Extreme’s breakthrough single wasn’t supposed to be the one – at least, not according to their record label. In fact, the band fought A&M Records to release 1991's More Than Words, complete with its iconic black-and-white music video.

Nuno Bettencourt even went as far as to quit the band at one point over his frustration that the label didn’t believe in the song simply because it was an acoustic track.

“Our label at the time [A&M Records] didn't want to release More Than Words as a single because there was nothing on the radio like that at the time,” he told Billboard in 2016. “The label said, ‘Who's going to play it?’ Everybody was doing big power ballads at the time, and this was more like an Everly Brothers or Beatles track. But we fought for it.’”

Fast-forward to 2026, and in the midst of Extreme supporting Def Leppard on tour for the first time, Bettencourt reflects on the song that changed everything… and the Leppard song he wishes he’d written.

“Oh my god. It’s kind of upsetting to think about,” he tells Classic Rock. “When we came out, bands like Def Leppard and Guns N’ Roses might have their ballads, but they always broke with a rock song.

“Extreme was not like that. We had More Than Words, which was a blessing and a curse. But absolutely, we’ll take it. Without that song, I might be working at Burger King right now. With Def Leppard, it was rocker after rocker, all with great lyrics, melodies, and vocals.”

In last year’s interview with Guitar World, Bettencourt admitted that, for most of their career, Extreme were almost considered a one-hit wonder, especially when it came to the mainstream.

“We were the band that had More Than Words. We were the band that had a guitar player, but there was always something that was a little disconnected. We never had proper respect.

He continued, “A lot of people are saying that it wasn’t until Six [the band’s 2023 release] that – as a band – we’re finally being respected as a rock band with a guitar player who legitimately had a great album.”

And, in case you're looking for your next favorite guitarist, Bettencourt recently named the up-and-coming player who has blown his mind.

The history of rock ’n’ roll is full of interesting “What if?” moments, and looking back on his unsuccessful Def Leppard audition, Adrian Smith has thrown up another one.

In the early 1990s, the British glam rock giants were looking to replace Steve Clarke, whose alcoholism struggles had already seen him take a leave of absence to focus on his recovery, as the group worked on their fifth LP, Adrenalize.

Though Vivian Campbell – the man who still holds the position to this day – would eventually get the job, the Iron Maiden guitarist has confirmed he was in the running for the prestigious gig.

“I went over to L.A. for a couple of days,” Smith nods (via Blabbermouth). “Phil [Collen, the band’s other guitarist] phoned me up and said, ‘Would you be interested in coming over?’”

Smith had recently left Iron Maiden, citing clashes with chief songwriter Steve Harris as the trigger. Sensing the opportunity, Collen and co. included him on a shortlist of players – alongside former Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake great John Sykes.

“I went to L.A. I played with him for a couple of days,” Smith develops. “I sat down with Phil. We went through some songs. It sounded good, and they're a great bunch of guys. But it didn't work out.

“Plus, my album with Psycho Motel [the band he formed after his Iron Maiden departure] was just about to come out. But who knows? It was worth pursuing. They did okay without me.”

In a 2023 interview, Collen said Dio’s former foil, Campbell, “fit in straight away,” while also confirming Sykes, who passed in 2024, also auditioned.

“With Adrian,” Collen added, “he played in context with what we were doing when we were rehearsing. We weren't doing Iron Maiden songs, we weren't doing Dio songs. So, whoever comes into our house has to play by the same rules.”

In more Adrian Smith news, the guitar player has recalled the time he got to spend an afternoon with the infamous “Greeny” Les Paul.

What is it?

As the founding guitarist in American AOR heroes Boston, Tom Scholz ended up penning some of the biggest melodic rock anthems of the mid-to-late 70s and 80s, etching his name in history with world-conquering hits like More Than A Feeling, Don’t Look Back and Amanda.

On top of that, he also trained at MIT as a sound engineer and ended up building the studios his band used to record, so it’s easy to see why the word ‘genius’ often winds up in the sentences describing him.

Following on from the success of the group’s first two albums, he founded Scholz Research & Development Inc. to market his bold inventions, which included the Rockman headphone guitar amplifier, designed to simulate the roar of his old Marshall heads at much quieter levels. It made history in 1982 as one of the first ‘amp in a box’ units to go into production.

Sometimes, however, things don’t always go as planned. Guitarists and producers quickly realised that the little black box could be plugged in direct to the board to produce crystal cleans and a mid-focussed kind of distortion, with its accentuated compression coloured by a glorious 3D stereo chorus effect.

It ended up becoming the secret ingredient for a lot of the arena rock dominating the charts at the time, most notably Def Leppard’s hit-laden Hysteria masterpiece. All these years later, MXR has reimagined the unit as a standalone all-analog pedal, bringing those legendary '80s tones into the modern age via our feet.

Specs

• PRICE: $229 / £249 / €279
• TYPE: Preamp and chorus
• MADE: USA
• CONTROLS: Mode, Volume, Input Gain, Chorus
• FEATURES: The same classic MN3007 bucket brigade chip found in the original headphone amp, plus chorus
• CONNECTIVITY: Input, output, power, foot controller
• BYPASS: Buffered
• POWER: 9 volts DC, 120 mA
• DIMENSIONS: (W x D x H) 60 x 111 x 32mm
• WEIGHT: 0.52lbs/0.234kg
• CONTACT: Jim Dunlop

Build quality

Build quality rating: ★★★★☆

As you’d expect from MXR, there’s a robustness to the build that will ensure years, if not decades, of wear and tear on the road. With one area of caution…

The plastic faders to control the Volume and Input Gain could snap if dropped onto a hard surface or crushed underneath heavier items – but with enough due diligence, situations like this are unlikely to arise.

Usability

Usability rating: ★★★★★

It only takes a quick glance to see that the Rockman X100 is very user-friendly in design. There’s a button on the left to click through its four modes – CLN1, CLN2, EDGE and DIST – and then another on the right to engage the chorus effect.

There’s an additional footswitch input for anyone wanting to control the modes by their feet and also a stereo option when using a TRS splitter cable, meaning that the chorus will be spread left and right for a more expansive and wide-sweeping kind of modulation.

For our testing I plugged my Gibson Les Paul Standard 1958 VOS reissue into a Marshall Silver Jubilee combo amp and it really didn’t take much tweaking to end up in the same ballpark as Scholz himself, given that the early Boston albums were recorded with his modded 1968 Les Paul Goldtop Deluxe and a 100-Watt Marshall Super Lead.

Sounds

Sounds rating: ★★★½

A lot of guitar players were experimenting with the Rockman in the '80s and '90s, from Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine and Judas Priest’s K.K. Downing to Symphony X mastermind Michael Romeo and even ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons.

Joe Satriani went as far as appearing in an advert for the Rockman Sustainor while supporting his Flying In A Blue Dream release, admitting that “the development of the Scholz Rockman has been a blessing for me”.

That said, one of the most obvious places to start when testing out a device of this nature would probably be the evergreen ideas from Def Leppard’s Hysteria bestseller. The CLN1 mode with chorus absolutely nails the spanky crystal cleans of the album’s arpeggiated title track, while CLN2 gives a more rounded tone closer to songs like Love Bites.

As for the higher gain modes, EDGE is perfect for hard rock riffing – there’s a certain mid-focus that’s very specific to the sound Scholz was dialing in on Boston’s earliest albums, even if the Rockman wasn’t invented until a few years later.

The DIST mode, unsurprisingly, is where the real tonal meat lies and packs no shortage of sustain and oomph, though it’s still very much voiced in a hard rock style than anything too scooped or metallic.

The amount of compression, tuned for slow release on clean modes and fast release on dirty modes, is controlled by the Input Gain level – which definitely adds to the overall versatility. You can cover a lot of ground here.

Verdict

It would be fair to say the X100 is very good at what it does – some might say even too good. Part of this can be attributed to the same classic MN3007 bucket brigade chip found in the original headphone amp.

It’s very much the real deal in that sense and while there are certain breeds of players who delight in highly processed and compressed 80s tones, there are also many others who dismay at the lack of dynamics in these distinctly rack-style sounds.

A classic blues purist, for example, is not going to have much use for a pedal like this – it doesn’t have the warmth or earthiness typical of that genre. Running the Input Gain at max will be a bit too bright for some – though, as stated in the manual) running the pedal in your amp’s effects loop can provide a “subtler high-end response”.

In that sense, the pedal’s USP also doubles up as its biggest curse, but it’s worth remembering MXR, who bought the Rockman brand from Scholz in 1995, have made this specifically for all the 80s purists wanting those world-famous tones on their pedalboard rather than the market as a whole.

The chorus is also very true to its era, though unfortunately there’s no way of controlling the amount – even something fiddly like a mini knob would have been a welcome inclusion here. There’s also some unwanted hiss and noise when running at high volumes, less so than the original units, but still enough to be noticeable.

Guitar World verdict: There’s no sitting on the fence with a pedal like this. It has more of a Marmite factor than arguably any other pedal you’ll find in your local music shop. Eighties rock fans, however, will be thrilled to finally have these tones in pedal form with a (comparatively) lower noise floor. For them, it’s the Holy Grail. For others, maybe not so much.

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• “MXR’s claim that Layers will ‘extend the creative potential of your instrument’ is absolutely right”: MXR Layers review

In our recent interview with Phil Collen, the Def Leppard stalwart waxed lyrical about the enduring appeal of Pyromania, working with Tom Morello, and most intriguingly, his custom Jackson Tele-type, which he has dubbed his “new favourite guitar”.

The model is most notable for having “the fattest neck Jackson has ever made”. With that in mind, we sought out Jackson Master Builder Joe Williams to get the lowdown on the building of the guitar – and how that enormous neck came to be…

Phil isn’t known for T-style guitars, so what brought this on?

“He had an old Fender Telecaster he brought in and [master builder] Mike Shannon had made a new neck for him because he wanted it a little bigger and fatter like other necks he liked. I did that for him a while back, but he wanted to venture into something new.

“[This build] had been on the books for a while and Phil was very patient; he must have had the order together for a year. It started out as a roasted two-piece body, but I went with a one-piece ash body. Phil is about sustainability, and whenever we do one we try to find ways to get more sustain acoustically. So the one piece of ash helped with that.”

And how about the bridge?

“Originally, Phil wanted a Hipshot, a hardtail with a hard mass directly mounted to the body. We decided to go with a higher-mass bridge that looks more like a traditional Telecaster, which ended up being a Gotoh TB-0031-010 with the pickup mounted inside the bridge itself.”

Phil mentioned that this is the largest neck Jackson has made.

“That was one big change, obviously, the giant neck. It was like, ‘Let’s see how big we can go; let’s go for a record-breaker and see if we can hit that ceiling for him’ [laughs]. If we had gone any bigger, it probably would have messed with the balance of the body or caused neck dive, but it didn’t.

“The neck is essentially twice the thickness of many standard necks. It is nearly twice as thick and feels as such, but is a ¼-inch shy of actually being double. 90 per cent of bolt-on style necks start at one-inch thick stock, so going beyond that took some custom trickery. I didn’t want to volute the neck or make the body thicker than normal, so making the neck functional with the hardware while keeping a traditional look was a fun challenge.”

Considering how big and heavy this guitar is, how does it play?

“If you sit down long enough, you get used to it [laughs]. It’ll throw you off if you’re used to normal, standard Jackson neck specs. But I know that Nocasters have those wider necks, so if anybody is used to those, it’s not such a wild change. The fingerboard plays and feels great; it’s just getting used to that thickness of the neck.”

Did Phil mention why he wanted it so much thicker than typical spec?

“Most of us are taught to put thumbs behind the neck, but Phil hangs his thumb over the neck. He likes not to have that gap between the curve of his hand and the neck; he wants to fill that gap because it makes it more comfortable. I think he gets a little fatigued if he has to clamp the neck to fill the gap. I’ve heard that from other players, too.”

Seeing as this is a prototype, are there any planned refinements?

“Phil said this is the best-sounding guitar acoustically, and the tuning stability is great. The neck hasn’t moved, and he hasn’t had to adjust the truss rod, which is no surprise since the thing is so thick. He talked about gold hardware and a maple fingerboard, so I’m doing another one, but I’m sticking with chrome because it adds brightness because of the plating.

“We’ll do a red one with chrome hardware and a maple fingerboard and see how it comes to the one with the ebony fingerboard. As for a run of them, that’s out of my wheelhouse. But I wouldn’t be surprised… if there’s a lot of demand, it’s not uncommon for sales, marketing and the product team to want to do a run.”

He may have spent over four decades in the biz, but Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen is still just as excited about playing guitar in a rock ’n’ roll band as in 1983 when the band dropped its landmark album, Pyromania. And why shouldn’t he be?

Not only is Def Leppard still packing stadiums – and not only was their last record, 2022’s Diamond Star Halos, a smash hit – but now they’ve got another hit on their hands in single Just Like 73, an outtake from the Diamond Star Halos sessions and featuring Tom Morello.

To this, Collen beams, telling Guitarist: “It’s just constantly ongoing. I love the fact that we’re so excited and passionate about it. It kind of takes you to another place, so when people say, ‘Why do you still do it?’ Well, it’s because we love it.”

He adds: “It’s so exciting. You kind of get little-boy enthusiasm, and we’re both two guys over 60 and we can still get really excited. So I can’t wait until we get out on tour. We’re going to record some stuff on tour as well.”

The tour Collen speaks of is Def Leppard’s latest mega-jaunt across the States this summer, which will see the band dropping musical dimes in the form of classic Pyromania cuts, such as Photograph, Foolin’ and Rock Of Ages.

For Collen, memories of Pyromania are particularly sweet, as it was his first record with Def Leppard and is beloved by fans.

Looking back, he recalls: “It was the first time I’d done it… my first gig with Def Leppard was at the Marquee Club and that was it. We were playing half-empty theatres around England and during that tour it blew up.”

It’s hard to fathom a Def Leppard show that doesn’t include a typically shirtless Collen with a Jackson Dinky slung low, waving his fist in the air out front of hordes of adoring fans. But before Pyromania blew the lid off the thing, that’s exactly how it was.

“You had MTV, which was kind of in its infancy,” Collen says. “But it became a very serious medium for people to hear and see music. That was really important.”

As for why Pyromania resonated the way it did, Collen explains: “It was the right time. We’re a hard rock band, but you could sing along to the songs, including the solos – that was the really important part. I’ve always stressed that you can really mess a song up by playing the wrong solo; you can put people off. So it’s important that when you do a solo, it has an emotional feel and melody that’s really captivating.”

Right on through to today, Collen has continued to heed his own warning. But without the lessons learned during his inaugural Pyromania sessions, that might not be the case.

“It’s about enhancing every detail,” he says of what he learned. “It wasn’t just playing guitar; it’s actually way more of an important role. If you’ve got great songs, then you enhance them, make them sound better and add richness, complexity, the nuances of the song – and even all the lyrics pop out more.

“So that’s what I learned, and when I go back and listen to that type of stuff, it’s like, ‘Whoa, this is incredible.’ It still just blows me away.”

Def Leppard has a new track featuring Tom Morello called Just Like 73. How did that come about?

“When we were doing Diamond Star Halos, we were basing it on the music that really changed the world for us. I remember seeing David Bowie and Marc Bolan, so we basically came up with a list of songs while just writing for each other as fans. And then we realised we had an album – and this was during Covid.

“We always refer to that era as ‘hubcap Diamond Star Halos,’ a line from a T.Rex song [Bang A Gong (Get It On)]. It summed up the feeling and vibe. Anyway, we’d done all this stuff and all these songs as tributes to our heroes, and we had so much fun doing it, but there were some songs we didn’t finish…”

Was Just Like 73 one of those unfinished songs?

“Yeah, it was based on sounds we would have heard in ’72 or ’73, but we never finished the song off. Brian Monaco, the president of Sony Music, played the demo to Tom Morello, who is a big Def Leppard fan, and he’s like, ‘This is awesome.’ Brian asked us, ‘Would you like to have Tom play on it?’ We said, ‘Absolutely.’

“You know, I love Rage Against the Machine and I love his vibe. So that was as easy as that. I had a few phone calls with him and I met him, I think, for the first time in 2022 when we went out with Mötley Crüe. We had a blast.

“The hybrid guitar/hip-hop thing, it’s just so real. It was a pleasure to have Tom onboard. He understands the whole Diamond Star Halo thing because he grew up listening to everything that affects us, so that was it in a nutshell.”

Def Leppard hit the road with Journey in North America this summer. When you’re putting your rig together, what pieces of gear prove to be essential?

“I use the Fractal [Axe-Fx] now. I’d use the Fractal on my chorus and delay stuff on stage, and I remember when I was on the G3 tour, John Petrucci had the Fractal Axe-Fx, and he said, ‘Oh, you gotta check this thing out.’ And now, since 2018, me and Vivian [Campbell] have used it.

“They’re really good about upgrading the software and it really makes a difference. My tech, John Zocco, is great because it leaves me in the dust a bit, but he’s into it and technical, so he’s able to make changes, like putting the compressor in the front of all this stuff and all that real geek stuff. My tech thrives with the stuff and is an amazing player as well.”

You’ve got a nifty new Jackson T-style, too.

“I just recently got my new favourite guitar! Jackson made me a ‘Telecaster’[-style model] that’s just amazing. It’s got a [DiMarzio] Super Distortion in the neck position, no whammy bar or Sustainer, and it’s got the fattest neck Jackson has ever made. Joe Williams, who is a luthier at Jackson, said, ‘I’ve kind of made it really big and tried it out…’ I said, ‘Okay, am I going to be able to play this thing?’

“It’s a beast. I love it. It’s easy to play and the tone is just ridiculous. It’s an ash body with a cut-out like a regular Telecaster, but there’s a bit more wood involved because the neck is so heavy and big.

“It’s a prototype, this one, and my tech had to put a couple of bars that are actually old blocks that we took out when we put the titanium ones in, so we have a couple of them to balance this thing out because it’s so big.

“The tone on it is crazy! We recently recorded a live thing for Sirius XM in LA. It’s one of my favourite and best-sounding guitars, and it kind of freaked me out. They’re actually building me another one; I’ll be using that on tour for sure.”

Are there any guitars you’ve had forever that you can’t imagine hitting the road without?

“The Bela Lugosi one [1986 Jackson Dinky]. A lot of people go, ‘You’re crazy for taking that out; it’s from 1986!’ It was in a bunch of our videos: Animal and Armageddon. It’s got massive frets, it’s been refretted, and it’s got a skinny neck because it was from the ’80s. And it’s got the old Jackson pointy headstock with the paint that still glows in the dark, you know, the Bela Lugosi thing.

“It’s a pretty exciting artefact that still sounds amazing. It really is true with old guitars – as the moisture leaves the body, the whole thing actually does make a difference in the sound. The thing really sounds great, even with all that paint on it.”

For the uninitiated, what’s the story behind that guitar?

“It’s gotten better with age; it’s literally one of those stories. Before I lived in California, Grover Jackson said, ‘You know, we can paint anything.’ They’d been at all these different factories and there was this one place and I went down there with a photo of Bela Lugosi from this Forbidden Planet comic store, and they said, ‘We can do a version of that with this paint.’

“What’s really funny is that there was a bat that got into the workshop, so there were drawings of all the specs and everything on the table – and above it there was a bat. They said, ‘It’s a vampire bat,’ which was kind of rare in California. Anyway, that was the story of that.”

What makes it special beyond its looks?

“It went through some changes. It used to have a Kahler [vibrato] on it, but we swapped it out for a Floyd Rose. I usually change the parts, like titanium saddles, and it’s got a DiMarzio Super 3 in it – two of them, actually. It’s got a coil tap… It was all incremental.

“It was all of these geeky little things that we do, and as long as it makes it play, sound and respond better… that’s really what you want with all those upgrades. It’s incrementally gone a lot further without messing up the aesthetic and keeping the original spirit.”

Before your relationship with Jackson, you were very into Ibanez and Japanese shred guitars, right?

“Classically, it was the Ibanez Destroyer, which I actually used to record the Pyromania album. All the solos I did – specifically, Photograph and Rock Of Ages – were done on a Destroyer with three pickups. That guitar was a custom one for me.

“It was kind of like the Peter Frampton or Ace Frehley Les Pauls, you know, the three-pickup DiMarzio Super Distortion thing. So it had that and then it had a Kahler on it, and it sounded great. It’s the one that was in all the videos.

“I love the Ibanez stuff. I’ve even got a knock-off Ibanez V; the thing is a monster. It’s got a beautiful sound and tone to it. Just incredible.

“It’s a wonderful guitar. When we did the Taylor Hawkins benefit at the LA Forum it made an appearance. And Pat Smear, the guitarist in the Foo Fighters, he originally got [a Destroyer] because he’d seen me play one at the LA Forum in ’83.

“Mine was at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland [Ohio], so I got them to send it back, and I didn’t tell Pat, but he played it all night when we played together at the Taylor tribute. That was a lovely thing.

“Jackson made me a version of it. It’s got a sustainer, a kill switch, and it’s made of basswood, so it’s kind of light. Again, the neck is so chunky on that thing. I got that in 2017 and it comes out all the time. It’s my tip of the hat to that era. Everyone has their thing, but, for me personally, I like the Jackson, especially some of the stuff they do for me with the giant necks.”

Pyromania turned 40 last year and features some incredible tones, as always. What were the keys to your sound back then?

“With my favourite guitar players, I’d really get excited about their vibrato – Michael Schenker and Eddie Van Halen early on. That’s why I got a 50-watt head because of Schenker. It wasn’t the master volume one; it was one that you’d have to crank up. I had one in my old band, Girl, and this thing was just beautiful.

“A lot of these old tube amps, for whatever reason, one would be great and one would suck, even though they’d be the same model. Mine was great. And the Def Leppard guys mic’d all these things up with 4x12s and spent ages trying all these different amplifiers.

