Phil Collen Admits Def Leppard Follows The Rolling Stones’ Lead

Phil Collen recently chatted with the Grammys, disclosing how Def Leppard took one crucial lesson from the Rolling Stones’ book and why they follow the veterans’ lead when it comes to live performances.

Collen and his bandmates released their latest album, ‘Diamond Star Halos,’ almost a year ago, and they quite recently collaborated with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, so it might feel like the band has all these new material waiting in line to be the next piece of their live setlists.

However, some fans might not be so eager to hear new tracks as they’ll prefer to listen to the good old classics and leave. So, Def Leppard needs to be careful about how to find balance and have the audience enjoy their ’80s hits while introducing new pieces as well.

Luckily, the band seems to have found a trick as Collen argued they’d taken one crucial lesson from the Rolling Stones‘ book. The guitarist remarked how the act simply added a new song at each new gig while also playing all their hits, and that strategy worked both in favor of their audience and the band, as Def Leppard got to debut their new pieces live while the audience enjoyed the classics.

Phil on how Def Leppard performs their new tracks while playing their hits:

“We just follow the Stones’ lead on that. Every time they go out, they carefully place a new song. They know they’ve got to do ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’ and ‘Satisfaction’ and all that stuff. We just do that — we integrate it in there.

You’ve just got to be careful. It’s great doing [it as a] first song because you can use the theatrics of ‘Here we are.’ There’s a lull at a certain point, and you inject something like that. We’re very careful about where and when we put them in the set.”

The band, like the Rolling Stones, is creatively active and often tries to come up with new tracks and projects, which means they want to debut those pieces during their gigs as well. Luckily, they’ve found a trick to perform both their latest songs and hits, as they took a cue from the Stones’ book.