brigade or renew your membership, visit DefLeppardRockBrigade.com.
Tickets go on sale this Friday, July 25 at 10a PT!
Tuesday, February 3 – Tickets | VIP
Thursday, February 5 – Tickets | VIP
Saturday, February 7 – Tickets | VIP
Tuesday, February 10 – Tickets | VIP
Thursday, February 12 – Tickets | VIP
Saturday, February 14 – Tickets | VIP
Tuesday, February 17 – Tickets | VIP
Thursday, February 19 – Tickets | VIP
Saturday, February 21 – Tickets | VIP
Tuesday, February 24 – Tickets | VIP
Thursday, February 26 – Tickets | VIP
Saturday, February 28 – Tickets | VIP
“Kinda lost for words here… we toured with Ozzy in 1981 & he, the band & Sharon were SO supportive… he always had time for a chat, took us under his wing & showed us how & how not to party… & played us the 2nd album months before it came out… he was funny, charming & I for one am eternally grateful to have had the chance to spend precious time with him over the years… all my love to Sharon & the kids… God bless you Ozzy x” – Joe
📸 Ross Halfin