“But I literally came in, put my 50-watt head on, plugged in and that’s how it sounded. That was it; I never used pedals at all. Even now, it’s all done through the Fractal, so if there are effects, that’s where they come in, from the internal of the Fractal.”

As you recorded Pyromania, was there a particular guitar moment that immediately stood out?

“I guess the first one I did was Stagefright. Mutt Lange, our producer, said, ‘Take this cassette home and see if you can come up with something for this song.’ This was my first recording with the band and I literally plugged the Destroyer straight into the Marshall. It was the only first take on the album. I just plugged in and that’s what came out.

“That was really exciting. I mean, I used my Les Paul on the solo Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop) because there’s a slightly different feel and sound. And again, the one constant was the DiMarzio Super Distortion; I’ve used them on all the models I have forever.”

How did Pyromania change you as a player in a way that’s still present today?

“Mutt Lange taught me that there’s a rule… A lot of rock guitar players don’t really listen to the rest of the band, which is a very self-absorbed approach, so what I learned from him was how to play in time with the rest of the band. You can place your focus anywhere on the beat, but Mutt’s whole thing was to delay it a bit, which gives more groove and makes it more sexy.

“I really brought that aboard to my playing. And just the melodic strategy and how important it is to have something that enhances the storyline or the narrative. If you’ve got backing vocals supporting the lead vocals, the guitar also does that. It’s all about promoting your song and making it the best it can be.”

Beyond the tour and single promotion, what’s next for Def Leppard?

“The most exciting thing is that we’ve got a brand-new stage set, so there will be a lot of running around – it’s massive. It reminds me of when we played in the round. There’s so much there with the production, the screens and all the content. Anyone who has seen us in the last 10 years knows this is going to be different. It’s going to be way more exciting.

“Beyond all that, we’ve got a bunch of things coming up. There are some European things we’ve got to do. And there’s talk of us doing a Vegas residency with an orchestra. We’ve done the thing with symphonies before [Drastic Symphonies]. That was No 1 for 11 weeks on the crossover classical charts, which was so weird. We never thought we’d be on the classical chart, but there it was. So that’s what we’ve got to do.”

Diamond Star Halos came out two years ago. Is there a new Def Leppard record in the works?

“We’re feverishly working on new music. Joe [Elliott] and me were going back and forth this past Sunday, kind of like we did during Diamond Star Halos, where I’m getting excited about this new song, and then there’s another, and we want to make it better, put backing vocals in the right place and find the right sound.”

• Just Like 73 is out now via Mercury.

Throughout his time with Def Leppard, Phil Collen has most commonly been associated with Stratocaster-style electric guitars. They’ve appeared in various forms over the years, but the double-cut design has always been Collen’s preferred axe of choice.

However, that looks like it’s all about to change after Collen took delivery of a rather special custom shop creation that he says is his “new favourite guitar” – and, in what will come as a surprise to many, it’s inspired by the Fender Telecaster.

In the new issue of Guitarist, Collen and Jackson Master Builder Joe Williams discussed the creation of the relic'd, blue-finished, single-cut six-string, with the guitarist revealing this particular build is the first prototype of many.

“I just recently got my new favourite guitar!” he says when asked about the model, which he’s been snapped playing live in recent months.

“Jackson made me a ‘Telecaster’[-style model] that’s just amazing. It’s got a [DiMarzio] Super Distortion in the neck position, no whammy bar or sustainer, and it’s got the fattest neck Jackson has ever made.

“Joe Williams, who is a luthier at Jackson, said, ‘I’ve kind of made it really big and tried it out...’ I said, ‘Okay, am I going to be able to play this thing?’”

Well, he was able to play the thing, and now he can’t seem to put it down. In fact, he’s got more on the way, and he fully intends on taking them all on tour with him when they’re ready.

“It’s a beast. I love it. It’s easy to play and the tone is just ridiculous,” he continues. “It’s an ash body with a cut-out like a regular Telecaster, but there’s a bit more wood involved because the neck is so heavy and big.

“It’s a prototype, this one, and my tech had to put a couple of bars that are actually old blocks that we took out when we put the titanium ones in, so we have a couple of them to balance this thing out because it’s so big.

“The tone on it is crazy! We recently recorded a live thing for Sirius XM in LA. It was one of my favourite and best-sounding guitars, and it kind of freaked me out. They’re actually building me another one; I’ll be using that on tour for sure.”

As for how the project first began, Williams reveals Collen once brought an old Fender Tele into the Jackson Custom in search of equipping it with a fatter neck. Soon, an entirely new creation was in the works.

Specs-wise, it features a pickup-mounted Gotoh bridge, a one-piece ash body, and a reverse headstock – oh, and the largest neck of any of Collen’s guitars. In fact, the two collaborators set about setting a record with the neck.

“That was one big change, obviously, the giant neck,” Williams recalls. “It was like, ‘Let’s see how big we can go; let’s go for a record-breaker and see if we can hit that ceiling for him’ [laughs].

“If we had gone any bigger, it probably would have messed with the balance of the body or caused neck dive, but it didn’t. The neck is essentially twice the thickness of many standard necks.”

Williams confirms more Collen custom shops are in the pipeline – “We’ll do a red one with chrome hardware and a maple fingerboard” – but also teases a standard run may also be a possibility.

“As for a run of them, that’s out of my wheelhouse. But I wouldn’t be surprised,” he adds. “If there’s a lot of demand, it’s not uncommon for sales, marketing and the product team to want to do a run.”

Visit Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitarist, which features the full interview with Phil Collen, during which he also recalls recording the solo to Stagefright in one take.

In 1982, Phil Collen was appointed Def Leppard’s newest electric guitar player following the departure of Pete Willis. That same year, he was put straight to the test as the English rock icons set about recording their third studio album, Pyromania.

Widely considered one of Def Leppard’s finest albums, the diamond-certified LP is seen as a turning point in the band’s discography, and one that would allow them conquer the US. It has also been tipped by some as one of the greatest guitar albums of all time.

That is in part thanks to Collen and his starring guitar work, which can be heard in the form of blinding guitar solos on Photograph, Rock of Ages, and Stagefright.

Indeed, the lead effort that Collen contributed to Stagefright is one of the virtuoso’s most famous guitar solos – but it turns out it was also the first thing he ever recorded for Def Leppard. Not only that, he did it all in one take.

Discussing his standout guitar moments in Pyromania in the new issue of Guitarist, Collen recalls. “The first one I did was Stagefright. Mutt Lange, our producer, said, ‘Take this cassette home and see if you can come up with something for this song.’

“This was my first recording with the band and I literally plugged the [Ibanez] Destroyer straight into the Marshall. It was the only first take on the album. I just plugged in and that’s what came out. That was really exciting.”

Collen’s Stagefright turn is well-documented. In Definitely: The Official Story of Def Leppard (via MusicRadar), singer Joe Elliott recalled how it was at that exact moment that he and the rest of the band “felt like we’d found our Eddie Van Halen.”

Though it was a trial by fire, Pyromania was a huge learning experience for Collen, and it ended up changing his outlook as a guitar player.

“Mutt Lange taught me that there’s a rule,” he reflects. “A lot of rock guitar players don’t really listen to the rest of the band, which is a very self-absorbed approach, so what I learned from him was how to play in time with the rest of the band.

“You can place your focus anywhere on the beat, but Mutt’s whole thing was to delay it a bit, which gives more groove and makes it more sexy. I really brought that aboard to my playing.”

Visit Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitarist, which features the full interview with Collen.

Every guitarist has been told that rhythm guitar is the most important skill, because no one gets a gig playing only solos. But when Phil Collen got the call to play on Def Leppard’s third album Pyromania, it was to do exactly that. “The painting was finished,” he recalls now. “I just threw an extra layer over it.”

The band’s first two albums had been recorded with the guitar team of Pete Willis and Steve Clark, but when Willis was dramatically fired late in the Pyromania sessions, Phil was drafted to provide the solos on songs that would become hit singles and deathless rock anthems: Photograph, Rock Of Ages, and Foolin’. It was the gig of a lifetime.

Pete Willis made a huge contribution to Pyromania, co-writing four of the songs and laying down rhythm parts that singer Joe Elliott called “phenomenal”. Producer Mutt Lange had relied on Willis for his Malcolm Young-like ability to play on the beat. But on a personal level, there was a disconnect between Willis and the rest of the band. Phil Collen, of London glam rock band Girl, was the perfect replacement.

When Leppard began work on Pyromania in 1982, the sound of the decade was still emerging. There were benchmarks – Van Halen, Boston and AC/DC – but no one had yet made the record to define rock in the ’80s. 

Despite their relatively modest success to date, Leppard fancied their chances. In their corner they had Lange, still hot from AC/DC’s Back In Black, plus a pile of new technology no rock band had yet exploited, and a shitload of confidence.

As it turned out, that confidence was warranted. Released in January 1983, Pyromania went platinum in the US within three months, en route to 10 million sales. In its wake, record companies scrambled to sign bands aping the Pyromania formula of AC/DC’s crunch, Journey’s melody and Queen’s harmonies. 

Leppard and Mutt Lange had cleverly employed synths and drum machines to make Pyromania larger-than-life without softening its attack or masking the guitars. While bands fought to match Leppard’s big riffs and bigger hooks, their producers struggled to replicate Lange’s jaw-dropping sonics.

As a 40th anniversary deluxe edition of Pyromania is released this month – albeit a year late – Phil Collen looks back on the making of a masterpiece and his role in it…

Getting the tones

To record their orchestrated guitars, Leppard needed a guitar tone that would play nicely alongside the synths and vocal harmonies. Engineer Mike Shipley, who died in 2013, described the nightmare of this process: “Because of the nature of the way that band played, and the inversions they used, it was very hard to get the right tone, what Mutt had in his head as ‘commercial distortion.’ 

“We had hundreds of amps and cabinets in that studio, from AC/DC amps to little combos. Everything you could think of. After a while you get so fatigued that nothing ever sounds good enough.”

The main Pyromania amp was a 100-watt Marshall head borrowed from session guitarist Mike Slamer, whose band City Boy had a minor hit with the Lange-produced 5-7-0-5. 

“Now you could get the sounds that they were trying to get with stuff like Fractals,” Phil says. “Back then it was it wasn’t so easy. Those Marshalls would be so different from each other. You’d have to add things to an amp or get it modded, but occasionally you’d just get a beauty that for whatever reason just sings.”

Phil thinks Slamer’s amp was probably unmodified. “They just plugged it in and were like, ‘Oh, this has a different thing.’”

Phil wanted his own tone for the solos, so he brought his amp, a non-master volume Marshall JMP he’d bought in 1979 or 1980. “They’d spent months mic’ing this cabinet up. We literally just plugged my 50-watt Marshall in and it sounded great. It was a very different sound to what they’d been using.”

The one-take solo

The band gave Phil a tape with a rough mix of the song Stagefright. For his Def Leppard audition, Phil had to write a solo for it. He composed his solo overnight and recorded it in one take the next day. 

“It was all my Ibanez Destroyer on that one,” he says. “It started on the bridge pickup. For the fast run, I click it over to the neck pickup. That was the Al Di Meola influence, because he would kick it into the neck pick up and just get a smoothness that would just glide.”

The remaining solos were worked out in the control room, with Phil improvising a take and Mutt Lange making suggestions for changes. Collen also played various overdubs. “It was mostly ‘vibe’ parts,” he says. “Root note things, powerchords and stuff. Little bits of solo stuff.” 

Phil used three guitars: a black Japanese Stratocaster with a big headstock that would become the main guitar on the band’s next album Hysteria, the wine red Les Paul Custom he had used with his last band Girl, and the black Ibanez Destroyer that is synonymous with early Leppard thanks to its use in the Pyromania videos. The studio also had various Strats and Teles used for overdubbing, as well as Steve Clark’s Les Pauls. 

In the end, Phil played solos on half the tracks, with Clark supplying the remainder. Each guitarist had a distinct role in the recording process. 

“Pete had done a lot of the really very concise, strict rhythm,” Phil explains. “He was a really good player for that kind of stuff. And then Steve would do all the jangles over the top of it. I’d just come in and mess it all up with leads and powerchords, scrapes and feedback!” 

Bassist Rick Savage also played clean guitar overdubs. “Sav’s really good at getting a very precise, clean jangle,” Phil says.

The solo that talks

For the solo in Rock Of Ages, Phil tried to emulate one of his heroes. "I thought I’d make the notes count, like Jeff Beck,” he says. “It doesn’t sound anything like Jeff, but that was the intention going in. You could hang on the note a little bit longer, and it would actually talk to you.”

The lick that opens the solo is a conscious quote from the “I’m burnin’, burnin’” vocal melody in verse two. 

“The solos were worked out with the vocal in mind and the rhythm of the song,” he says. “I think you can really mess up a song by doing the wrong guitar solo. You follow the narrative that comes from the vocal and the lyric.”

The Johnny Thunders vibe

Phil’s solo on Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop) has a noticeably cleaner tone than the other solos, all of which came from the Ibanez Destroyer. He used the same amp settings for everything, though. 

“For Rock! Rock!, I used the Les Paul. It just definitely has a cleaner sound,” Phil says, even though all his guitars were fitted with the same DiMarzio Super Distortion pickups. Although the solo begins with a Chuck Berry lick beloved by Eddie Van Halen and Angus Young, Phil didn’t actually have any of those players in mind. 

“I was thinking more in the tradition of Johnny Thunders. There’s a punkiness. I love Angus and Eddie, but we always try and get the Johnny Thunders vibe in because it’s a bit more aggressive and violent. 

“For the ride-out solo, there was a Hamer guitar just sitting around. I don’t know what model it was or who it belonged to. I remember picking that up, and that’s what I used.”

Recording one string at a time

In an interview with Leppard biographer David Fricke, Mutt Lange explained how the Pyromania guitar tones were created. Referring to the album’s final track Billy’s Got A Gun, Lange said: 

“That big orchestral riff is in C, which is a really ball-less key. But the riff only sounded good in C, so we couldn’t move it. In order to get a good, cutting sound and still keep the bottom end nice and fat, we had to work on the sound in stages. 

“We’d get a powerful sound with a lot of attack on one string. Then we’d set up a clean harmony on a lower one. After that, we could cut the exact same riff on those strings with a more honky sound to get a solid mid-range. Then we’d do the same riff a third time to get a real booming sound down below. That would be one guitar, three weeks later!”

As Phil now explains: “People say, ‘Oh Def Leppard record one string at a time!’ Yeah, we did that, but only when you want to get clarity. On Too Late For Love, that middle riff section, a lot of the distortion would fuzz up some of the clarity of the notes. Mutt would say, ‘Let’s separate the riff.’ Usually it was just two parts, two strings, and then you mix that in with the distorted riff.” 

This approach meant you could hear the individual notes even in complex chords, but as Phil says: “It still has that rock energy.”

Jangle and feedback

The arpeggiated chorus in Photograph had been recorded with the cleanest possible guitar tone. “The jangle part is country clean,” Phil says. “It’s actually a Stratocaster, and it’s just so clean. It need something to bolster it up so it just didn’t sound too country.” 

Mutt suggested Phil overdub the root note of each arpeggio with a dirty tone. “It was probably a Boss pedal. It was just the root note with a with a kind of a fuzzy sound.” In context, a sonic miracle occurs: the fuzzed-out root notes and the clean arpeggios merge into one clean-yet-dirty tone. 

For the solo, Phil wanted to create a dramatic entrance with feedback, so he stood next to his amp in the live room. “I always want to do feedback bits on songs. I always loved the way Mick Ronson hit the root note and it turns into feedback. It’s one of my favourite things.” 

The last-minute panic

The band and their producer had headed into the sessions knowing they wanted to make an album that had never been done before. It turned out they very nearly couldn’t. For one thing, their ears were fried. 

“We were singing a semitone sharp,” Mutt said. “Our ears would get tired and we couldn’t hear the bass anymore. We watched Elton John on Top Of The Pops one night and he sounded really out of tune.” 

Rick Savage’s bass parts had been recorded first, and where his tuning had drifted, the guitars had to be retuned to match. When it came time to record backing vocals, the band were horrified to discover some of the guitars were also out of tune. 

There was no time to recut them, so engineer Mike Shipley put them through a harmoniser, whose chorusing effect masked the tuning errors. The popularity of harmonised guitars for the rest of the decade was partly inspired by this happy accident.

To make things worse, technology began to fail them. In recording so many overdubs, the multitrack tapes had been rewound so many times that the oxide began falling off in two-inch chunks, leaving the tape almost see-through and robbing the guitar tracks of some of their original high end. 

The drums and other samples were run on the Fairlight CMI, an early digital sampler and sequencer, which somehow had to be kept in sync with the analogue recordings. By the time they reached the mix stage, Mike Shipley had fallen asleep at the desk twice, and Lange had to finish the sessions with assistance from Nigel Green (who would later fall asleep at the desk during the making of Hysteria). 

Feel the burn!

By the time Pyromania was completed, the band needed to sell a million copies to break even. Neither of their first two albums had shifted even half that amount. But they needn’t have worried. Photograph was an immediate smash on radio and MTV, and the album was soon selling 100,000 copies per week. 

As well as changing the sound of the ’80s, Pyromania has had a long-lasting influence. As System Of A Down’s Daron Malakion told VH-1, “Pyromania was a big part of our childhood so it has to play some kind of role in our music.” 

In 2008, Taylor Swift performed a Crossroads concert with Def Leppard, duetting with Joe Elliott on Photograph and a selection of other Leppard and Swift hits. 

And after all these years, Phil Collen still can’t believe his luck. “It’s crazy,” he laughs. “The first time I heard it I thought it was the best rock album I’d ever heard in my life. I remember it like it was yesterday.”

• Pyromania 40th Anniversary Edition is out now via Island Records.

“Jeff Beck has always been one of my idols because he’s unique. No-one sounds like him, no-one plays like him, and you’ve got to respect that more than anything else. Everyone else you ever play with, there’s always a tip of the hat to the archetype they learned from. Beck is an archetype, like Jimi Hendrix is an archetype. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him. No-one was able to get anywhere close to that.

“All your idols, you think they’re gonna last forever. When Bowie went, when Prince went, I’m like, ‘What do you mean they’re not here?’ This was like that. When my dad died, he was 81 and he had a good 15 years left in him. He was just getting going. Jeff Beck was like that. There was so much life in him, in his playing and in him personally.”

Jamming with Jeff

“I was fortunate enough to play with him and hang out with him at the Classic Rock Awards in 2016, and he was like a young guy, with all this wealth of experience and uniqueness. We were actually honouring Jimmy Page. 

“Jeff’s amp blew up and his pedalboard didn’t work, so they just brought in another Marshall, and he sounded exactly the same. He didn’t even flinch. I’ve seen some guitar players throw their guitars or get really flustered. Jeff was like, ‘Yeah? Bring it on!’ To me, that was just great.”

More jamming with Jeff

“He was doing a bunch of songs. Robert DeLeo [of Stone Temple Pilots] was playing bass. He goes, ‘Phil, he wants to do Superstition, do you want to sing it?’ I’m like, ‘Absolutely!’ So I sang and played guitar and then Jeff goes, ‘Well, you’ve got to stay up and do Beck’s Bolero.’ I said, ‘But I only know the lead part!’ He goes, ‘Just come in on the heavy part.’ 

“When you’re having this conversation on stage, you go, ‘Fuck, it’s Jeff Beck!’ Ray Luzier [Korn] was on drums. Dean DeLeo [also of Stone Temple Pilots] was playing guitar as well, and he just shouted the chords out for me and we got around it. Robert DeLeo goes, ‘Jeff, please just play a bit of Freeway Jam!‘

“Jeff said, ‘What?!’ This is real Jeff Beck geekdom – there’s a live album with Jan Hammer and Jeff where they’re jamming, making car noises. I went into making car noises, and Jeff just went into the Freeway Jam. It was so cool actually hearing that live with the guy playing it, an incredible thing to be part of.”

Flying solo

“I’ve been listening to Beck since the ’60s. I’m from London and he was always floating around. First it was The Yardbirds, then later on he went off on a tangent like no-one else. I love all the fusion stuff with Stanley Clarke, all of his solo albums, especially Blow By Blow and There & Back, which is just amazing. 

“I always thought that the Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart on vocals could have been a huge band. They were supposed to play Woodstock, but Jeff had to fly home, so they never got to do it. 

“Then Jeff launched a solo career. It was all instrumental, which was way better. It highlighted his guitar playing. And then we got Rod Stewart in the Faces, so everyone gained from them not doing Woodstock, even though if they’d done it they could’ve been as big as Led Zeppelin.”

That vibrato

“Blow By Blow was the first time he really shone. The songs were beautiful, the playing was unlike anything I’d ever heard. It was just gorgeous. You can tell a guitar player from their vibrato, and no-one has successfully copied Jeff Beck’s vibrato. That album to me really kicked it off. Because I’m from London, I got to see everyone: Deep Purple, Bowie with Mick Ronson, Zeppelin, Rory Gallagher, but Blow By Blow stood out.” 

The Strat and the Les Paul

“I got my first Les Paul in 1976. I saw Jeff with Beck, Bogert & Appice at the Rainbow Theatre. He was playing a Les Paul there but he would switch to a Strat sometimes. It’s like, why not? I got a Strat and I would switch between them, and then I ended up playing the Jackson PC-1 which is like the ultimate hybrid.”

Bend it like Beck

“When we did the G3 tour, my guitar tech, John Zucker, goes up to Joe Satriani and asks, ‘How you can do this double stop country bend [with a Floyd Rose] and it doesn’t go out of tune?’ Joe said, ‘That’s palming.’ Say you’ve got your little finger on the E string and you bend the B string, you push down on the bridge so it doesn’t go out of tune. I think that came from Jeff Beck because he’s been doing that for years.”

The tribute

“When I recorded Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers [for the 1995 tribute album Jeffology], I knew it in my head. I knew the vibrato, the bends, and all of that stuff, so when I had to apply it, it became easier. I’ve always only worked out little parts of songs, just a lick or a verse, but I knew how it was supposed to feel. 

“If you want to do a really killer drum fill or a guitar fill, it should only last for a bar or you’re taking away from the thing you’re trying to convey. So for the most part it’s the same as what Jeff was playing but occasionally I just throw a little bit of me in there, but not long enough for it to detract from what the song’s supposed to be.”

Jeff Leppard!

“I play Beck licks all the time in Def Leppard. I actually do some of the vibrato things and whammy bar things. I was listening to Jeff’s version of Goodbye Pork Pie Hat the other day and I’m going, ‘Oh, shit!’ There’s something I do constantly in there, and that’s where it comes from. I constantly play them. 

“I’m really a fusion fan. I love Stanley Clarke on his own and Stanley with Jeff Beck. There’s a great track called Hello Jeff from a Stanley Clarke album and I’m constantly playing like that.”

A different beat

“When Beck collaborated with [EDM producers] Apollo 440 I totally applauded that. I think that the more tools you have to experiment with, the better you can express yourself. I do it all the time. I’m always using different beats and even some music trends that I’m not a fan of, I still kind of incorporate. There’s great stuff all the all the way around. So when Jeff Beck did that, it’s absolutely what you’re supposed to do.”

Jeff and Jagger

“When we were recording Hysteria in Holland, Mick Jagger was doing his second solo album with Simon Phillips on drums and Jeff Beck on guitar. You can’t hear fuck all through a studio door but I’m still trying to listen because I know they’re in there! Then the door opens and it’s Jagger.

“He goes, 'Hey man, come on in!' So me and [Leppard drummer] Rick Allen went in. We’re sitting in the control room with Mick Jagger doing a live vocal, and there’s Jeff Beck and Simon Phillips playing live with Doug Wimbish on bass. It was completely surreal.”

The pursuit of happiness

“Some people just express themselves in a beautiful way. That’s why Beck was Beck. I think the integrity of your actions makes you happy. He could have been in the Stones, but he had his own stuff to say. Some artists want to be famous above everything else. That’s not the Beck way. He kept his integrity and that’s really rare – I think he was completely happy with choosing that.”

“I first saw Jeff when he toured with Stevie Ray Vaughan on the Guitar Shop album. I saw their co-headline tour at a sports arena in downtown LA. It was equally inspiring and depressing to witness Jeff Beck play live. You go there thinking you’re a guitar player and you leave realising that you’re a guitar owner! 

“He was just in a league by himself. He was in a class of one. There was no-one who did what Jeff did. It was technical, but there’s nothing anyone can play that somebody else can’t figure out. You could get yourself a Strat like he played and with enough practice you could play like Jeff Beck, but what was amazing about Beck was always the inspiration. It was the ideas that he had.” 

The floating bridge

“In later years he got into playing that Strat with the floating bridge. The way that he would play with his fingers – to play any sort of guitar music with your fingers is incredibly liberating. You’re opening up these avenues that just don’t exist to those of us that play with a flat pick. It’s not unusual to go to Nashville and see people play with their fingers. 

“In bluegrass or country that’s expected, but to use those techniques and expand upon those techniques and in more of a rock format was something that hadn’t been done before. His expanding on those techniques involved pinched harmonics with his thumb, just getting all sorts of tonal delicacy that you don’t get using a pick, all whilst controlling the volume with his pinky, swelling and giving the guitar that majestic effect.”

The master of reverb

“Jeff obviously grew up in the era before we had all these fancy guitar effects that we have nowadays. He was a master exponent of reverb, which I think is overlooked. Reverb was it, basically, and tape delay. He had a very cultivated ear for the use of reverb. It kind of went over my head the first time I would listen to some of his stuff, and then I go back and think, ‘Oh, it sits so well there because it’s a very clever use of reverb.’”

The Jeff Beck experience

“It all mostly comes down to: ‘How the fuck did he think of that shit?’ All other guitar players, we have our patterns we’d always go back to, your physical patterns to play your licks. Jeff did that on occasion but more often than not he was exploring. He seemed to be just pushing boundaries and exploring ways to express himself beyond the norm. That was always the appeal to me, and then to witness it live. 

“To witness any music live is a much more immersive experience and that’s really what it’s all about. To go to a Jeff Beck show and to surround your body with the majesty of his music was just a great uplifting experience, but then you go home when you look at your guitars and it’s like somebody let all the air out of a balloon. I didn’t know if I wanted to play them or sell them!” 

Big boots to fill

“I didn’t set out to try an emulate Jeff on my cover of Led Boots [from the tribute album Jeffology, 1995]. That’s just how I was playing at that time. I was using the Tom Anderson Strats, so I also had a floating bridge, albeit a Floyd. That wasn’t so terribly long after the Guitar Shop album, which was a big album for me. 

“I did like being able to have the floating bridge and shimmer chords, to get that more lyrical vibrato on single notes, and to do interesting things when you pull up on the bridge. 

“I guess obviously I’ve been influenced by Beck to an extent and I think that was probably the zenith of it around that time. I’m not conscious of having any particular licks in the song where I’m like, ‘Oh, this is a real Beckism.” It naturally filtered into how I was playing at the time.”

The guitarist’s guitarist

“I was fortunate to see him play live a couple of times. It was akin to a religious experience. It was at the Greek Theater the last time I saw him play. You look around the room and there’s guitar players everywhere like [Etta James/Paul McCartney guitarist] Brian Ray, Steve Lukather, Mike Landau and all these LA session players. We all went to bow at the altar of Jeff Beck because we all felt the same way.”

Master of nuance

“When I was in Sweet Savage, so I was probably 17 or 18 at this time, the other guitarist Trevor Fleming said, ‘Have you ever heard this guy Jeff Beck?’ He gave me a cassette of Blow By Blow. I listened to that for several days and I remember copying a lick from it. That’s still part of my repertoire. 

“To be honest it wasn’t life-changing for me to hear that record. It wasn’t until later years when I realised just how head and shoulders above everyone else he was. It was in the later years with the Stratocaster and the floating bridge, that’s when he really became this master of nuance.”

The player

“It’s inspirational that at his stage in his life and his career he would still be wanting to push that envelope and wanting to get there. I don’t get the impression that he thought a lot about wanting to move the goal posts on how the instrument was played. He just did it.

“It seems almost godlike that he had this connection to inspiration when he was playing, and he had the tools in his hands to express it. But I never got the impression that Jeff thought much about guitar playing. I think he just played.”

Few rock bass players have embraced their unique position within a band as well as Def Leppard’s Rick ‘Sav’ Savage. But then again, he’s a lot more than a bass player, contributing to the songs’ often grandiose harmonies live on stage, co-writing many of their biggest tracks and even going as far as tracking some of the guitars – something which bass players are rarely afforded the opportunity to do – over a career spanning four and a half decades. 

It’s this vantage point that gives him a greater understanding of the bass guitar’s role in the context of a group, acting almost as the mediator between melody and rhythm. That’s as apparent now, on this year’s 12th studio album Diamond Star Halos, as it was on 1987’s best-seller Hysteria.

“The bass player is the glue and has an observation point that encompasses all sides of the band,” he explains. “You’re the bridge between the rhythm and the melody. From that viewpoint, you can see things a lot clearer – and without you the whole thing will fall apart. 

“Certainly not in our band, but I do get the impression that in a lot of groups the guitar players are mainly focused on guitars and don’t really venture beyond that, because... well, they’re guitar players and all about playing guitar! Singers can be very much the same way: They front the band and mainly focus on lyrics and melodies. 

“And actually, some of my favorite bass players are the ones who sing, like Sting, who totally gets it. His bass parts will be in sympathy with his vocal lines, because he’s the one doing both. I love that – it’s always about the song.”

If there’s a quality to his own playing, continues Savage, it’s centered around his awareness of what he’s there to do. And in Def Leppard, his job is to ensure that the twin guitars and big vocal harmonies are portrayed in their best light, while also locking in with Rick Allen’s drums.

“The bass player tends to have the view of everybody in equal measure, including the drummer. I always feel like I’m the fulcrum in our band – the balancing act who can hear every side of the argument. Normally, the compromise is me. That’s my role. Usually they say, ‘Well, if Sav thinks so, then fuck it, go with what he says!’”

The new music feels like Def Leppard’s finest for quite some time. The opening track Take What You Want – one of Savage’s main co-writes – carries all the flair of their biggest anthems, treated with a hard-hitting modern edge.

As ever, it’s the juxtaposition between their mellifluous Beatles-indebted melodies and driving rock riffs that takes the music to its limits, proving yet again just why Def Leppard were destined for greater things than the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal movement into which they were lumped early on. 

“Take What You Want started on acoustic, and yeah, the descending line is quite Beatlesy,” says Savage. “Later on, I decided to take that acoustic riff onto a proper electric and it sounded huge. One of the best things about recording this album was the fact we were sat in our own little studios, doing our own bits. 

“You start experimenting because nobody else has to listen. You’ve got nothing to lose. I came up with things I wouldn’t normally come up with if I was with the band in the studio, because people start looking at the clocks and wondering when they get to solo... We used the extra time from the pandemic to solidify things and make an album that we’d never have been able to finish until 2024.”

Other highlights on the album include mid-tempo rocker Kick (“a groovy and fun song influenced by T-Rex and the early ’70s”), the octave-layered Fire It Up (“We double-tracked my bass with a dirty Moog sound for extra thickness”) and country ballad This Guitar, which saw Savage ditching the pick for a fingerstyle approach. 

Though he’s predominantly stuck with guitar picks over the years, the new track – featuring guest vocals from the bluegrass singer Alison Krauss – involved some high slides that called for more warmth in delivery. 

“It’s very rare for me to switch between pick and fingers like that in the same song,” explains Savage. “A lot of the song is reasonably low, so I’m playing with a pick, but there’s a little sustained break where I slide up really high to play with my fingers. 

“When you pick stuff up high, it never really sits right, but when you get your fingers on it, all of a sudden it sounds nice and round. It’s so bulbous and comforting, because of the warmth of the tone. It’s a special track to me because I also recorded the 12-strings on it. I said to Phil [Collen, guitars] that we should add some, and he told me, ‘Great – you do it then!”

Then there are the tracks that feel like new territory for Def Leppard. Liquid Dust, for example, seems to owe more to Nineties alternative rock groups such as Smashing Pumpkins than early glam. Elsewhere, U Rok Mi could very well be the closest Savage has ever come to the Manchester scene that laid the groundwork for the Britrock movement of the same decade.

“I can see the Smashing Pumpkins connection – Liquid Dust has that really heavy bass tone and it’s definitely a bit ’90s,” says Savage. “That song wouldn’t have had that same appeal to me without the sizzle to carry the weight. And U Rok Mi is all about feel, because it’s mainly just two notes. 

“Anybody can play two notes a tone apart, but giving it that motion is really important – and that’s probably why you’re picking up on a Manchester vibe, because a lot of basslines from that scene were like that. You have to make it dance, so the main reference point for me on that song was Crazy by Seal.”

As a lot of the music was strung together remotely, it’s difficult for Savage to recall which amps were used on the tracks. He’d be working from his home studio, sending files across to the band’s front-of-house engineer Ronan McHugh, who would then re-amp and layer as co-producer for the album.

It’s likely that Sav’s favored Gallien-Krueger Fusion 550 heads will have been involved at some point, typically spotted driving two 4x10s on each side of the drum kit for the group’s live performances. As for the instruments in his hands, his Jacksons also played their part, with the interesting addition of an old vintage bass he had lying around.

“For a lot of the tracks, I actually used a broken old Fender Jazz that I had in my basement for over 30 years,” he recalls. “The pots were a little crackly, but when I started playing it, the bass just had this thunder to it. I thought, ‘Fucking hell!’ I did use my Jackson five-strings as well, and they always sound great, but for the more quirky and gritty sounds it was the Jazz. 

“Even Ronan, when he first heard the tones, was like, ‘What the hell is that?’ I told him it was me experimenting with an old Fender for the track ‘Open Your Eyes’, which has this big distorted bassline. It also felt easier to play on the Jazz for some reason. I was going direct into Logic, completely clean with no effects, and then Ronan would take the true signal and treat it afterwards.”

The bassline in Let’s Get Rocked gives it motion and urgency, we note. “That’s actually something I had a problem with – because my natural tendency is to be really lazy and sit behind the beat. That’s just how I hear things. To create that tension of moving forward fast, the feel had to be just right. It wasn’t meant to be cool and swingy and laid-back. 

“There’s certainly an element of humor to the track, which fortunately most people got, although maybe some didn’t. Even now, it’s still one of the songs that people absolutely love when we play live. I don’t completely get it myself, but at the time it sounded like a great idea and I guess we were proved right!”

Which exercises does he use to warm up? “I still do this one today. I’ll run the diminished scale starting with my pinky on the 12th fret of the low E, my fourth finger on the 10th fret of the A-string and so on. It’s a real stretch across all the strings. Then I’ll start to descend by a semitone every time I come back up.

“Doing big stretches like that will strengthen your fingers, because they have to co-operate, and it also sharpens your mind. It’s an exercise I learned when I was 18, and although it sounds a little boring or naff at times, I still use it now. It’s the best one I’ve learned for improving your technique.”

Savage describes himself as a minimalist when it comes to pedals. While he happily admits that they’re certainly handy tools to help bring different ideas and colors to life, the prospect of a giant pedalboard has never really appealed – especially given the dynamic of the band he plays in.

“If I’d been in a band with one guitar player, maybe there would have been more scope to fill out the bottom end in a different way,” shrugs the bassist. “But I’ve never been a big experimentalist when it comes to gear. I’m more driven by the melodies and textures within the song than concentrating on the other side of things. When you’ve got two guitarists as good as Phil and Vivian Campbell, all I have to do is make them sound bloody good – which is the easiest job in the world!”

Thankfully for us, it’s a job he clearly loves to do. 

• Diamond Star Halos is out now via UMe.

Def Leppard guitar great Phil Collen has been discussing the making of the band’s “career-best” album Diamond Star Halos and has revealed that he used a stable of Squier instruments during the sessions.

You might be forgiven for thinking Collen would consider a Squier below a man of his means – not least because he has a long-running relationship (and a signature guitar) with Jackson.

However, Collen recently told our friends on Guitar Player that during the sessions he was drawn to a Telecaster and Starcaster produced by Fender’s affordable brand – both of which found their way, appropriately, onto new track This Guitar.

“I did use some different stuff this time,” Collen told Guitar Player. “During lockdown I’d ordered a few different, cheaper guitars. Squier had done a reissue of the Starcaster, which I used for the intro to This Guitar.

“For the solo, I used a Squier Telecaster, which I played on a bunch of albums in years gone by. It’s a really cool guitar. It is just literally as I bought it. I didn’t change anything, and it sounds great.

“Then I bought two basses over lockdown – a Squier Precision and an Epiphone EB-3. I was just really curious to see what they’d sound like for when I’m recording demos. They both sounded really good, particularly the Squier, which is particularly interesting when you think how cheap they are to buy, and they were great straight out of the box.”

Collen gave the Squiers another tip of the cap in his recent Guitar World interview, but acknowledged that his signature Jackson played the main role in the sessions. News that will no doubt buoy the brand’s artist relations department.

“For me personally, it was a natural Jackson PC1,” said Collen. “I’ve had it since 2007, and it’s the one. I use it on a lot of the solos and things because it just sounds right. I do like my red Jackson PC Supreme – it’s got the fattest neck they’ve ever made. It sounds great, but for some reason I didn’t use it all over the album, and I should have. But I kept coming back to the PC1.”

Collen is not alone in his appreciation of the affordable Squier brand. Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford recently spoke of his love of the $200 Squier Bullet Stratocaster, which after with a couple of hardware mods was an arena-worthy electric guitar.

Rutherford had this gear epiphany when stuck in Cape Town during lockdown. He didn't have a guitar with him, so he bought a pair of Bullet Strats. One of them particularly took his fancy, and after his tech upgraded the machine heads it was ready to tour. 

“It cost £200 at the most, and I play it on stage on Mama and No Son of Mine,” said Rutherford. "I just love it. It's got a life to it. It's a little bit lighter than some and it's got a slightly smaller neck which helps my aging fingers.” 

For more on the making of Diamond Star Halos, read Guitar World’s full interview with Def Leppard guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell.

• 18 pro guitarists who play cheap guitars

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 – that don’t quite fit the sonic narrative, but they’re sparky pinwheels of hooks and standout cuts in their own right.

All in all, the album is the spunkiest and most vibrant sounding record the band has made in some time, a feat made even more remarkable considering the fact that it was recorded remotely during the high point of Covid lockdowns.

It was a trans-Atlantic endeavor, too, with longtime co-producer Ronan McHugh monitoring the flow of tracks coming in from various time zones: In the States, there were Collen, Campbell and drummer Rick Allen, while Elliot and bassist Rick Savage beamed their parts in from Ireland and the U.K., respectively.

“It really wasn’t as complicated or as difficult as it sounds,” Collen says. “We’ve made lots of records without us being in the same room at the same time.”

Recording separately is one thing; rehearsing for a tour is a different matter entirely. Unsurprisingly, the band is chomping at the bit to get going.

“We can’t wait,” Campbell says. “To tell you the truth, we’ve never left that headspace of being a touring band. We’ve got a lot of rehearsal time scheduled, but I have a feeling that after a few days, we’ll all be like, ‘Oh, yeah, here we go.’ It’s just like riding a bike, really.”

Let’s start with the T. Rex influence on Diamond Star Halos. As a guitarist, what did Marc Bolan mean to you guys growing up?

Vivian Campbell: “He started the ball rolling for me. It wasn’t Marc Bolan the guitar player per se; rather, it was the whole thing – his sound and image. He really was the grandfather of the glam rock movement; he had the hair and the androgyny, and of course, he made music that was such infectious ear candy. 

“I was about nine years old when I first saw him on Top of the Pops. It was such a lightbulb moment where I went, ‘That’s what I want to do. I want to wear my sister’s clothes. I want to blow my hair and play guitar and make a living doing it.’”

You wanted to be that guy on the cover of Electric Warrior.

Campbell: “Yeah, exactly! He looked so great with his long hair and that Les Paul. That started me on the path. He just had the whole package, but the music was there. Out of that grew the different people who actually did influence me as a guitarist, like Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore. But I have to say, it was Marc Bolan who set me on my way to discovering them.”

Phil, how about you?

Phil Collen: “Oh, I thought Marc Bolan was amazing, but for me, it might have been more David Bowie, who was from the same time period. I saw Bowie on Top of the Pops with Mick Ronson playing his Les Paul. The way he held that thing, I was like, ‘My God, this guy is so fucking cool.’ 

“I was 14 and I was trying to identify myself. I’d already gotten into Deep Purple, Zeppelin and Hendrix, but then came Bowie, Bolan, Roxy Music, the Faces, but especially Bowie. That was the music that spoke to me.” 

I was going to bring up Mick Ronson. How did he impact you?

Collen: “The thing about him was... well, there’s his solos. They were phenomenal and they were different, and you could hum them. Great tone and melody. He was the perfect foil for Bowie. He was also a great producer. Walk on the Wild Side by Lou Reed – that’s Bowie and Ronson producing. Mick Ronson had the whole thing as an artist; it wasn’t simply as a guitar player. As an entity, he was amazing.” 

There’s a thread here: Bolan and Bowie... and you use Mike Garson on a couple of tracks. Did you ever think about Tony Visconti as a producer? He’s the guy everybody has in common.

Collen: “Not really, especially when we know exactly what we want ourselves. And to be quite honest, if we’d have brought in a producer, he would have just gotten in the way. Ronan McHugh is like part of the band. Anyone else would fuck it all up. We know exactly what we want. If we brought in anybody else, they just wouldn’t get it.”

Phil, I understand that you wrote Kick late in the record-making process. Turns out, it’s the album’s first single. Did you think the record needed that one sure-fire song?

Collen: “Actually, that song and Fire It Up weren’t written for Def Leppard. Fire It Up was one of the first songs I wrote, and Kick was the last. The co-writer on Kick is a guy named Dave Bassett. I programmed a drum pattern because I wanted to write a rock anthem, something you can sing in a stadium. Same with Fire It Up. 

“The funny thing is, rock anthems sound easy, but they’re really hard to write. Anyway, I wrote them and I played them for Joe. I told him I was going to give them to other people to record, and to each one he said, ‘That’s a Def Leppard song.‘ The other guys felt the same way.”

Who were you thinking of giving the songs to?

Collen: “Anyone from Lady Gaga to Miley Cyrus – you know, somebody who had a different thing. These songs are hard because they can come out corny if they’re not done a certain way. They work as rock anthems. They’re meant for stadiums.” 

It’s interesting that you would think of giving them away. I would assume you’d want to save your best stuff for the band.

Collen: “Yeah, but see, I never go, ‘Am I writing the best stuff?’ I always try to write the best stuff, every time. If it’s not there, it gets left by the roadside somewhere. I’ve got a million things on my phone that’s not the best stuff. Nobody gets to hear it. [Laughs]”

We’ve talked about the glam rock influence on the album, but you’ve got some country-tinged tracks that you did with Alison Krauss.

Collen: “Yeah, our manager was talking to Alison’s manager, and he mentioned that we had these two tracks. We said that we’d love to have her sing on the record and she could choose which song. She listened to them and said, ‘I love them both. Can I do both of them?’

“I wrote This Guitar with CJ Vanston 17 years ago. He’s one of the top piano session players in Chicago. Joe’s been a champion of that song for years. Every five years or so, he goes, ‘We should do This Guitar’. It never felt like the right time, though, but on this album we thought that we’d give it a go. 

“Sav plays 12-string acoustic on it. He’s really precise with his jangles. He sat there all day doing it till his fingers bled. And Viv’s got the tastiest playing I ever heard on it. All these little licks throughout, he’s like Clapton or Gilmour. It’s that kind of thing.”

Vivian, that’s some high praise. Did you play the pedal steel parts on the song? 

Campbell: “I’m definitely not playing pedal steel. I don’t even know where to begin with one of those things.

Collen: “That’s Ronan McHugh playing a keyboard with a pedal steel sound. But Vivan did play a traditional slide on the song.”

Campbell: “They always ask me to play the slide parts, and I don’t know why because I’m a shit slide guitar player, in my opinion.”

I don’t know about that. You sound great.

Campbell: “Thanks. I’m getting better, but I would never say I’m good at it. You have to recalibrate your playing to get on top of the frets instead of in-between. I’m always like, ‘Come on, come on. Just get up there...’”

The song U Rok Mi features a section in which you guys trade solos.”

Collen: “That’s right. I think I do the first, Viv does the second, and then I do the third and we both finish it off. We do a two-part harmony at the end.”

You two have recorded together while in different rooms of a studio, but is there some slight psychological difference to not even being in the same building – or for that matter, the same city?”

Campbell: “Nah. Phil and I have enough miles under our treads to know how to manage that. The only thing that’s challenging about recording at home is the technical stuff. I’m still a complete Luddite with technology. However, once I get a good signal into the box, then I have the luxury of working on my own schedule. 

“I can get a cup of coffee, I can call my sister in Europe, and then I can get back to soloing. It’s a lot easier when you don’t have the pressure of people looking at you going, ‘Come on. Get it done already.’”

Collen: “I’ve been using Guitar Rig since 2011, and I’ve had the same preset on it for my Man Raze albums and Def Leppard albums. That’s my go-to. Live, we play through Fractals. When I do small gigs, I use Blackstar stuff, combos and what not. It’s different, but it sounds exactly the same.”

Campbell: “For me, this was my first time working with Guitar Rig. It’s funny – that dropdown menu just keeps going. You find something and go, ‘OK, that’s interesting. Hmm, that’s cool. Maybe I’ll come back to that.’ You just keep scrolling till you find something inspiring.”

Now, you guys have a lot of guitars, but if you could boil things down, what were your main instruments for this album?

Collen: “For me personally, it was a natural Jackson PC1. I’ve had it since 2007, and it’s the one. I use it on a lot of the solos and things because it just sounds right. I do like my red Jackson PC Supreme – it’s got the fattest neck they’ve ever made.

“It sounds great, but for some reason I didn’t use it all over the album, and I should have. But I kept coming back to the PC1. There were also a couple of Telecasters. I used Squier Telecaster on the solo on This Guitar, and there’s a Squier Starcaster for the lick at the beginning.”

Viv, how about you?

Campbell: “Mostly Les Pauls. I used my Gibson Custom Shop Les Paul and my original Dio “Holy Diver” Les Paul. I also used a ’66 Telecaster. It’s been refretted with jumbo frets so I can actually bend on it. And I used my original Tom Anderson Strat for when I needed some shimmer or a little front pickup action. Those were the four that I used.” 

Last question: Do you ever turn on the radio and hear one of your songs – maybe a big hit – and you think, “Man, I wish I could do it over. There’s something about it that’s not right”?

Collen: ”Yeah, but the thing is, every song is a reference point, and you grow from it. Maybe there’s something on the track that’s a little naïve from a guitar playing standpoint, or lyrically there’s something that makes you cringe. But you get past it and move on. 

“It’s like, one time the crew brought me a video of me playing with my old group Girl on The Old Grey Whistle Test. It was the Eighties and I was wearing spandex; you cringe and go, ‘Oh, my God. That’s so embarrassing.’ On the other hand, that was then and it was really cool.”

Campbell: “I used to get that, but you have to remember everything is a snapshot in time. You hear a song and it’s what happened in the studio that day. It’s pretty amazing, these little throwbacks. It’s like looking in a diary.”

• Diamond Star Halos is out now via UMe.

Phil Collen was recently asked to name an artist that Def Leppard could “pass the baton” to after he and his bandmates called it a day. He was unable to provide any suggestions, and he believes today’s rock bands lack the “star power” of older groups.

Collen’s comments came while he was in conversation with Listen Next!, with the Def Leppard electric guitar star revealing he’s still waiting to hear a band that he believes matches the caliber of his contemporaries.

And, during his observation, Collen hypothesized that the “problem” is partially down to the “TikTok and YouTube crowd”.

“I don't know,” Collen said in response to the original question. “I'm still waiting, actually. You hear a lot of stuff out there, but it's few and far between. There's a problem, I think, and I think it's the TikTok and YouTube crowd.

“When bands or artists would write before,” he continued, “it would be because they wanted to be an artist and wanted to express themselves, and write songs and share them and go, 'Wow. Check this out,' as opposed to, 'Wow. Look at me. Please love me.’

“I don't wanna sound like an old dude, but that's what I noticed. And I'm still waiting for someone like Prince or [Led] Zeppelin or something that has a bit more something to it. There's very little stuff.”

Collen didn’t reserve his praise for Prince and Led Zeppelin, though, and went on to laud the “star power” of bands like Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Sex Pistols, Nirvana and Foo Fighters.

He continued, “Metallica’s great; when you see them, there's a big difference. Guns N' Roses are awesome. I don't see that anymore. I don't see that star power. I don't see that kind of thing. So, that's what I'm waiting for. 

“There hasn't been any of that. Nirvana was… Obviously, Foo Fighters is an offshoot of Nirvana. And I love the Foo Fighters; I think they're great. But when Nirvana came out, I was, like, 'Woah, this is amazing.' The Sex Pistols: amazing. But I'm just waiting.”

Collen also went on to discuss what this means for future rock festival headliners, suggesting that the music scene is currently lacking “inspired” music and instead filled with “derivative stuff”.

“That question comes up quite a bit,” Collen commented. “People go, 'What about this?' And I don't hear anything. I hear derivative stuff and stuff that's not inspired. 

“You wanna get inspired,” he added. “It's like in every genre of music. You listen to the old R&B – you listen to Stevie Wonder, you listen to Marvin Gaye and stuff like that – nothing is like that anymore. 

“I think we've kind of comfortably got into something else that doesn't really demand that kind of excellence. It's rare that that kind of talent comes along.”

Earlier this year, Def Leppard released Diamond Star Halos, their first studio album in seven years. The band is currently in the midst of a co-headlining tour with Mötley Crüe, Poison and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts.

Only four British bands have had two 10-million selling albums in America. The first three – The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. And the fourth? No, not The Rolling Stones. Not The Who. Not Queen. It’s Def Leppard.

Formed in Sheffield in 1977, the band rose to fame in the ‘80s with the two blockbuster albums that sealed their place in that exclusive club – 1983’s Pyromania and 1987’s Hysteria. 

And the key to this success is their mastery of the rock anthem – as illustrated in hit songs such as Pour Some Sugar On Me, Animal, Photograph, Rocket, Rock Of Ages and Let’s Get Rocked.

This summer, they head out at last for the twice-postponed Stadium Tour in the US with Mötley Crüe, Poison and Joan Jett. But while Leppard could easily tour for the rest of their lives off their back catalogue, the urge to make new music is still strong within them. “A lot of artists stop growing and creating,” says guitarist Phil Collen. “We haven’t.” 

The making of new album Diamond Star Halos was a first for the band – as they worked remotely from their homes, recording song ideas and individual parts on laptops, sharing material via Dropbox, which was then collated into finished tracks by the band’s long-serving producer Ronan McHugh. But the band’s signature sound remains very much intact on an album packed with new anthems in the classic Leppard tradition.

The first single, Kick, nods to their glam rock heroes from the early ’70s. Even the album’s title is taken from the lyrics to the T.Rex glam classic Get It On. And throughout the album, Phil Collen’s partnership with Irish guitarist Vivian Campbell, is as strong as it’s ever been – something that’s evident from the get-go with the blazing trade-off solos in the opening track Take What You Want.

These guys have been playing together for 30 years now. Phil joined the band in 1982 during the making of Pyromania. Vivian joined 10 years later following the death of the band’s original member Steve Clark.

Creating stadium rock bangers is Def Leppard’s speciality, and here, Phil and Viv present their guide to how it’s done...

1. The song is king

Vivian: “The real reason why Def Leppard is so different to so many other bands is we know – it’s not about us, it’s about the songs. It’s not about how well I can play guitar or how well Phil can play guitar. It’s about the fucking song. You do your guitar parts as best as you can but at the end of the day the song is going to outlive all of us.”

Phil: “You’ve got to listen to what the vocal’s doing. You have to respect that main melody, and then you can alter stuff around it. It has to be within the vocal structure, because you can fuck something up.”

2. Know when to let rip

Phil: “The reason we’ve played safe in the past is because you’re respecting the song maybe too much. With this one, because we recorded remotely and there was no-one else in the room it’s like, ‘Fuck it.’ You can overthink and play too safe. You’re like, ‘I don’t want to tread on anything.’ 

“With this one, I was like ‘Well, I’m going to experiment. I feel this should be like this,’ and go off. I’d send it to everyone then if no-one says, ‘That’s a bit over the top!’ then you’re fine.”

Vivian: “I do feel that my playing is better than ever and certainly more comfortable. I have a lot less anxiety about it, probably because I’m doing it so much since I started Last In Line (the group he formed in 2012 with fellow ex-members of Dio – the band in which he made his name in the early ‘80s). 

“The passion was reignited and I’ve definitely built upon it. When it came time to do guitar solos I didn’t have the pressure of other people in the room. You know, ‘Lunch is coming up. When is he going to do this?’”

3. Leave a gap for the snare

In the past, Leppard learned so much from Mutt Lange, the producer of Pyromania and Hysteria, they even called him the ‘sixth member’ of the band. 

Many of Lange’s hits have riffs that pause for the snare drum – check out AC/DC’s Highway To Hell and Back In Black or The Cars’ You Might Think. The same is true for Leppard’s new single.

Phil: “With Kick, I think I had the chorus and then it broke down to the verse. I wanted something with gaps, like Pour Some Sugar On Me. When we did that my original riff was a bit like White Lines by Grandmaster Flash, a continuous thing. Mutt was like, ‘Oh no, man, you got to leave a gap for the snare!’ That just brought it to life. I wanted to do that for the verse of Kick.”

4. Playing matters more than gear

Vivian: “I moved from Los Angeles to New Hampshire, so I don’t have many guitars at home. Most of my guitars are in Def Leppard’s locker in southern California. It’s probably just as well because there’s enough choice in the drop-down menu in Guitar Rig without auditioning every Les Paul again. 

“I don’t want to get into the weeds too much. It’s about the performance more than the guitar, the preset or anything. To be honest, a lot of my choice came down to which guitar has the freshest strings!”

Phil: “On this album, I used a Squier Tele Thinline on the solo of This Guitar. It was just a standard thing I bought years ago in Dublin and it’s just great. It’s a Squier Starcaster at the beginning. And for the solo on Gimme A Kiss, I actually used a Squier Super-Sonic with a wah.

Vivian: “Do I have any more signature gear planned? God no. I want less gear, not more. How you play guitar begins and ends with your hands. The rest is just shit to get in the way and shit that’s gonna go wrong.”

Phil: “Everything is recorded with Guitar Rig. I’ve been using the same main preset since 2011. I made some presets for Guitar Rig 6 but I didn’t want to update my computer because I was scared it wouldn’t work anymore. 

“Sometimes I’d send Ronan [McHugh, producer] the unamped sound so he can reamp it, but with a lot of this stuff the main demo sound is what’s on the record. Live we use Fractals, and whenever I do solo gigs I use a Blackstar Silverline. There’s subtle differences obviously, but it all sounds like me – it sounds exactly the same!”

Vivian: “Because your tone is in your hands it doesn’t really matter. Phil can pick up my Les Paul, and it sounds like Phil through my gear. I’ve played solos before with his Jackson, like the solo in the song Paper Sun [from 1999’s Euphoria]. You can hear because I forgot to turn the sustainer off and you can hear there’s one point where it goes into feedback. So tone is 100 per cent in your hands.”

5. Perfection sucks!

Phil: “The intro to Kick was from my demo. You can hear this ringing that sounds like someone hit a jar or something. It’s the guitar just overloading and peaking. We left it on because it sounds cool. The solo was a total guide, mistakes all over the place. I’m like, ‘Fuck it, sounds great!’ I love it just the way it is, so we left it on. 

“Normally we do 30 tracks of a vocal harmony. On this one, some of the stuff is just me doing eight tracks. I would do a guide vocal in my echoey front room. Grab a [Shure] SM58 and just sing, like, ‘I’ll do it properly later on but this is how it goes.’ Ronan would go ‘That’s great! Just use that,’ and someone else would harmonise. You can actually hear everyone’s voice. 

“Joe [Elliott, vocalist] was fucking spectacular. He was doing stuff in Dublin on his laptop with a little shitty mic that he does his radio show on, and that’s some of the stuff that ended up on the album. That’s Mutt Lange’s thing. You’d say, ‘It has to be perfect.’ He’s like ‘F*ck no, I hate perfect!’ He said it just has to sound and feel right.”

6. Work with people who are better than you

Phil: “It really helps me as a songwriter to write with someone who’s better than me, or different to me. The speed that they do things is a little intimidating sometimes but it’s just great to be around. I was writing with Sam Hollander, who wrote High Hopes for Panic! At The Disco. He’s just awesome. It was really inspiring working with him because he’s so quick firing.  

“You know he’s just writing away and just bouncing whole ideas. We had the whole thing done in an afternoon. You want to be around someone who’s gonna do that. When I did the G3 tour with Satriani and Petrucci. We were doing Highway Star and from the first rehearsal I was like ‘Fuck, I’m gonna have to practice a lot more because I’m just gonna get left behind by these guys.’ 

“They’re just it’s so far over the top. John goes, ‘Well, if I do this harmony, Phil, you can do this.’ It was further than I’d ever stretched on anything I’d ever done. I love someone giving you a helping hand and pushing you at the same time.”

7. Create hooks everywhere

Phil: “I always go back to Killer Queen [a number 2 UK hit for Queen in 1974]. There’s a hook almost like every two bars or something!

Vivian: “In Def Leppard world, we wouldn’t be very excited about just power chords. Normally we’d be looking for a jangle to go on top. The jangle is what starts to elevate it to something other than the ordinary. That’s not just a chord thing. We’re looking for a part to go on top of that.

Phil: “You can even do lead parts around the vocal, but you have to have that bedrock there. On the title track from Hysteria we had the vocal melody beforehand and Steve [Clark] would come up with something different. Again, it’s got to respect the melody. As Keith Richards so eloquently put it, weaving sonic tapestries.”

Total Guitar says: ‘The jangle’ can be distorted arpeggios (Let’s Get Rocked), clean arpeggios (Photograph), or jamming on a ringing open string (Pour Some Sugar On Me). Check out Love Bites, Hysteria and Animal for lead guitar hooks that fit around the vocal. 

Our tab example shows how Leppard write lead parts around chord progressions. One note changes on each repeat to fit the chord changes, but that note isn’t necessarily a root note. Over the E chord, the lick starts on G# (the major 3rd) and moves smoothly up one fret to A when the chord changes to A major.

8. Layer your chords… 

Vivian: “In a really good Def Leppard song, Phil and I are never playing the same parts. In the hard rock world, there’s this school of thought that you have two guitar parts playing the same thing to make it sound heavier. If I get a demo from Phil, I would never play the chords in the same register he’s put them down already. I just try inversions. 

“There’s countless ways you can play a chord up the guitar neck. But the bridge section in Hysteria where the notes were recorded one at a time for the chord – we’ve never done anything like that since. I think that’s too much work!”

Phil: “If you want to make it broader, if someone’s playing a powerchord or a barre chord, and the other one’s doing an open version, that sounds great. If you’re playing a D you could add an A chord, you know the first and the fifth. You put the parts in different octaves and also you do a different rhythm.”

Total Guitar says: In Pour Some Sugar On Me, the chorus has the chords E, A, and B split across multiple guitar tracks. It is possible to play all those notes on one guitar, but with distortion they can sound muddy and out of tune. 

Harmonised chords sound clearer, just as a Thin Lizzy-style twin guitar solo sounds clearer than playing doublestops on one distorted guitar. You can get more ambitious by layering these E and A shapes over each other. 

Animal begins with an F5 powerchord layered over a Bb5 to create a big Bbsus2. The riff in Photograph includes a partial D5 chord layered with an A5, which makes Asus4. To hear parts in different octaves and with counter rhythms as Phil describes, listen to the chorus of Hysteria with headphones on. 

Today, adding vibrato to chords is a metal signature. But Vivian Campbell, who helped pioneer the style, has admitted he didn’t even notice he did it at first.

“I put vibrato on my chords. I never realized I did until Ronnie Dio pointed it out to me,” Campbell said of his discovery in a new interview for Total Guitar. “It was only because I played a Les Paul, and [with] Les Pauls you can be in tune on a first position chord, but by the time you’re on the fifth fret playing a barre chord it’s a little fruity. By the time you’re further up it’s really exotic.

“When you had a floating tremolo bar you could always use a little shimmer to offset any tuning irregularities,” he noted. “But with a fixed bridge I’m thinking, ‘Ah, that string’s a little out,’ so I would just naturally put vibrato on chords to mask it. 

“I didn’t realize I did it until after being with Dio for a year or two. Ronnie says, ‘You know what I really love about you?’ and he leaned into me. ‘What I really love about your rhythm playing is you put vibrato on chords.’ I went ‘I do?!’”

You can hear this style most obviously with Last In Line, Campbell’s side band formed with former Dio members after Ronnie’s death. But Campbell says this approach is also one of the things that makes his playing sound different from Def Leppard bandmate, Phil Collen.

Vivian also commented on the differences between his style and that of Def Leppard founder Steve Clark, who Campbell replaced after his death in 1991.

“I play very differently from Steve,” Campbell offers. “I play a lot of palm muting so there’s a much more percussive element to how I play lead guitar parts.

“I think there’s definitely a heavier approach. I pinch harmonics a lot because of my Rory Gallagher influence. I just can’t help myself. I got a really heavy vibrato thanks to my Gary Moore influence. 

“We’re all made up of our influences, so I bring a heavier element to the Def Leppard both in the studio and when we play live, but we all share that same mentality of being in service of the song.”

While Campbell’s attack in Dio was never exactly timid, it’s grown even heavier in recent years thanks to his discovery of metal picks.

“I was always on a course to use heavier picks,” he explains. “I started back on Holy Diver just using Fender medium picks, and I started using heavier Tortex picks through the years. 

“I didn’t know metal picks were a thing until I joined Def Leppard. At first, it was uncomfortable because it’s too heavy – there’s no give whatsoever when you connect with the string – but now I can’t play electric guitar with a plastic pick anymore.”

On Def Leppard’s new album, Diamond Star Halos, Vivian’s playing is some of his most fiery with the band. He attributes that to playing with Last In Line again.

“I’m still doing Last in Line shows,” he says. “The passion was reignited and I’ve definitely built upon it.”

• Diamond Star Halos is out on May 27 via UME.

Welcome to Guitar World’s weekly roundup of the musical highlights from the, erm, world of guitar. Every seven days (or thereabouts), we endeavor to bring you a selection of songs from across the guitar universe, all with one thing in common: our favorite instrument plays a starring role.

Standards – Smile

What is it? Fresh off its live debut during the band’s recent UK tour, Smile sees Aristides-toting two-hand tapping wizard Marcos Mena and drummer Cam Mitchell, erm, tap into the poppier side of their progressive repertoire. Consistent with the rest of Standards’ output, it’s hooky as hell – and we’re always down for virtuosity you can dance to.

Standout guitar moment: Mena’s nifty over-the-fretboard chord hammer-on and pull-offs, freeing up his right hand to tap out that irresistable chorus melody.

For fans of: Hikes, Covet, Giraffes? Giraffes!

– Michael Astley-Brown

Larkin Poe – Bad Spell

What is it? The swaggering lead single from Blood Harmony, the sixth studio album from the always-exciting Nashville-based blues-rock duo featuring sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell. A “female response” to Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ I Put a Spell on You, Bad Spell simply explodes out of the speakers.

Standout guitar moment: Armed with one of her beloved HSS Stratocasters and a dimed-out fuzz pedal, Rebecca Lovell delivers a catchy, instant-impact sledgehammer of a blues-rock riff that never wears out its welcome. It’s the sort of unstoppable refrain that’s taken plenty of other groups in the genre from clubs and small theaters to arenas, and listening to it, we can’t help but wonder if Larkin Poe will be next to make that jump…  

For fans of: The Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys, Tedeschi Trucks Band

– Jackson Maxwell

Thrice – Dead Wake

What is it? Devastating fresh material from the California alt-rock innovators following last year’s Horizons/East. A song of two halves, Dead Wake starts as a Vheissu-flavored post-hardcore anthem, traverses a brief keyboard interlude and ends up a slice of altogether apocalyptic alt-rock. Although Dead Wake is being billed as a standalone release, the band told us a Horizons/West companion record was in the works, so we wouldn’t be surprised to hear more in the coming months…

Standout guitar moment: The way Dustin Kensrue’s climactic chiming overdriven sounds play off against Teppei Teranishi’s raw unison bends is magic.

For fans of: Touché Amoré, Circa Survive, Radiohead

– Michael Astley-Brown

Malevolence – Salvation (feat. Matthew K. Heafy)

What is it? A standout track on the Sheffield, UK metalcore stalwarts’ new album, Malicious Intent. A masterclass in unbridled sonic ferocity, Salvation is brimming with pummeling mid-tempo guitar riffs, texture-laden melodic chorus sections and both a solo and some guest vocals from Trivium leader Matt Heafy.

Standout guitar moment: Heafy never misses with his leads, and this one is no exception. From the 1:42 mark, the Trivium man offers up a bounty of winding melodies and two-handed tapping wizardry, proving once again that he’s one of the best in the biz.

For fans of: Trivium, Stray From the Path, Venom Prison

– Sam Roche

Foals – 2001 

What is it? A funk-fueled, disco-charged bop from veteran hit-makers Foals, who are gearing up to release their new album, Life Is Yours, later this year. It’s everything you’d expect from a Foals track but more, with the band fully embracing their evolution into a disco guitar group by decking out space-y synths with gargling low-ends, snappy guitar licks and arguably the funkiest guitar drone of their whole repertoire.

Standout guitar moment: That infectious intro guitar riff is an absolute joy to listen to, and sounds as though it’s emanated straight from the fretboard of funk king Cory Wong himself.

For fans of: Royal Blood, Bloc Party, Cory Wong

– Matt Owen 

Roosevelt feat. Nile Rodgers – Passion

What is it? By enlisting the talents of a certain Mr. Nile Rodgers, German synth-pop maestro Roosevelt fulfills a longtime dream on this floor-filling new single. The result is, unsurprisingly, a disco-infused pop banger that proves Rodgers’ eternal midas touch.

Standout guitar moment: While Nile’s unmistakable syncopated Hitmaker strums drive Passion’s monster chorus, that cheeky palm-muted middle eight gives a glimpse at his underrated riff chops, too.

For fans of: Chic, Cory Wong, Daft Punk

– Michael Astley-Brown

Horsegirl – Dirtbag Transformation (Still Dirty)

What is it? We’ve had our eyes on this Chicago trio – whose members are barely out of high school – for awhile now. They make twisty, catchy and angular guitar-driven songs that have folks who grew up in alt-rock’s heyday going ‘well, thank god some kids these days make real music.' Unlike other buzzy young bands that have merely served as a vehicle for boomer/early millennial nostalgia and projection though, Horsegirl have talent and vision to go along with the hype, as a listen to their new single, Dirtbag Transformation (Still Dirty), proves in spades.

Standout guitar moment: The song’s main chord progression is highlighted by woozy bends that add a ton of color and personality to this quietly charming rocker.

For fans of: Sleater-Kinney, Sonic Youth, Pavement

– Jackson Maxwell

Coheed and Cambria – Comatose

What is it? The fourth single from Coheed and Cambria’s highly-anticipated 10th album, Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind. Like previously released singles The Liars Club and Rise, Naianasha (Cut the Cord), Comatose boasts a light rock feel, driven by an instantly infectious major-key guitar riff.

Standout guitar moment: The track features an abundance of harmonized leads, which weave themselves around one another underneath Claudio Sanchez’s ever-catchy vocal hooks.

For fans of: Dance Gavin Dance, Billy Talent

– Sam Roche

Everything Everything – Kevin’s Car  

What is it? A track lifted from UK art rock group Everything Everything’s new album, Raw Data Feel, which dropped today (May 20). Kevin’s Car is quintessential Everything Everything, and arrives from a band whose sound is deeply rooted in unorthodox six-string sonic experimentation. It’s a textural tapestry of the highest order, from the glass-like intro guitars and electro-tinged verse stabs to the extended chorus melody that pins the mix together.

Standout guitar moment: Multiple listens will reveal more and more nuanced guitar activity, but the vocal-mirroring line of the chorus is the best of the bunch, effortlessly gluing the entire track together and bringing it to life.

For fans of: Alt-J, Radiohead, Dutch Uncles 

– Matt Owen

The Fierce & the Dead – Wonderful

What is it? A fresh psych-fuzz freakout from one of the UK’s trickiest-to-pin-down instrumental rockers – except their first new music in four years isn’t actually instrumental, featuring vocal contributions from Kevin Feazey for the first time. It doesn’t dilute the band’s serrated prog edge, however, and the addition of saxophone among the sludge lends the track a certain King Crimson esoterica.

Standout guitar moment: That peak grunge-channeling chorus riff, which takes equal billing with the verse’s shoegaze-worthy washed-out chords.

For fans of: King Crimson, Haken, Steven Wilson

– Michael Astley-Brown

Def Leppard – Fire It Up

What is it? A bouncy new number from the veteran English rock outfit’s forthcoming album, Diamond Star Halos. Fire It Up finds guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell in fine form, as they serve up a bounty of swaggering and feel-good guitar riffs, and a selection of tasty leads, to boot.

Standout guitar moment: The solo from the 2:28 mark is a textbook passage of classic rock-inspired shred, featuring sky-high bends and tastefully placed alternate picking blitzes.

For fans of: Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, Scorpions

– Sam Roche

Caius – Care for Me (Iamalex & Felty remix) 

What is it? The latest laid-back remix from Horace Bray’s lo-fi side project, which sees him treat producer Caius' sultry beats to his smooth six-string soundscapes. Harnessing every ounce of his formal jazz education, Bray brings his A-game, souping-up the beat with some aquatic progressions, sizzling improv lines and tasty chromatic embellishments.

Standout guitar moment: A host of extended chords build up to the subtle, easy-listening solo at the 1:21 mark, which is littered with jazzy slides, colorful turnarounds and some upper-fret harmonies.

For fans of: Horace Bray, Tom Misch, Charlie Allen

– Matt Owen

Joe Satriani surprised many guitarists by picking Def Leppard’s Phil Collen for the 2018 G3 tour – not least Phil himself. But Collen says the most lasting impact from the run came from John Petrucci, whose touring rig was based around the Fractal Axe-Fx.

“Petrucci had the the first one and he said, ‘Check this out!’ It sounded great,” Collen says. “That’s why I got it, and then I said to the rest of guys, ‘I’m getting rid of my rack!’ [Co-guitarist] Vivian Campbell heard it once and said, ‘I’m in!’ and [bassist] Rick Savage trusted me from day one.”

Def Leppard are known for their love of technology. Multi-million-selling album smash Hysteria was at the cutting edge of recording techniques, and drummer Rick Allen was an early adopter of electric drums after the car crash that claimed his left arm.

Despite that, their live guitar rigs were resolutely old-school before Petrucci brought them into the 21st century. The setups had been rack-based, with Marshall JMP-1 tube preamps and EL34 100/100 power amps, along with the discontinued JFX-1 rack effects unit.

Collen’s tech John Zucker replicated this sound using the Axe-Fx Tone Match feature. Says Phil of the old rig, “It was just too much to power. You had a power amp and a rack and then effects and stuff like that. Now it all works in one. On stage I use the Atomic powered speaker.”

Besides the gear revolution, the G3 experience also pushed Collen as a player. “We were doing Highway Star and from the first rehearsal I was like ‘Fuck, I’m gonna have to practice a lot more because I’m just gonna get left behind by these guys,’” he recalls. 

“They’re just so far over the top. John goes, ‘Well, if I do this harmony, Phil, you can do this.’ It was further than I’d ever stretched on anything I’d ever done! I love that idea of someone giving you a helping hand and pushing you at the same time.”

Guitar-wise, Phil has been playing new versions of his signature Jackson PC1 with hotter X2N bridge pickups.

“What I’m shocked about with the X2N is I can turn it down!” he laughs. “I don’t really have clean tones on tour. I just turn the guitar down and that cleans up perfectly, even with the Fractal.

“My new PC1 has a walnut top. It’s got a skinny neck on it which bugged me but the thing sounded so good I used it on some of the solos on our new album [Diamond Star Halos]. I used it on Open Your Eyes and From Here To Eternity. It’s got an X2N, Sugar Chakra, and a Sustainer. This one’s got an ebony fingerboard so it’s a harsher sound than the maple, which is a bit more classy – on a PC1, anyway.”

The Sugar Chakra is Phil’s signature DiMarzio Strat-sized humbucker. “I’ve been using that on the songs All We Need and Lifeless,” he explains. “Right at the end I use the Sugar Chakra and an X2N together on a clean setting.

“You’d think, ‘Really? How’s that gonna sound?!’ Fucking unique! With the sustainer on, it was just a really unique sound. The Sugar Chakra would be the middle pickup, and obviously the X2N, which is fucking bombastic, being the bridge position.”

Comparing the Sugar Chakra to the full-sized Super 3 humbucker he has used for years, Phil notes its subtle refinement.

“It’s a little less powerful,  but you couldn’t really tell the difference listening to it,” he says. “If you raise it up a little bit then it sounds similar, but it kind of retains some of the Strat-iness. I’ve even got a Telecaster with a Sugar Chakra on it and same deal: it retains its Telecaster-ness as well, so you can get that perfect blend.”

Def Leppard’s 12th full-length album, Diamond Star Halos, returns the band to its roots. The title is a nod to Marc Bolan, who inspired Vivian Campbell pick up guitar in the first place. Appropriately, Campbell revisited the guitar where it all started for him.

“I’ve been playing 7297537 a lot,” says Campbell, who is so attached to his first Les Paul he always refers to it by its serial number. “I moved to New Hampshire just prior to the pandemic, so I don’t have many guitars at home. Most of my guitars are in Def Leppard’s locker in southern California.”

Campbell reconnected with the guitar – which has since been replicated as an Epiphone signature model – in 2012 after forming Last In Line with his former Dio bandmates.

“Because I’ve been playing it a lot with Last In Line I still use the original Dio Les Paul,” he explains. “I’ve just gotten really comfortable with it again. I like the closure of going full circle, starting my career with it and coming back to it.”

The Les Paul started life as a wine red Deluxe and housed a pair of X2Ns in the ’80s, the hottest pickup DiMarzio made. It now contains a matched set of Seymour Duncan ’59s.

Says Campbell, “I was using DiMarzio X2Ns back then because I was playing through a JCM800 Marshall and there just wasn’t enough distortion in that amp, so I front-loaded it with really hot pickups and Boss overdrive pedals. With modern amps you don’t need to do that – there’s so much more saturation available.”

Another old favorite also made a return. “The other guitar was my original blue Tom Anderson with the maple neck,” he reveals. “I used it a lot on the Adrenalize tour when I first joined Def Leppard.”

Campbell played the Anderson for his Def Leppard debut at the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert: “Again, I’m comfortable with it and it was one of the half dozen guitars I have at home.”

When their Stadium Tour was cancelled in 2020, Def Leppard began recording instead. Remote recording posed only one problem: Campbell had no idea how to do it.

“I’m a technophobe. It’s a wonder I can use my iPhone,” he laughs. “Joe [Elliott, vocalist] emailed, ‘If we're not going to tour this year, let’s make a record.’ I’m thinking, ‘That means I’ve got to learn how to use technology again!’ Phil Collen said, ‘Get Logic. It’s really easy.’ I open it up and I’m thinking, ‘That doesn't look easy to me!’”

At his old studio in California, Campbell admits, “I only knew how to record because some clever grownup who built the studio for me came in and showed me how to do it and made notes in case I forgot! So spring 2020 I’m downloading Logic, buying an interface and thinking, ‘How the fuck does this work?!’”

Eventually, producer Ronan McHugh sent him pre-engineered recording templates. At Phil Collen’s suggestion, Vivian downloaded Guitar Rig.

“I would just scroll through presets, adjust the amp settings a little and record,” he recalls. “I also used the Engl plugin for most of the solos. They have one that looks exactly like my Last In Line amp and that’s so easy even I can use it. It was really easy once I got going, but I just have this fear of technology.”

The band, though, loved Campbell’s work. Bandmate Phil Collen praises his playing, especially on the duets with Allison Krauss, Lifeless and This Guitar.

“Lifeless is fucking awesome,” raves Phil. “He used a Telecaster and it’s very different for Viv. My favorite playing of his is on This Guitar. It’s Dave Gilmour-esque. He plays these heartfelt, emotional licks and some really subtle slide.”

The Telecaster, Campbell reveals, is a Def Leppard staple. “Phil’s Jackson and my Les Paul are fat-sounding guitars, so for more specific parts we’re always reaching for a Telecaster,” he says.

Accordingly, Vivian’s ’66 Telecaster is all over the album. “It’s a wonderful guitar,” he enthuses.

“The only problem is the noise when you’ve got any kind of gain going on. They’re so microphonic. Ronan doesn’t like it when we send him tracks with all this buzz. That means you can’t breathe while you play. The Telecaster is never quiet, but you find a position where it’s not as noisy and you can’t move!”

• Diamond Star Halos is out on May 27 via UME.

Last month, Def Leppard announced their first new studio album in seven years, Diamond Star Halos, and ushered in the news by dropping the LP’s classically Leppard lead single, Kick.

Now, the British rock legends have further heightened anticipation surrounding the release by dropping the effort’s second single, Take What You Want.

Just like Kick, Take What You Want is Def Leppard to its very core, and precedes the track’s main event – a bruising, powerchord-driven electric guitar riff – with an atmospheric kaleidoscope of clean arpeggios, oversized chordal punches, ringing sustain and momentum-building cymbal smashes.

Once the track bursts into life, Take What You Want wrings out every bit of color from its modest melodic hook by intermittently introducing decorative double-stop licks, tasty interlude sections and a breakdown that prefaces a wailing, bend-heavy pentatonic-based guitar solo.

It’s not quite Kick levels of catchy as far as melody is concerned, yet is perhaps a more freeing and open display of guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell’s evergreen six-string abilities.

You can hear the track in the video above.

Diamond Star Halos, the quintet’s first album since their 2015 self-titled effort, was recorded remotely over the course of the last two years in three different countries, and will arrive on May 27 via UME. 

As well as featuring the whole Leppard lineup – comprising Joe Elliott, Rick Savage, Rick Allen, Collen and Campbell – the LP will also contain cameos from country legend Alison Krauss and longtime David Bowie pianist Mike Garson.

While Krauss will crop up on This Guitar and Lifeless, Garson will offer his musical services on Goodbye For Good This Time and Angels (Can’t Help You Now).

Def Leppard will promote the album by way of a mega US tour this summer, for which they will be joined by Mötley Crüe, Poison and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

For more information – and to preorder Diamond Star Halos – head over to Def Leppard’s official website.

Welcome to Guitar World’s weekly roundup of the musical highlights from the, erm, world of guitar. Every seven days (or thereabouts), we endeavor to bring you a selection of songs from across the guitar universe, all with one thing in common: our favorite instrument plays a starring role.

Joe Satriani – Pumpin’ 

What is it? The third single to be lifted from Satch’s upcoming 19th studio album, The Elephants of Mars, which the shred legend says will tackle the tropes of instrumental guitar music. Unlike the previously released singles, the aptly titled Pumpin’ is far more funk-leaning in its direction, and employs a, well, pumping arrangement that Satriani litters with, of course, some elite soloing.

Standout guitar moment: The post-keyboard interlude solo at the 1:37 mark. It’s got everything you’d want from a Satch solo, including some masterfully assembled phrases, whammy-tinged squeals and show-stopping bends.

For fans of: Steve Vai, Mark Lettieri, Andy Timmons

– Matt Owen

Arcade Fire – The Lightning I, II

What is it? There’s a hint of Pinball Wizard in the intro to the latest from the Canadian indie darlings, but it soon blooms into a slowburn Springsteen-tinged anthem, complete with lashings of 12-string and – yes! – Offset Telecaster, if the video is anything to go by. Like many of their singles, you can file this under ‘epic’. All in all, it bodes well for their Nigel Godrich-produced sixth album, due on May 6.

Standout guitar moment: There are an awful lot of instruments going on here – par for the course with AF – but that 12-string cuts through the mix real nice.

For fans of: Broken Social Scene, The Shins, Interpol

– Michael Astley-Brown

Machine Gun Kelly – maybe (feat. Bring Me The Horizon)

What is it? The fourth single from Machine Gun Kelly’s forthcoming second pop-punk outing, Mainstream Sellout. This time, the rapper-turned-rocker has recruited Bring Me The Horizon frontman Oli Sykes, with the pair trading vocal lines over a series of infectiously upbeat powerchords and clean arpeggios.

Standout guitar moment: The guitar work in this track is admittedly fairly simple, but that lead hook will stay in your head until at least the end of day.

For fans of: Blink-182, State Champs, Sum 41

– Sam Roche

Def Leppard – Kick 

What is it? The lead single from Diamond Star Halos, Def Leppard’s first new studio album in seven years, which is set to arrive in May. It will be a long-awaited follow up to their self-titled 2015 effort, though, if Kick is anything to go by, the significant passage of time has done absolutely nothing to erode the British rock legend’s powers of summoning stadium-filling singalong hooks and blissful, no-frills-needed electric guitar tones. 

Standout guitar moment: Phil Collen’s quick-fire lead at the 2:53 mark is a notable standout. Crammed with pentatonic bends, a flurry of notes and some harmonized bends, it's the type of solo that can only be performed while in adopting a heroic power stance.

For fans of: Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, Poison

– Matt Owen

Cave In – New Reality

What is it? Cult alt-rock heroes Cave In have returned with their first full studio album in over a decade, now with Converge bassist Nate Newton in the fold following the tragic death of Caleb Scofield in 2018. New Reality is a headrush of a single, all stoner riffs, frenetic tremolo picking and time signature switch-ups.

Standout guitar moment: With Kurt Ballou behind the desk, the tones were never going to be anything short of spectacular, but Stephen Brodsky and Adam McGrath’s chonk and chime never sounded better.

For fans of: Torche, Converge, Thrice

– Michael Astley-Brown

James LaBrie – Devil in Drag

What is it? The first single from Dream Theater frontman James LaBrie’s upcoming fourth solo album, Beautiful Shade of Grey. It’s packed with Theater-esque stylings, most notably in the dizzying lead work of LaBrie’s guitar-toting collaborator Marco Sfogli.

Standout guitar moment: It would be all too easy to pick out Sfolgi’s electric guitar solo in the intro, but his almost vocal-like acoustic guitar noodling from the 3:47 mark is expertly delivered, and offers a moment’s respite from an otherwise hella-busy arrangement.

For fans of: Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, Devin Townsend

– Sam Roche

Holy Fawn – Death is a Relief

What is it? Midway through their US tour with Deafheaven, the Arizona blackgaze outfit have dropped a dose of pure catharsis. Ryan Osterman and Evan Phelps once again prove themselves sonic conjurers of the highest order, whether delivering wistful arpeggios or grinding single-note lines.

Standout guitar moment: That tone when the distorted guitars kick in at 1:40. We’re all about it.

For fans of: Deafheaven, Slow Crush, Nothing

– Michael Astley-Brown

Royal Blood – Honeybrains 

What is it? A surprise new release from the UK hard-rock two-piece, who have wasted no time following up their 2021 album, Typhoons, with new material. According to the pair, they had no intention of sitting on their latest offering, which, of course, is excellent news for us. It’s classically Royal Blood, with a versatile bass tone that acts as both a meaty low-end riff machine and a tool for razor-like, guitar-esque sounds.

Standout guitar moment: Royal Blood seemingly have an unwavering, evergreen ability to compose knockout three-, four- and five note riffs. Honeybrains is no exception, providing a rock-ready chorus hook that effortlessly traverses bass and guitar duties with devastating effect.

For fans of: Foals, Nothing But Thieves, Highly Suspect

– Matt Owen

Heriot – Profound Morality

What is it? The title track from Heriot’s upcoming debut EP, which arrives April 29 via Church Road Records. It finds the UK metal upstarts bathing doomy high-gain guitar sounds in grating ambience, before switching gears to deliver a clutch of impossibly heavy breakdown arrangements.

Standout guitar moment: The breakdown from the 2:55 mark features one of the most monolithic guitar riffs we've heard in a long time.

For fans of: Employed to Serve, Venom Prison

– Sam Roche

VUKOVI – LASSO

What is it? One of the biggest riffs you’ll hear this year – and it’s played on a Jazzmaster. LASSO showcases the sonic evolution of the raucous Scottish two-piece, with riffs rooted in metalcore, bonded to huge chorus hooks worthy of pop-punk. Expect even bigger things.

Standout guitar moment: The exact nanosecond that opening salvo drops, and the smart rhythmic interplay with the drums. Massive.

For fans of: Tigercub, Black Honey, Marmozets

– Michael Astley-Brown

British stadium rock legends Def Leppard have announced a new studio album, Diamond Star Halos.

The first new studio LP from the quintet since their self-titled 2015 effort, Diamond Star Halos was recorded remotely over the course of the last two years, in three different countries. It also features a pair of guest appearances from bluegrass/country legend Alison Krauss (on the tracks This Guitar and Lifeless) and is set for a May 27 release via UMe.

Longtime David Bowie pianist Mike Garson also has two musical cameos, on the tracks Goodbye For Good This Time and Angels (Can’t Help You Now).

Along with news of the album came the release of its lead single, the energetic, very Def Leppard-y Kick. You can check it out below.

With cannon-like drums, a big sing-along chorus, and brawny, tug-of-war dual-guitar riffage from guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell, longtime Def Leppard aficionados will find plenty to dig about this tune. 

Def Leppard will promote Diamond Star Halos with a stadium mega-tour of the United States this summer, on which they'll be joined by fellow '80s rock legends Mötley Crüe, Poison and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts.

Originally scheduled for 2020, then postponed first to 2021 and then again to 2022 due to COVID-19, the trek will take all four bands across North America from mid-June through early September.

You can check out the cover art and track list of Diamond Star Halos below. To preorder the album, visit Def Leppard's website.

Def Leppard – Diamond Star Halos:

1. Take What You Want
2. Kick
3. Fire It Up
4. This Guitar [feat. Alison Krauss]
5. SOS Emergency
6. Liquid Dust
7. U Rok Mi
8. Goodbye For Good This Time
9. All We Need
10. Open Your Eyes
11. Gimme A Kiss
12. Angels (Can’t Help You Now)
13. Lifeless [feat. Alison Krauss]
14. Unbreakable
15. From Here To Eternity

All the way back in 2019, Mötley Crüe announced that they would be hitting the road – for the first time since their 2015 "farewell" tour – in the summer of 2020 for a co-headlining stadium tour with Def Leppard, Poison, and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts.

Of course, COVID-19 put those plans on hold, first to 2021, and then again to 2022. Now though, the tour's schedule has finally been set in stone, with a few new dates to boot.

Set to begin on June 16 at Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia, the tour will take the '80s rock giants across North America before ending on September 9 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.                           

"It's on! We don't think we've ever looked forward more to kicking off a tour than this one," Mötley Crüe said in a joint statement. "We can't wait to finally see all the fans across North America again. Get ready for a wild ride this summer!" 

“On behalf of the band, we’re beyond thrilled that the stadium tour is finally happening this summer," added Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott. "It’s been a while coming and we can’t wait to get back on stage again, and we can’t wait to see you in one of the many stadiums soon."

Mötley Crüe played what was billed as their final show ever on December 31, 2015 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, but reunited in the studio in 2019 to record four new songs for the soundtrack to The Dirt, a biopic about the band that was released on Netflix that same year.

After months of rumors, the band confirmed that they would return to the stage in November 2019, announcing the full end of their breakup in typically colorful fashion – with a video of the band destroying the 'cessation of touring' contract they had signed just a few years before. 

You can check out the bands' full itinerary below. Tickets for all of the shows can be purchased at Live Nation.

Mötley Crüe/Def Leppard/Poison/Joan Jett & The Blackhearts 2022 tour:

Thursday, June 16 – Atlanta, GA: Truist Park
Saturday, June 18 – Miami, FL: Hard Rock Stadium
Sunday, June 19 – Orlando, FL: Camping World Stadium
Wednesday, June 22 – Washington, DC: Nationals Park
Friday, June 24 – Queens, NY: Citi Field
Saturday, June 25 – Philadelphia, PA: Citizens Bank Park
Tuesday, June 28 – Charlotte, NC: Bank of America Stadium
Thursday, June 30 – Nashville, TN: Nissan Stadium
Saturday, July 2 – Jacksonville, FL: TIAA Bank Field
Tuesday, July 5 – St. Louis, MO: Busch Stadium
Friday, July 8 – Chicago, IL: Wrigley Field
Sunday, July 10 – Detroit, MI: Comerica Park
Tuesday, July 12 – Hershey, PA: Hersheypark Stadium
Thursday, July 14 – Cleveland, OH: FirstEnergy Stadium
Friday, July 15 – Cincinnati, OH: Great American Ball Park
Sunday, July 17 – Milwaukee, WI: American Family Field
Tuesday, July 19 – Kansas City, MO: Kauffman Stadium
Thursday, July 21 – Denver, CO: Coors Field
Friday, August 5 – Boston, MA: Fenway Park
Saturday, August 6  – Boston, MA: Fenway Park                          
Monday, August 8 – Toronto, ON: Rogers Centre
Wednesday, August 10 – Orchard Park, NY: Highmark Stadium
Friday, August 12 – Pittsburgh, PA: PNC Park
Sunday, August 14 – Minneapolis, MN: U.S. Bank Stadium
Tuesday, August 16 – Indianapolis, IN: Lucas Oil Stadium
Friday, August 19 – Houston, TX: Minute Maid Park
Sunday, August 21 – San Antonio, TX: Alamodome
Monday, August 22 – Arlington, TX: Globe Life Field
Thursday, August 25 – Glendale, AZ: State Farm Stadium
Saturday, August 27 – Inglewood, CA: SoFi Stadium
Sunday, August 28 – San Diego, CA: Petco Park
Wednesday, August 31 – Seattle, WA: T-Mobile Park
Friday, September 2 – Vancouver, BC: BC Place
Sunday, September 4 – Edmonton, AB: Commonwealth Stadium
Wednesday, September 7 – San Francisco, CA: Oracle Park
Friday, September 9 – Las Vegas, NV: Allegiant Stadium

Following the death of Def Leppard guitarist Steve Clark in 1991, Iron Maiden's Adrian Smith was strongly considered to fill the slot, according to Rick Allen.

In a new interview with eonmusic, the long-serving drummer reveals that he “really loved the idea” of Smith joining the band.

“I mean, there was a kid called Huwey Lucas that was a contender; there was [ex-Thin Lizzy/Blue Murder guitarist] John Sykes; there were all these people kind of lined up.”

“It's interesting,” he continues, “you put somebody in a slightly different situation and new things are revealed about them, and it was cool. It was a complement that he was so into it. But I think ultimately, Vivian [Campbell] was the absolutely perfect choice.”

Adrian Smith – who left Iron Maiden in 1990 before rejoining in 1999 – cautiously revealed in a 2020 interview, also with eonmusic, that he was considered for the role.

“Yeah I was. I’m not sure… I want to write more books; that might be in my next one! [Laughing] There’s whole story about that.” 

Smith was referring to a potential followup to his 2020 fishing book, Monsters of River & Rock: My Life As Iron Maiden's Compulsive Angler.

Also in the eonmusic interview, Rick Allen remembers Steve Clark. “I found Steve to be a very deep person; a very deep thinker,” he says. “I miss him every day.”

Is it true there’s a Tele on every track of Hysteria? 

“Pretty much. We always used Telecasters to track stuff. On Pyromania you had a Les Paul and a Tele playing the same part to give you the full range. On the latest Def Leppard stuff I’ll use a Tele and a Jackson and blend the two.“   

During the making of Pyromania, you played a Les Paul and an Ibanez Destroyer, while Steve Clark also favoured a Les Paul. What led you to use Teles? 

“We were always searching for this sound, a basic bedrock sound, especially when we were working with [producer] Mutt Lange. We had to compromise, and we’d use a Les Paul and a Tele, or a Strat and a Les Paul. I put a DiMarzio Super Distortion T in about four of my Teles and got the sound we’d been trying to get for years. You’ve got clarity and chime, but you’ve also got firepower and balls!“  

So it was it Mutt’s idea to use Telecasters? 

“I think he got it from working with AC/DC. A lot of rock players get the wrong idea. They think it’s all this distorted humbucker thing. Malcolm [Young, AC/DC guitarist] used his Gretsch really kinda clean. The blending of the Gretsch and the SG from Angus [Young, lead guitarist] was amazing. 

“It’s like vocals – tenors and baritones blending together. Guitars do the same thing. AC/DC didn’t use Telecasters, but it’s where Mutt got the idea for the clarity. A lot of rock bands were just a wall of fuzz. You want it to breathe and be a bit cooler. That’s where the Telecaster comes in.“

Which Def Leppard songs have obvious Telecaster parts?

“We did a song with [US country star] Tim McGraw, Nine Lives. I used it all the way through that. The intro to Rock of Ages was a Tele. That was recorded before I joined the band. The main riff to Hysteria is another one. It’s actually [bassist] Rick Savage playing that, on a black Tele with a Kahler. When we were making Pyromania and Hysteria, we had a black Strat and a black Tele floating around as band guitars.“ 

Do you modify your Telecasters at all? 

“I’ve got this beautiful blonde Telecaster I got in Dublin when we were rehearsing for Hysteria. I changed the bridge. I’m not a fan of the classic Tele bridge. I like a six-saddle. We’re so meticulous and we track up so many things, so you need it bang in tune.“ 

How do you set up your Teles? 

“I use really heavy strings anyway. I have 13s on my Jacksons. With a Tele I can sometimes go a bit higher and harder. At the moment I have 14-56. You can really thrash it, and it gets rid of some nasty frequencies to make it easier for recording.“ 

And what do you use Teles for on tour? 

“Live I sometimes use a Tele on Love Bites, Too Late For Love, or Armageddon It. I change it up, stuff that’s a bit clearer or where I’m not playing the solo. But having said that, now I’ve got the DiMarzio in there I can play a solo and it sounds killer anyway.“

• Def Leppard's The CD Boxset: Volume 3  is out June 11th via UMC. 

When discussing the lead greats of the guitar world, Def Leppard's Phil Collen really deserves a seat at the table. Not only has he demonstrated his elite chops over the course of 11 studio albums spanning three decades, he also made a show-stopping appearance at Joe Satriani’s shred-heavy G3 in 2018.

Now, the seasoned six-string slinger has returned with a new mind-bending playthrough of the 1973 jazz-rock-fusion classic Quadrant 4 – a high-octane rendition that demonstrates how Collen has no problem keeping up with his contemporaries.

Armed with, quite literally, nothing but a Jackson electric guitar, Collen puts on a fierce six-string display that showcases how his formidable-as-ever soloing skills have aged like a fine wine. 

In the almost-four-minute video, the Def Leppard legend deploys every trick in the book, listing off lightning-fast lead licks and blink-and-you’ll-miss-them fretboard-spanning lines.

After a minute of elite non-stop scale runs accompanied only by the drums of Forrest Robinson, Collen ups the ante and ushers in the latter half of the track with a high-gain A chord, which in turn introduces the bass guitar and gets the ball rolling on another whistle-stop tour of his seriously impressive shred skills.

“I recruited drummer Forrest Robinson and bass player Craig Martini to accompany me on this track,” commented Collen. “We did a shred guitar, hard-rock update of the 1973 jazz rock fusion classic Quadrant 4.

“I’ve always loved the version from Billy Cobham’s Spectrum album that featured Tommy Bolin on guitar. We (Delta Deep) opened up our set with this song every night on Joe Satriani’s G3 tour in 2018, and it was always a breakneck blast.

“I also wanted to let everyone know about some of the stuff I’ve been doing during Covid,” Collen continued, before teasing, “This is just one of the amazing compositions I’ve recorded. More to come…”

It's been a full 30 years since Steve Brown and Trixter released their self-titled debut album, but the guitarist seems to be busier than ever. 

On the Trixter front, Brown and his bandmates plan to release a vinyl reissue of the album that launched their careers. 

“We’re going to do a deluxe edition with all the demos that got us signed,” says Brown, who was barely out of high school when Trixter nabbed a major-label deal. “I dug up my original four-track demo of our first single, Give It to Me Good, and other tapes of songs that I didn’t even remember existed. 

“I can’t believe the album came out so long ago – it’s surreal. Its success allowed me to fulfill every rock dream I ever had. We toured with Poison, Warrant, the Scorpions… It was insane!”  

When not working with Trixter, who still perform, Brown tours with Dennis DeYoung of Styx, fellow veteran glam metallers Danger Danger and… a little band called Def Leppard. Although Trixter never opened for the British hard rock giants in the early Nineties, Brown was befriended by Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen and his bandmates at the time.

“Phil and I first bonded about gear, and then he’d invite me to the shows. I’d get to the arena and the tour manager would bring me into the dressing room and the guys would be like fucking naked and taking showers. And I’m sitting there drinking a beer, like, ‘Do you want me to leave now?’ They treated me like family.” 

When Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2013 and had to take a break from touring, Collen didn’t hesitate to recommend his long-time friend to step in. 

“I had about a month to learn all of Vivian’s guitar and vocal parts,” Brown says. “And to this day, I’m on 24-hour call whenever Def Leppard is on tour in case Vivian can’t make the shows. I even had to fill in for Phil once when he had a family emergency, but I only had a couple of days to learn those parts!” 

When he’s not digging through the Trixter archives or jetting off to play stadium shows at a moment’s notice, Brown can often be found in his New Jersey home studio working on music for Tokyo Motor Fist, the melodic hard rock band that features Danger Danger vocalist Ted Poley, drummer Greg Smith (Alice Cooper) and bassist Chuck Burgi (Rainbow). 

The band’s sophomore album, Lions (Frontiers), features all of the big hooks, meaty riffs and massive backing vocal arrangements you’d expect from musicians so well versed in the genre. 

“The sound is a combination of all of the bands we play in now, all the bands we’ve ever been in, and all bands we grew up loving,” Brown says. “There are hints of Trixter, Danger Danger, Def Leppard, Alice Cooper, Rainbow, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Kiss…” 

And just when it seems that the litany of artists who inspire him might continue for quite some time, Brown catches himself and condenses his thought with uniquely New Jersey flair: “Bro, what can I say? Tokyo Motor Fist is every melodic rock fan’s dream, including mine, and it’s all in one band.”

Nikki Sixx and Sixx:A.M. have shared a new song, Maybe It’s Time, featuring guest spots from Slipknot’s Corey Taylor, Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, Guns N’ Roses electric guitar player Slash, Five Finger Death Punch’s Ivan Moody, Bad Wolves’ Tommy Vext, country singer Brantley Gilbert and AWOLNATION. 

The song, timed to launch with National Recovery Month in September, is part of a music industry-wide initiative to draw attention to the opioid crisis and raise funds to serve the recovery community and save lives.

All artist royalties are being donated to the Global Recovery Initiatives Foundation (GRI) to support those in early recovery, with a matching contribution from SIXX:A.M.’s label, Better Noise Music.

The song was conceived by Sixx, a GRI board member, who said, “I am proud to bring together these artists to help raise funds for the Global Recovery Initiative Foundation. The opioid epidemic did not go away when the pandemic came along. Just the opposite...those in early recovery became even more at risk than before so it's more important now than ever to raise awareness and support them.

“I really believe that united we can make a difference and save lives.”

Maybe It’s Time is also featured on the soundtrack to the upcoming Better Noise Films release Sno Babies. 

Out on video on demand September 29, the film “depicts the grim realities of teenage addiction and its effects on a middle-class suburban town.” Better Noise Films’ share of profits is also being donated to GRI.

You can check out Maybe It’s Time above, and stream or download the track here.

UK five-piece Def Leppard burst out of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal scene in the late '70s and released their debut album, On Through the Night, in 1980. They quickly followed up with 1981’s High ‘n’ Dry. 

By the time the band released their commercial breakthrough, Pyromania, in 1983, founding guitarist Pete Willis had been fired and replaced by Phil Collen.

Hysteria, which followed in 1987, brought the band worldwide commercial success and etched them forever into the annals of rock history. Forty years on, the band are enjoying a busy 2020; projects include the recently released box set, The Early Years 79-81. 

Spanning five discs, it contains remastered editions of On Through the Night and High ‘n’ Dry, a newly unearthed Live at the Oxford New Theatre, recorded on their 1980 UK tour, along with a collection of B-sides, remixes, further live cuts and more. 

We recently caught up with Joe Elliott and Phil Collen to discuss the early years of the band.

The new box set includes an unreleased and much rawer-sounding version of Rock Brigade, originally produced by Nick Tauber. Why wasn’t it ever released?

Joe Elliott: "It was raw in the wrong sense, as to us it sounded flat. It was literally recorded live, but we overdubbed the guitar solo, the lead and backing vocals in a day or two.

"We did four songs, Wasted, Rock Brigade, Hello America and Glad I’m Alive. Nick had worked with, oddly enough, a bunch of pop bands previously where he did add a lot of energy to it, and he had also done Whiskey in a Jar by Thin Lizzy, which was the only thing we were aware of at the time that he had done. 

"It’s great to say it had a rawness, but it just wasn’t well-produced rawness. It sounded weedy. If you listen to the guitar sound on Wasted, it literally sounds like the might of an acoustic! And that wasn’t who we were. We didn’t fight for our corner hard enough during those early sessions. 

"When we later got into the studio with [producer] Tom Allom, one of the few things we said to him was, 'Don’t make us sound weedy.' In comparison to the single that Nick did, some people may argue that On Through the Night is over-produced. 

"But down the road people will then say it’s completely raw compared to Hysteria or something like that. Now with hindsight, I’ve no issues at all with it being released because it is a historical document now, so people can agree with what I’ve just said - or disagree."

How did the songwriting process work with Steve [Clark] and Pete? Did they come up with riffs that later evolved into songs, or was it more of a collaborative band effort?

Elliott: "We had a rehearsal room in Sheffield and one of them would walk in and say, 'I have this idea' and would play us a riff. We’d listen and then we’d jam it out, flesh the thing out. Like, for example, Answer to the Master - there was this guitar lick run that Pete came up with, and that was all he had.

"But I couldn’t sing over that, so we put together this four-chord, like, turnaround for the verse where I could sing over and then it went back to that bit that Pete came in with, which is the chorus, and I just sung the title over the lick. So whoever came in with an idea, we’d turn it into a song. 

"I don’t think we rejected many songs. Steve came in with Wasted and it was pretty much finished musically. I just had to come up with the words and we had a song written in an hour."

Steve and Pete were two very different guitarists stylistically, yet at the same time they seemed to perfectly complement each other.

Elliott: "Pete was very schooled and very stoic. His two big heroes were Pat Travers and Michael Schenker; Travers more for the rhythm, songs and riffs and Schenker more for the guitar solos and the style of them. He wasn’t really into the stuff that Steve was into.

"Steve was into Jimmy Page, who was a little more sloppy than the German guitar player, but Steve was extremely artistic in his approach and his songwriting was to die for. He was also into a guitarist called Zal Cleminson from the Sensational Alex Harvey Band and also Alex Lifeson from Rush. 

"And both Steve and Pete were big fans of Brian May. Steve was also massively into Brian Robertson but more for the image - the wah pedal, the tight jeans and the perm. Steve just totally ripped that off . But he did like Robertson’s playing too and it did leak into Steve’s playing."

Phil Collen: "Steve’s stuff in particular was a bit more unique. He was a very unique player; I don’t think he gets enough credit for the stuff he was doing. Most guitar players follow a pattern. Even with shredders like Yngwie and the like, there’s a pattern and a thread to their playing. But every now and then you get someone who just does things differently where they’ll bring a different kind of flavor to it. That was Steve"

"Pete was a really good player, but it was more of a standard approach like Pat Travers. He’d bring in all this kind of stuff , but you’d have heard it before. It was just an interpretation of it."

That contrast in styles and technique worked tremendously well.

Collen: "There was definitely a dynamic between the two of them. I had first met the guys when I went down to the band’s rehearsals when they were doing the High ‘n’ Dry album. Later, when I first joined the band it was just to play solos. 

"Mutt Lange [producer] asked me to play lead guitar. The beds had already been recorded and a lot of the cool rhythm stuff was actually Pete, but Steve had written a lot of it. 

"So you had this kind of dual thing going on where Pete was this amazing rhythm player and Steve was this great ideas man."

Do you remember much about the gear they used on those first two albums?

Elliott: "I know that Steve had a 2x12 Marshall combo [amp]while Pete had a Hiwatt at first, then a 4x12. When we got to do On Through the Night, I don’t remember exactly what amps they used. Right up to when we signed the record deal, everybody was still on the same guitars. Steve used to play an Ibanez Les Paul copy and Pete had this green thing that he had made by some guy. 

"It was typical of Pete as he wanted something that was just non-standard. He had to have his own thing. He wasn’t just going to pick up a Strat. He wanted something a bit more unique. 

"Pete also had a Les Paul Junior and an SG. By the time we had gone into the studio to do High ‘n’ Dry there would have been Marshalls because Mutt would have had a lot to say about that."

Mutt played a major role in helping to shape the band’s sound and identity.

Elliott: "Mutt had in-house amps at the studio that he’d used with AC/DC and City Boy and every other act he had produced at that studio. He was comfortable with that amp. He would twiddle with the dials and filter out some of the distortion. He’d make it more powerful by taking the distortion away because the natural sound was coming through it rather than with a pedal. 

"Mutt had this great trick that he used not for the guitars but for the drums. He did it with Rick on High ‘n’ Dry and he did it with Phil Rudd on all three of the AC/DC albums he produced. 

"He’d record the drums and then he would put a PA into the big room and he’d play the drums back through the PA and then mic up the PA and re-record the drums back onto the multi-track. When you’re hearing the beginning of For Those About to Rock, for example, that sound is pretty impossible to achieve by just putting a microphone on a drum. 

"There was a lot of work that went into that sound, just as a lot of work went into the guitar sound."

Collen: "Credit must go to Mutt because he was constantly pushing everyone. The first Def Leppard album was really cool, and it had real promise. The second one was a step up, but it was still discovering its sound. 

"I think with Pyromania it had a different sound you never really heard before. It didn’t sound like anyone else. Whereas bits of High ‘n’ Dry would kind of be reminiscent of AC/DC and even to me, early Aerosmith. When I first heard Bringin’ on the Heartbreak, it kind of reminded me stylistically of Dream On by Aerosmith."

Sticking an instrumental track, Switch 625, on High ‘n’ Dry was a very unusual thing to do at the time.

Elliott: "Initially Mutt wanted me to write some lyrics, but I said that was crazy because it didn’t need anything else. It was a fantastic piece of music without me on it. It had so much going on that, what was I going to do over it except maybe clutter it up? 

"I suggested we should drop it on the end of Bringin’ on the Heartbreak and turn it into something like Layla where it is this long song and then it’s got this instrumental section at the end of it."

So, is there a new Def Leppard album in the works?

Collen: "We will be doing a new record. I’ve been recording loads of stuff over the last two years as have Joe and Sav, and we will meet up in Dublin before we start rehearsing... to see if we can get the thing on the go."

There are a lot of things to think about when it comes to guitar – your axe, your amp, your pedals, and so on. But do you ever think about the chair you’re sitting in while you practice or play?

Def Leppard electric guitar player Phil Collen apparently does, and he’s come out and endorsed the Sonus as his chair of choice.

Touted as ergonomically designed to support musicians for the "ultimate guitar playing experience", the Sonus has a low back that allows arms and shoulders “the freedom to move while the forward pitch of the seat enables better breathing and healthy circulation.”

“This chair is incredible. It’s stunningly gorgeous and really comfortable. I use it where I do all of my recording, so I’m there for quite long periods,” said Collen.

“You really do forget you’re sitting on a wooden chair. It’s hard to describe the comfort."

The Sonus, developed by chairmaker Brian Boggs in 2010, is constructed from premium wood as well as sustainably-sourced Honduran mahogany.

“I feel honored to have a member of rock ‘n’ roll royalty endorse the Sonus chair on the tenth anniversary of its existence,” Boggs said about Collen.

For more information, head to Brian Boggs Chairmakers.

Vivian Campbell is one of the world's top-tier players who deals in effervescent shred while still knowing how to put a riff together, and it is only fitting that his signature guitar is pretty darn special.

The Vivian Campbell Les Paul Custom is based on a heavily modded LP that Campbell was playing with Def Leppard, but all roads have led him here. His first guitar was a Les Paul, and while he might have flirted with hot-rodded S-styles in the late '80s – like we all did – it wasn't long before he was back with the classic singlecut in hand.

With Def Leppard's box set, The Early Years 79-81, newly released and in record stores now, we got Campbell to tell us the story behind a unique Les Paul.

The genesis of the Vivian Campbell Les Paul

"My first guitar was a Les Paul, when I was 15. In the 80s I played Charvel/Jackson S-types, but came back full circle to Les Pauls just after joining Def Leppard in 1992. For a long time, Gibson wouldn’t even return my calls. Eventually I got a call from Philip Whorton who runs the Gibson Custom Shop in Nashville, asking if I’d be interested in working on a signature model. I said, ‘Absolutely!’ I’m really pleasedwith it. I had the first one at the end of our 2017 tour, and Gibson released it at the Vegas Consumer Electronics Show.

The neck

"We based the guitar on the bastardised Les Paul I was playing with Def Leppard at the time. It had a slim neck from a 1978 Les Paul Custom I’d bought in a Nashville pawn shop for $400, and this one’s very similar. All my Les Pauls have these jumbo Dunlop frets. I cannot bend with little skinny frets, they have to be big and wide. I bend aggressively in solos, and put a lot of vibrato on chords."

The body

"The body is lightweight mahogany. I like light Les Pauls; I’ve had two back surgeries so I do need to be careful! And how’s this for a coincidence: I told Philip I wanted a dark, charcoal-like, translucent finish where you can see the wood grain. He came back with this colour called Antrim Basalt Burst, after the basalt rocks of the Giants Causeway on the North Antrim coast, and I was actually raised in County Antrim. That was a nice bit of serendipity…"

The pickups

"In the mid-90s we were still using wedge monitors on stage, so the guitars were at a hefty volume and would feedback a lot. My guitar tech and I stole some DiMarzio HS-3 pickups off [Leppard co-guitarist] Phil Collen’s guitar tech and put one in the bridge position of my guitar! I got used to the tonality, so that’s what’s in the bridge here, with a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the neck."

The hardware

"TonePros make really good, professional grade, tour-worthy hardware, and I’ve found over the years that I need that. My two heroes are Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore, who were both physical players with a really heavy right hand. In LA in the 80s there were all these great technical players who played like butterflies, barely touching the strings, whereas I was trying to kill the thing! 

"I’ve learned over the years that you have to embrace your idiosyncrasies – your shortcomings sometimes define your style and make you unique. A fixed-bridge instrument fits my aggressive playing style."

The secret weapon

"As on all my Les Pauls, the volume control for the bridge pickup is a speed knob, and the other three are top hats. Before in-ear monitors I’d have to shut off the volume with my right hand pinky on staccato parts, like the chorus of Pour Some Sugar On Me, to prevent feedback. I don’t need to do that any more, but I thought it was a nice, quirky touch. Somebody has since pointed out to me that Gary Moore did that too, I had no idea!"

• Looking for a Vivian Campbell Les Paul? The Custom model might be hard to find but the ltd edition Epiphone Holy Diver Outfit Les Paul is based on the LP he used with Dio. It has a pair of DiMarzio X2N humbuckers and it wails!

DiMarzio has announced the Sugar Chakra DP427 pickup, developed for Def Leppard’s Phil Collen.

A DiMarzio user for more than 40 years, Collen desired a single-coil-sized pickup that retains clarity, but packs the weight and attack of a full-sized humbucker,

The Sugar Chakra is intended as a bridge position pickup, and boasts ceramic magnets and four conductor wiring. DiMarzio describes it as a “thick, creamy pickup with crunchy mids, designed to feel like a full-sized humbucker in single-coil form. The top end is smooth with mids that bite just enough to cut through the mix.”

“It’s just really clear and precise but it’s got all the balls and the fire power,” said Collen, who road-tested the Sugar Chakra on the G3 tour with Joe Satriani and John Petrucci. “It’s gonna be awesome as a new addition to the DiMarzio family.”

The Sugar Chakra is available for $95.99 at DiMarzio.com.

Blackstar has announced the Fly 3 Def Leppard, the newest addition to its FLY 3 series of lightweight 3-watt mini amps. The new model boasts the iconic artwork from the cover of Def Leppard’s 1987 smash album Hysteria as the face of the grille, as well as a customized Def Leppard panel and full color collector’s gift carton. 

Features of the Fly 3 Def Leppard include Bluetooth connectivity with ground-breaking sound design, as well as Blackstar’s patented ISF and clean and overdrive channels. Like all Fly 3 models, the Def Leppard is battery- or DC-powered.

“This was Blackstar’s first artist series licensed product and who better than iconic British rock band, Def Leppard?," said Brian Piccolo, Director of Guitar Brands at KORG USA Inc. "Phil Collen has been known to use the ID Core series, so this was a perfect pick to customize the FLY 3 amp."

The Fly 3 Def Leppard will be available in June for $99.99. For more information, head to Blackstar Amps.

Besides playing on Dio’s classic early to mid-Eighties albums and being a full-fledged member of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-bound Def Leppard since 1992, this constantly in-demand six-stringer enjoyed stints with Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake. Last in Line, the band he founded with his former Dio bandmates, just released a second album, II. But what Guitar World readers really want to know is...

I’ve heard you’re a huge Gary Moore fan. What was it like filling his shoes in Thin Lizzy? —Bill Engelhard

Gary Moore is my absolute guitar hero. So when Scott Gorham called and asked if I could be a stunt guitar player for Thin Lizzy in 2010, I can’t even put into words how excited I was. Just to be on stage with Scott and Brian Downey and playing the songs of my youth was so exciting. It really ignited the passion I had when I was 17 and the aggressive, angry rock guitar I started out on. I came off that tour and called Jimmy and Vinny and said let’s go into a rehearsal room and play! That’s where the Last in Line band was born.

What originally inspired you to go back to your Dio roots and regroup with drummer Vinny Appice and bassist Jimmy Bain for Last in Line? —Toyja Copeland

It actually came out of a jam with Jimmy, Vinny and me. Then Vinny introduced us to [singer/guitarist] Andy [Freeman]. I thought it’d be fun to go out and play the early Dio stuff in clubs around L.A. All of a sudden we were playing in Europe and Japan. Then the label asked if we’d be interested in doing an album and the three of us sat down and recorded Heavy Crown [2016]. Now here we are with our second album of original music [2019’s II]. It’s become something more than just an offshoot bunch of ex-Dio guys playing Dio songs. It’s a serious side project and something I care about deeply.

How does II relate to the band’s work on Heavy Crown? —Scott Matthews

We lost Jimmy a month before the release of Heavy Crown, and it was a real blow to us. Based on the reaction to the record and how much it meant to Jimmy and the rest of us, we made the decision to carry on and were very fortunate to get Phil [Soussan]. He’s a great fit and the band has grown. It’s part of the reason I wanted to call the album II. It’s the second album and a second beginning. The band has developed and the songwriting is more intricate, involved and ambitious.

I love your tone on the first Last in Line album and the new single, “Landslide.” What did you use in the studio? —Ryan M. Dale

I used Engl Ritchie Blackmore heads for all the solos on both records. When we tracked, I cut the first rhythm with the Engl as clean as I could. Then I went back and did a second rhythm with a different amp. Jeff [Pilson] has an amp called a Naked [by Friedman Amps], which is a custom-made boutique amp that I believe is based on an early Marshall JTM45. I’m always using my Les Pauls, primarily my Dio-era Les Paul that I did the Holy Diver album with. That and my other Les Paul, which is the Custom Shop model that came out last year.

How does it feel being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? —Michael Frey

I’m flattered, as indeed are the other guys [in Def Leppard], that we’ve gotten this level of recognition. Last year really saw us cross the generational divide. Thirty to 40 percent of the audience was young enough to be our children. That’s exciting. We’re a band that thrives on audience participation. The more energy an audience gives us, the more we give back.

In your opinion, what makes Def Leppard so timeless? —John Verilli

There’s always been a certain quality to Leppard’s music, and I can say that having been in a few bands prior. When I joined the band, the first thing that was immediately apparent was the discipline and work ethic. Everything from songwriting and recording to rehearsing and live performance. Our vocals are incredibly strong and 100 percent live. We take incredible pride in our ability to do that.

One of your first gigs with Def Leppard was the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in April 1992. What do you remember about it? —Johnny G

My most enduring memory was looking to my left and being very aware that for Joe [Elliott], Phil [Collen], Rick [Allen] and Sav [Rick Savage] it was their first time on a major stage with someone other than Steve [Clark, who died in 1991]. I was very conscious of what they might have been feeling. The other thing I remember was Brian May coming up and playing “Now I’m Here,” which was another major highlight.

How do you warm up before a show? —Chris Pearce

I’m a very heavy player with my right hand so I like to warm up my right as opposed to my left. For years I was more focused on the fingers on my left hand and playing faster. I’ve come to learn that the left hand will follow. It’s more about having the appropriate touch with the right.

What’s your favorite Def Leppard song to perform live? —Sydney McGuire

I always like the deeper Steve Clark cuts like “Too Late for Love” or “Gods of War.” We don’t get to do them very often because we have the lovely problem of having so many radio hits people want to hear. It doesn’t leave us a lot of opportunities to stretch out, but when we do it’s always exiting.

What’s the most embarrassing thing that’s happened to you on stage? —Hannah Mueller

As anyone who’s done this for as long as I have will tell you, it’s when you’re up on stage and suddenly fall off. It’s happened to me on several occasions. I’m just thankful it hasn’t happened in the era of cell phones and YouTube [laughs]. All of my mishaps happened back in the Eighties.

Is there one special venue where you really love to perform? —Robb King

There are a few cities that have great energy, regardless of the venue. Montreal has always been a personal favorite in terms of the energy of the audience. I’m not sure why and it’s not just with Def Leppard. I played there with Dio and even during my brief stint with Thin Lizzy. Def Leppard also played in Buenos Aires in 2017, and it was probably the most rabid audience I’ve ever encountered. The energy off that audience was breathtaking.

What was your live sound setup for the studio recordings on Holy Diver and live Dio concerts? —Dale Paterson

The first Dio album was written and recorded with my wine red Les Paul Deluxe that I bought when I was 15, and a JCM800. When we did the tour I used the JCM800 through Marshall 4x12’s and a little pedal and EQ to kick in for solos and to boost the mids.

Do you still have that custom-sprayed Charvel you played on the Last in Line tour — and can I have it if you don’t want it anymore? —Darren of York

I do still have it. It’s the best-sounding Charvel I’ve ever had. I did strip the paint off it many years ago because it started to crack. It’s been down to the bare wood ever since.

Given the supposed rift between you and Ronnie James Dio, how did his death impact you? —Michele Quinn

Time changes everything and allows you to have a very different perspective. I must admit it’s irksome that all these years later people still think I left the band. I never wanted to leave Dio. I was fired during the middle of the tour. It left a bad taste in my mouth and turned me away from the music. Then in later years Ronnie and I made the mistake of airing our dirty laundry. We should’ve never allowed things to get to that point. It was only after my stint with Thin Lizzy that my passion to play angry, aggressive rock guitar was reignited. Ronnie’s passing allowed me to look at things differently and reassess. That was the whole reason I started Last in Line. I got into playing that stuff again and thought, “Fuck, not only was this great fun to play but I helped create it.” It’s my heritage as much as it was Ronnie, Jimmy and Vinny’s. For many years I allowed myself to believe it wasn’t because I kept it at arm’s length. Now I embrace it.

I’d love to know how your cancer treatment is going. I’m always praying for you and love that you do a side gig to keep your energy going. —Jennifer Cortright

It’s difficult with touring, but I’ve been doing immunotherapy for the last three-and-a-half years. Even when it was at its worst it was the least of my concerns. I’m stubborn and Irish and refuse to capitulate to cancer. I’ve never been so busy and fill every day with work. It makes me happy and my body responds to it. I believe that’s helped me survive it.

How do you approach composing solos? —Derrick Dixon

I never used to construct them at all until quite recently and the reason for that is because the very first solo I ever recorded with Dio was “Rainbow in the Dark.” The solo that’s on that track is the very first take. That imbued me with a false sense of security that as long as I was warmed up and up to speed I could just make it up on the spot. Over the years I’ve come to learn that sometimes it can work and other times it’s like pulling teeth. It wasn’t until recently that I gave myself a pass and decided to sit down and construct something first. That’s how I approached solos on the Last in Line albums. A solo is not just a bunch of notes. It has to follow an expression and a path, and it’s a lot easier to do when I have it worked out. Then it’s just a matter of catching the best performance.

Do you have any tips or suggestions for anyone who’s learning to play guitar? —Sydney McGuire

There are two things I’d tell any aspiring musician. First, find your voice. No two players will ever sound or play alike. Learn to embrace whatever it is that makes you unique and build upon it. The second thing is to work on your personality. When you’re in a band you spend most of the day either in a van, tour bus, airplane or dressing room with your bandmates. You have to interact with people and can’t be an asshole. You can be the greatest guitar player in the world, but if you’re a dickhead no one is going to want to work with you. The most important thing in life is human interaction and how to work with people.

Guitar World recently introduced readers to Mike Squires, a New York-based musician who, among other projects, plays guitar in Duff McKagan’s Loaded. When he’s not doing that, he still likes to grab an instrument and jam—and the place he most likes to do it is the couch in his Brooklyn apartment. Over the past several months, he’s also invited other musicians, from Testament’s Alex Skolnick to half of Buckcherry to McKagan himself—to come and play along with him.

Most recently, he put Def Leppard’s Vivian Campbell in the hot seat, and together they ran through ZZ Top’s “Cheap Sunglasses,” with Campbell on guitar and vocals and Squires holding down the bottom end. You can check out the performance in the video above.

In addition to the jam session, Campbell and Squires talked gear—including the heavily modified Les Paul Deluxe Campbell acquired when he was 15 and has played with every band he’s been in since, including Sweet Savage, Dio and Def Leppard, as well as here on Squires’ couch.

“There’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears in this fretboard,” Campbell says of the guitar.

“I wanna play it so bad,” comments Squires.

For more couch riffs, head here or go to CouchRiffs.com, or check out the podcast.

Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen recently sat down with Jackson to show off his newest collaboration with the company, the USA Signature Limited Edition Phil Collen PC1 Claro Walnut model. You can check out the video, in which Collen points out some of the new guitar’s unique specs, above.

The new PC1 boasts a caramelized mahogany body with a claro walnut top and bolt-on two-piece quartersawn caramelized flame maple neck with graphite reinforcement, a scarf joint, a hand-rubbed urethane finish on the back and a heel-mount truss rod adjustment wheel. There’s also a compound radius caramelized maple fingerboard with rolled edges and 24 jumbo stainless steel frets.

The S/S/S configuration features a custom DiMarzio DP427 bridge pickup, which Collen calls “super-powered,” and a custom DiMarzio Fast Track 1 middle pickup. There’s also a PC1 Sustainer Driver neck pickup for infinite sustain. Additionally, there’s a Floyd Rose Original double-locking tremolo bridge with titanium saddles and Jackson sealed die-cast tuners.

For more information on the USA Signature Limited Edition Phil Collen PC1 Claro Walnut, which has an MSRP of $8,163.25, head over to JacksonGuitars.com.

Def Leppard have announced a new Las Vegas residency, kicking off August 14 at the Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. Dubbed “Def Leppard Hits Vegas: The Sin City Residency,” the run will be the band’s second stint in the city.

Said Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott, “Five years ago, we played our first-ever residency in Las Vegas which was relatively new ground for a rock band giving this kind of experience...I have to say, we really enjoyed it! Being in one place for the best part of a month is vastly different to our normal city to city touring routine. Breaking this cycle adds another element to the experience for both us and the audience. We look forward to seeing you at the Zappos Theater this summer!”

The 12 performance dates are: August 14, 16, 17, 20, 23, 24, 29 and 31; and September 1, 4, 6 and 7.

Tickets go on sale to the public Friday, Feb. 22 at 10 a.m. PT.

General ticket prices begin at $69, plus applicable tax and fees, and may be purchased online at ticketmaster.com/defleppard or in-person at the Planet Hollywood box office.

For more information, head to DefLeppard.com.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced its 2019 class of inductees. The artists who will enter the Cleveland institution are: Def Leppard, Radiohead, the Cure, Janet Jackson, Roxy Music, Stevie Nicks and the Zombies.

Earlier this week, it was announced that Def Leppard had also won the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame fan vote, with 547,647 votes.

In addition to Def Leppard’s current lineup—singer Joe Elliott, guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell, bassist Rick Savage and drummer Rick Allen—former guitarists Steve Clark, who passed away in 1991, and Pete Willis, who contributed songwriting and performed on the band’s first two albums, as well as much of 1983’s breakthrough Pyromania, will also be inducted.

Asked by Rolling Stone about Willis, Joe Elliott said: “I haven’t seen Pete in 14 years. I don’t know if he’s aware yet. We’re going to reach out to him over the next day or two now that the dust has settled and we’ll see if he wants to come.

Regarding whether the former guitarist might come up and play with Def Leppard, he continued: “I haven’t thought about that, but I don’t think we’ll be playing anything from that far back. But being there is part of the thing. Pete has kind of moved away from this kind of stuff, so he might just be a little reluctant to come along. The truth is that it’s obviously right that he gets in and he gets his statue, or however it works, but the success of the band was mostly to do with everyone else. I think that anybody would rightly say that the reason we got nominated is more likely to be because of the work we did after Pete left.”

Elliott also added that the band was happy to get the nod. "Now we can stop holding our breath and go, ‘Great! How wonderful to be in the same club as the Rolling Stones and the Beatles and the Who and Queen and etc., etc.,’ ” he said. “It’s nice. It’s a good club to be in.”

Other artists who have commented on their inductions include Zombies singer Colin Blunstone, who told Rolling Stone, “This is a career-defining [and] life-defining moment.”

Said Stevie Nicks—who will be the first woman to enter the Hall two times (she was inducted with Fleetwood Mac in 1998)—in a statement, “I have a lot to say about this, but I will save those words for later. For now I will just say, I have been in a band since 1968. To be recognized for my solo work makes me take a deep breath and smile. It’s a glorious feeling.”

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on March 29, with an edited version set for broadcast at a later date on HBO and SiriusXM radio.

Phil Collen went backstage during a stop on the 2018 Def Leppard / Journey tour to give a video run-through of his Jackson guitars.

In the clip above, Collen tells the story behind everything from his 1986 silver crackle Soloist—“it’s in the ‘Women’ video and I played it on the record with ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me,’” he says—to the newer X-Stroyer and his PC-1 signature models.

Check out the video for more Collen guitars.

As previously reported, Def Leppard were recently nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The band have shared a new holiday-themed single, an acoustic ballad titled "We All Need Christmas,” as well as announced two new releases for November 30. 

The first, The Story So Far—The Best Of, will be offered in multiple configurations, is available for pre-order here.

Additionally, on the same day Def Leppard will release Hysteria: The Singles, a limited-edition, 10-disc vinyl box set featuring all of the seven-inch singles from their 1987 smash, Hysteria. It can be pre-ordered here.

For more information, head over to DefLeppard.com.

Recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees Def Leppard have shared a new holiday-themed single, an acoustic ballad titled "We All Need Christmas.” The band is also announcing two new releases for November 30. 

The first, The Story So Far—The Best Of, will be offered in multiple configurations, is available for pre-order here.

Additionally, on the same day Def Leppard will release Hysteria: The Singles, a limited-edition, 10-disc vinyl box set featuring all of the seven-inch singles from their 1987 smash, Hysteria. It can be pre-ordered here.

Check out The Story So Far—The Best Of and Hysteria: The Singles track lists below.

The Story So Far—The Best Of track list:

Disc 1:

01. Animal

02. Photograph

03. Pour Some Sugar On Me

04. Love Bites

05. Let's Get Rocked

06. Armaggedon It

07. Foolin'

08. Two Steps Behind

09. Heaven Is

10. Rocket

11. Hysteria

12. Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad

13. Make Love Like A Man

14. Action

15. When Love & Hate Collide

16. Rock of Ages

17. Personal Jesus 

Disc 2:

01. Let's Go

02. Promises

03. Slang

04. Bringin' On The Heartbreak

05. Rock On (Radio Remix)

06. Nine Lives (feat. Tim McGraw)

07. Work It Out

08. Stand Up

09. Dangerous

10. Now

11. Undefeated

12. Tonight

13. C'Mon C'Mon

14. Man Enough

15. No Matter What

16. All I Want Is Everything

17. It's All About Believing

18. Kings Of The World

Hysteria: The Singles track list:

Disc One: Women / Tear It Down (U.S. Version)

Disc Two: Animal / I Wanna Be Your Hero (U.S. Version)

Disc Three: Hysteria / Ride in To the Sun (International Version)

Disc Four: Pour Some Sugar on Me / Ring of Fire (U.S. Version)

Disc Five: Love Bites / Billy's Got A Gun (Live) (International Version)

Disc Six: Armageddon It / Release Me (Canadian Version)

Disc Seven: Rocket / Woman (Live) (U.S. Version)

Disc Eight: Excitable / Run Riot (Album Version)

Disc Nine: Love and Affection / Don't Shoot Shotgun (Album Version)

Disc Ten: Animal / Tear It Down (Spanish Artwork Version)

The nominees for the 2019 class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame have been announced, and the artist list includes Def Leppard, Rage Against the Machine, MC5, Radiohead, the Cure, Todd Rundgren, John Prine and more.

Others potential Hall of Famers on the ballot are LL Cool J, Kraftwek, Devo, Janet Jackson, Stevie Nicks, the Zombies, Rufus featuring Chaka Khan and Kraftwerk.

On the Rock Hall website, Def Leppard’s current lineup is listed along with former guitarists Steve Clark and Pete Willis.

The top vote-getters will be announced in December and inducted March 29, 2019 at a ceremony at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The event will be broadcast on HBO later next year.

In order to be eligible for this year's ballot, artists or bands need to have released their first single or album in 1993 or earlier. Six of the nominees are on the ballot for the first time, including Def Leppard, Prine, Roxy Music, Devo, Nicks and Rundgren.

A voting pool of more than 1,000 artists, historians, journalists and members of the music industry will select the new class, and fans can vote at RockHall.com or by visiting the museum in Cleveland and making a selection at an interactive kiosk.

Last year's inductees included Bon Jovi, the Cars and Dire Straits.

Journey and Def Leppard have been on a co-headlining trek all summer, and the second leg of the outing, which spanned from July 1 to July 28 and reported 17 shows, has now topped Billboard’s Hot Tours list.

According to Billboard, in the reported period the tour grossed $30,384,259, with the two bands playing in venues ranging from 8,500-seat arenas to 45,000-capacity baseball parks. The largest show was a sold-out date at Denver’s Coors Field on July 21.

Earlier this year Journey guitarist Neal Schon spoke to Guitar World about his formative days playing guitar, and how he got into the blues. Neal recalled:

“My dad bought me my first record, which was The Beatles' Rubber Soul, and I was already listening to them on the radio, amongst everything else that was on the radio. There wasn't a lot that I was really digging. My mom was always playing and singing too, they were always playing jazz around the house. It was either Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Miles [Davis], all those old greats. I started listening to Wes Montgomery, Larry Coryell, John McLaughlin. All of the sudden, I was playing blues and really understood it and got deep in it.

“I loved Michael Bloomfield from the Bay Area here, as well as B.B. [King], who I met with Elvin Bishop. That was my first big show, at the Fillmore West. I had been playing with Elvis Bishop for about a year at the old Keystone Korner in San Francisco. One night he goes, "You know, I'm going to take you for a treat tonight and we're going to go to Fillmore West. We're going to jam with B.B., I'm going to introduce you to B.B." Bill Graham was there, I met Bill Graham that night.

“All of the sudden, I'm up on-stage, looking out, and B.B.'s on the right, and it comes time when he goes, 'Let's see what this little sucker has.' (laughs) I had studied him, you know? His vibrato, his choice of notes, and he'd play a riff instead of [something else). A lot of guitarists try to upstage, and it really comes off as kind of stupid. I said, 'I'm going to pay due respect to him. When he plays me a riff, I'm gonna play it back and add a little something.' He had a big smile on his face and it went back and forth for about five minutes. We remained friends after that, and the same with Albert King after that. I played with Buddy Guy in Chicago at his old club, with Junior Wells, and a host of other blues artists.”

The Journey/Def Leppard tour continues tonight in San Antonio, Texas, and wraps in L.A. on October 6. For the full remaining itinerary, see below.

8/31 – San Antonio, TX, AT&T Center
9/1 – Houston, TX, Toyota Center
9/5 – Albuquerque, NM, Isleta Amphitheater
9/7 – Phoenix, AZ, Talking Stick Resort Arena
9/8 – Las Vegas, NV, T-Mobile Arena
9/21 – San Francisco, CA, AT&T Park
9/23 – San Diego, CA, Petco Park
9/25 – Salt Lake City, UT, Vivint Smart Home Arena
9/26 – Nampa, ID, Ford Idaho Center Arena
9/28 – Portland, OR, Moda Center
9/29 – Seattle, WA, Gorge Amphitheatre
10/1 – Vancouver, BC, Rogers Arena
10/4 – Sacramento, CA, Golden 1 Center
10/6 – Los Angeles, CA, The Forum

Last year, Joe Satriani hosted the 2017 G4 Experience—a four-day instructional/performance camp—at Asilomar Center in Pacific Grove, California.

Satch's special guests at the event—which honored the 30th anniversary of his landmark 1987 album, Surfing with the Alien—included Paul Gilbert, Def Leppard's Phil Collen, acoustic master Tommy Emmanuel and Ratt's Warren DeMartini.

Below, be sure to watch our exclusive video of a jam session featuring Satch, Emmanuel and Collen.

It even features Emmanuel on electric guitar (a fine-looking Tele)—a fairly rare sight these days. In the clip, the band tackles a fun I-IV-V blues-rocker in E, and there are plenty of fretwork fireworks to go around. And yes, that's Stu Hamm on bass.

For more information about the G4 Experience, visit G4Experience.com.

Def Leppard have announced Volume One, a box set collecting the band's first four studio albums, plus a disc of rarities and a live set called Live at the LA Forum 1983. The set is the first in a planned four-volume, career-spanning box set series.

In total, Volume One contains the band's first four albums—1980's On Through The Night, 1981's High ’N’ Dry, 1983's Pyromania and their blockbuster 1987 album, Hysteria—in addition to Rarities Volume 1, a compilation of rare B-sides and early recordings hand-selected by frontman Joe Elliot, a live set called Live at the LA Forum 1983 and the band's original, self-titled EP on a three-inch CD.

Every album in the box set was mastered by longtime band producer Ronan McHugh and cut by Greg Moore. It will be available as an 8CD set, or a 7LP, limited edition set. The set will also feature a hardback book with rare photos of the group.

Volume One will be available June 1 via Bludgeon Riffola/Mercury/UMe. You can preorder it right here.

Def Leppard are set to embark on a massive, co-headlining tour with Journey in May. You can see a full list of dates below.

Journey / Def Leppard 2018 Tour Dates
5/21 – Hartford, CT, XL Center
5/23 – Albany, NY, Times Union Center
5/25 – Hershey, PA, Hersheypark Stadium
5/26 – Buffalo, NY, KeyBank Center
5/28 – Cleveland, OH, Quicken Loans Arena
5/30 – Cincinnati, OH, U.S. Bank Arena
6/1 – Toronto, ON, Rogers Centre
6/2 – Pittsburgh, PA, PPG Paints Arena
6/5 – Raleigh, NC, PNC Arena
6/6 – Knoxville, TN, Thompson-Boling Arena
6/8 – Bristow, VA, Jiffy Lube Live
6/9 – Charlotte, NC, Spectrum Center
6/11 – Philadelphia, PA, Wells Fargo Center
6/13 – New York, NY, Madison Square Garden
6/15 – Newark, NJ, Prudential Center
6/16 – Baltimore, MD, Royal Farms Arena
7/1 – Atlanta, GA, SunTrust Park
7/3 – Noblesville, IN, Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center
7/4 – Milwaukee, WI, Summerfest
7/6 – Memphis, TN, FedExForum
7/7 – North Little Rock, AR, Verizon Arena
7/9 – Tulsa, OK, BOK Center
7/11 – Louisville, KY, KFC Yum! Center
7/13 – Detroit, MI, Comerica Park
7/14 – Chicago, IL, Wrigley Field
7/16 – Wichita, KS, INTRUST Bank Arena
7/18 – Sioux Falls, SD, Denny Sanford PREMIER Center
7/19 – Lincoln, NE, Pinnacle Bank Arena
7/21 – Denver, CO, Coors Field
7/23 – Des Moines, IA, Wells Fargo Arena
7/25 – Kansas City, MO, Sprint Center
7/27 – Minneapolis, MN, Target Field
7/28 – Fargo, ND, Fargodome
8/11 – Boston, MA, Fenway Park
8/13 – Virginia Beach, VA, Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater
8/15 – Columbia, SC, Colonial Life Arena
8/17 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL, BB&T Center
8/18 – Tampa, FL, Amalie Arena
8/20 – Birmingham, AL, Legacy Arena @ The BJCC
8/22 – Columbus, OH, Schottenstein Center
8/24 – St. Louis, MO, Busch Stadium
8/25 – Nashville, TN, Bridgestone Arena
8/27 – New Orleans, LA, Smoothie King Center
8/29 – Dallas, TX, American Airlines Center
8/31 – San Antonio, TX, AT&T Center
9/1 – Houston, TX, Toyota Center
9/5 – Albuquerque, NM, Isleta Amphitheater
9/7 – Phoenix, AZ, Talking Stick Resort Arena
9/8 – Las Vegas, NV, T-Mobile Arena
9/21 – San Francisco, CA, AT&T Park
9/23 – San Diego, CA, Petco Park
9/25 – Salt Lake City, UT, Vivint Smart Home Arena
9/26 – Nampa, ID, Ford Idaho Center Arena
9/28 – Portland, OR, Moda Center
9/29 – Seattle, WA, Gorge Amphitheatre
10/1 – Vancouver, BC, Rogers Arena
10/4 – Sacramento, CA, Golden 1 Center
10/6 – Los Angeles, CA, The Forum

Gibson has introduced its newest custom model, the Vivian Campbell Les Paul Custom.

The new model for the Def Leppard/Dio guitarist features a Seventies neck profile, passive high-output humbuckers, satin chrome parts, Les Paul Custom "tuxedo" appointments and a rubbed-patina black-and-grey color scheme inspired by the coastal rock formations of Campbell's hometown in Northern Ireland.

The guitar is made up of a two-piece figured maple top, lightweight solid mahogany body with a nitrocellulose lacquer finish, 22 jumbo Dunlop 6100 frets and pearl block inlays. It comes with Kidney Grover tuning machines, Dimarzio neck and bridge pickups and a Custom Shop case.

The Vivian Campbell Les Paul Custom is available now for $5,999. You can watch Campbell demo and discuss the guitar below.

For more info, head on over to gibson.com.

Journey and Def Leppard have confirmed the news they have been teasing for quite a while now: they're going on tour together. And, by the looks of it, it's gonna be epic.

The two bands will split headlining duties evenly across the 58-city tour, which will run from May 21—when it opens with a show at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut—to October 6, when the tour will close with a show at the Forum in Los Angeles.

The full itinerary, which you can see for yourself below, includes shows at New York's Madison Square Garden and Boston's Fenway Park and touches just about every corner of the U.S., with a couple of stops in Canada.

For tickets and more information, stop by journeymusic.com.

Journey / Def Leppard 2018 Tour Dates
5/21 – Hartford, CT, XL Center
5/23 – Albany, NY, Times Union Center
5/25 – Hershey, PA, Hersheypark Stadium
5/26 – Buffalo, NY, KeyBank Center
5/28 – Cleveland, OH, Quicken Loans Arena
5/30 – Cincinnati, OH, U.S. Bank Arena
6/1 – Toronto, ON, Rogers Centre
6/2 – Pittsburgh, PA, PPG Paints Arena
6/5 – Raleigh, NC, PNC Arena
6/6 – Knoxville, TN, Thompson-Boling Arena
6/8 – Bristow, VA, Jiffy Lube Live
6/9 – Charlotte, NC, Spectrum Center
6/11 – Philadelphia, PA, Wells Fargo Center
6/13 – New York, NY, Madison Square Garden
6/15 – Newark, NJ, Prudential Center
6/16 – Baltimore, MD, Royal Farms Arena
7/1 – Atlanta, GA, SunTrust Park
7/3 – Noblesville, IN, Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center
7/4 – Milwaukee, WI, Summerfest
7/6 – Memphis, TN, FedExForum
7/7 – North Little Rock, AR, Verizon Arena
7/9 – Tulsa, OK, BOK Center
7/11 – Louisville, KY, KFC Yum! Center
7/13 – Detroit, MI, Comerica Park
7/14 – Chicago, IL, Wrigley Field
7/16 – Wichita, KS, INTRUST Bank Arena
7/18 – Sioux Falls, SD, Denny Sanford PREMIER Center
7/19 – Lincoln, NE, Pinnacle Bank Arena
7/21 – Denver, CO, Coors Field
7/23 – Des Moines, IA, Wells Fargo Arena
7/25 – Kansas City, MO, Sprint Center
7/27 – Minneapolis, MN, Target Field
7/28 – Fargo, ND, Fargodome
8/11 – Boston, MA, Fenway Park
8/13 – Virginia Beach, VA, Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater
8/15 – Columbia, SC, Colonial Life Arena
8/17 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL, BB&T Center
8/18 – Tampa, FL, Amalie Arena
8/20 – Birmingham, AL, Legacy Arena @ The BJCC
8/22 – Columbus, OH, Schottenstein Center
8/24 – St. Louis, MO, Busch Stadium
8/25 – Nashville, TN, Bridgestone Arena
8/27 – New Orleans, LA, Smoothie King Center
8/29 – Dallas, TX, American Airlines Center
8/31 – San Antonio, TX, AT&T Center
9/1 – Houston, TX, Toyota Center
9/5 – Albuquerque, NM, Isleta Amphitheater
9/7 – Phoenix, AZ, Talking Stick Resort Arena
9/8 – Las Vegas, NV, T-Mobile Arena
9/21 – San Francisco, CA, AT&T Park
9/23 – San Diego, CA, Petco Park
9/25 – Salt Lake City, UT, Vivint Smart Home Arena
9/26 – Nampa, ID, Ford Idaho Center Arena
9/28 – Portland, OR, Moda Center
9/29 – Seattle, WA, Gorge Amphitheatre
10/1 – Vancouver, BC, Rogers Arena
10/4 – Sacramento, CA, Golden 1 Center
10/6 – Los Angeles, CA, The Forum

Break out your spandex and hairspray, because it’s time to head back to the Eighties. To many, the Eighties was the single most iconic era for rock guitar, as it produced so many legendary players.

In this new lesson video, Robert Baker kicks off the new year like it’s 1986, bringing you five iconic metal riffs for beginners. Rock out to riffs from Dokken, Def Leppard, and even Whitesnake.

You can grab the tabs for the lesson down below.

For more of Robert’s lessons, stop by his YouTube channel.

Back in September, Joe Satriani announced What Happens Next, his 16th studio album.

The following week, we got our first taste of the album when Guitar World premiered its first single, the hard-charging "Energy." Now, Satriani has given us another of the album's singles, with "Thunder High on the Mountain."

Like "Energy" before it, "Thunder High on the Mountain" showcases the raw power of the trio—Satriani, Glenn Hughes on bass and Chad Smith on drums—that recorded What Happens Next.

Satriani saw What Happens Next—before he began recording it—as a chance to move away from the high-concept, sci-fi-influenced themes he's known for.

“I said to Chad [Smith] in an early text, ‘No odd time signatures, no progressive stuff, pure rock and soul,’" Satriani said. "The last two records really showed that I was enjoying playing with progressive elements, and when I reached the end of Shockwave Supernova, I said, ‘I think I’ve done it. For some reason, I don’t feel like going back over that anymore’.”

You can hear "Thunder High on the Mountain" for yourself below.

When Joe Satriani—in addition to announcing his 16th solo album—What Happens Next—announced a G3 Tour featuring John Petrucci and Phil Collen, many (including many a Guitar World reader) scratched their heads at the choice of Collen, best known as the six-string ace for Def Leppard. Satriani recently—when speaking to Eddie Trunk—defended his choice of Collen, calling him a "total virtuoso."

"It's an interesting little thing about musicianship," Satriani said. "There are players that are known for being crazy and outstanding, but maybe you wouldn't want them in a band like AC/DC, or something like that, where you depend on certain rock attitude and performance."

Discussing how dynamics change when a star guitarist is part of a larger ensemble, he added that (referring to his time as the guitarist for Sammy Hagar-fronted Chickenfoot) "You can't go too crazy because you are part of a support team."

Focusing the discussion on Collen, Satriani said "I can tell by my ear that the guy [Collen] is a total virtuoso, but he's holding back because he's in a different kind of band. But when we got on stage during rehearsal at the G4 Experience, I was pleasantly surprised. But in a way I wasn't too surprised because I always knew that behind Def Leppard stuff was a lot more."

"And there it was. He could just go crazy and shred," he said. "We were up there, me, Tommy Emmanuel, and Phil, just making stuff up in front of an audience. And Phil's got that ability to go right to the edge and jump off."

"But he's also got that special something. Maybe it's years, decades, of being in a super stadium playing rock band. He knows how to keep it together and still put on a great show, even while he's trying something he's never done before."

You can watch the full interview, and check out the full itinerary of the upcoming G3 tour, below.

2018 G3 Tour featuring Joe Satriani, John Petrucci & Phil Collen itinerary:

• January 11 The Moore Theatre Seattle, WA
• January 12 Historic Elsinore Theatre Salem, OR
• January 13 Grand Sierra Theatre Reno, NV
• January 14 Fox Theater Oakland, CA
• January 16 Delta Hall at Eccles Theater Salt Lake City, UT *
• January 17 Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas, NV
• January 18 Mesa Arts Center Mesa, AZ *
• January 19 Orpheum Theatre Los Angeles, CA
• January 20 Balboa Theatre San Diego, CA
• January 21 Fox Tucson Theatre Tucson, AZ *
• January 24 Historic Paramount Theatre Denver, CO
• January 26 The Pavillion at The Toyota Music Factory Irving, TX *
• January 27 Austin City Limits - Moody Theater Austin, TX
• January 28 Hobby Center for the Performing Arts Houston, TX *
• January 30 Hard Rock Live Orlando, FL *
• January 31 Florida Theatre Jacksonville, FL *
• February 1 Pompano Beach Amphitheatre Pompano Beach, FL*
• February 2 Barbara B Mann Performing Arts Hall Fort Myers, FL *
• February 3 Mahaffey Theater St. Petersberg, FL *
• February 6 Raleigh Memorial Auditorium Raleigh, NC
• February 8 Toyota Presents Oakdale Wallingford, CT *
• February 9 Landmark Theatre Syracuse, NY *
• February 10 Palace Theatre Albany, NY *
• February 11 The Palace Theatre Greensburg, PA *
• February 14 Warner Theatre Washington, DC *
• February 15 Orpheum Theatre Boston, MA
• February 16 Beacon Theatre New York, NY *
• February 17 Merriam Theater Philadelphia, PA
• February 18 New Jersey Performing Arts Center Newark, NJ *
• February 20 Auditorium Theatre Rochester, NY *
• February 21 Massey Hall Toronto, ONT
• February 22 Hard Rock Live Northfield, OH
• February 23 Chicago Theatre Chicago, IL *
• February 24 State Theatre Minneapolis, MN
• February 25 Riverside Theater Milwaukee, WI

Joe Satriani is back in the game.

The legendary guitarist has announced his 16th solo album, What Happens Next, and the 2018 iteration of his G3 Tour, which will feature Dream Theater's John Petrucci and Def Leppard's Phil Collen.

What Happens Next was recorded with a remarkable power trio: Satriani on guitar, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple/Black Country Communion) on bass and drummer Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), the latter reuniting with Satriani for the first time since their work in the supergroup Chickenfoot.

For the album, Satriani was once again joined by producer/engineer/mixer Mike Fraser, his frequent collaborator over the last 20 years.

What Happens Next is set for a January 12 release.

The G3 tour—featuring Petrucci and Collen—launches on January 11 in Seattle, WA and continues across the U.S. before winding up on February 25 in Milwaukee, WI.

“I could say that I’m surprised at the durability of G3 and how much it’s grown, but in a way I’m not,” Satriani said of the tour. “I think part of its charm and its mojo is in the chemistry of having three top guitarists share what they do on stage. It’s fun, it’s unpredictable, it’s wild, it’s everything you could want in a show.”

On top of all this, a new documentary—Beyond the Supernova—shot by Satriani's filmmaker son, ZZ, will make its debut at the Mill Valley Film Festival this October. The tour documentary chronicles Joe, along with his band and crew, on their last Shockwave Supernova tour throughout Europe and Asia.

There is a special tour pre-sale promotion giving fans the opportunity to buy concert tickets with the new album as well as VIP packages. Click here for more information, pre-sale opportunities and specific market pre-sale and on-sale dates.

You can check out the tracklist for What Happens Next, and the full itinerary of Satriani's 2018 G3 tour below.

What Happens Next Track Listing:

• 1 – Energy
• 2 – Catbot
• 3 - Thunder High On The Mountain
• 4 - Cherry Blossoms
• 5 – Righteous
• 6 - Smooth Soul
• 7 - Headrush
• 8 - Looper
• 9 - What Happens Next
• 10 - Super Funky Badass
• 11 - Invisible
• 12 - Forever And Ever

2018 G3 Tour featuring Joe Satriani, John Petrucci & Phil Collen itinerary:

January 11 The Moore Theatre Seattle, WA
January 12 Historic Elsinore Theatre Salem, OR
January 13 Grand Sierra Theatre Reno, NV
January 14 Fox Theater Oakland, CA
January 16 Delta Hall at Eccles Theater Salt Lake City, UT *
January 17 Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas, NV
January 18 Mesa Arts Center Mesa, AZ *
January 19 Orpheum Theatre Los Angeles, CA
January 20 Balboa Theatre San Diego, CA
January 21 Fox Tucson Theatre Tucson, AZ *
January 24 Historic Paramount Theatre Denver, CO
January 26 The Pavillion at The Toyota Music Factory Irving, TX *
January 27 Austin City Limits - Moody Theater Austin, TX
January 28 Hobby Center for the Performing Arts Houston, TX *
January 30 Hard Rock Live Orlando, FL *
January 31 Florida Theatre Jacksonville, FL *
February 1 Pompano Beach Amphitheatre Pompano Beach, FL*
February 2 Barbara B Mann Performing Arts Hall Fort Myers, FL *
February 3 Mahaffey Theater St. Petersberg, FL *
February 6 Raleigh Memorial Auditorium Raleigh, NC
February 8 Toyota Presents Oakdale Wallingford, CT *
February 9 Landmark Theatre Syracuse, NY *
February 10 Palace Theatre Albany, NY *
February 11 The Palace Theatre Greensburg, PA *
February 14 Warner Theatre Washington, DC *
February 15 Orpheum Theatre Boston, MA
February 16 Beacon Theatre New York, NY *
February 17 Merriam Theater Philadelphia, PA
February 18 New Jersey Performing Arts Center Newark, NJ *
February 20 Auditorium Theatre Rochester, NY *
February 21 Massey Hall Toronto, ONT
February 22 Hard Rock Live Northfield, OH
February 23 Chicago Theatre Chicago, IL *
February 24 State Theatre Minneapolis, MN
February 25 Riverside Theater Milwaukee, WI

(All dates on sale September 22nd except * on-sale October 6)