DEF LEPPARD Has Finished Recording Its New Album

DEF LEPPARD has completed recording its new album for a late 2015 release. The news was revealed by the band's lead singer, Joe Elliott, during the intro to his radio show which is currently being broadcast on Planet Rock in the U.K. Joe said: "Yes, I do sound very jolly, don't I?! I'm jolly because we have finished the new album. Yes, well, apart from the mixing of it. We have sung our last word, played our last solo, hit our last drum. It's done! And it will be out later this year. [I am] looking forward to playing a few tunes from that later on."

During a recent interview with Billy Kidd of the 100.3 Jack FM radio station, Elliott stated about DEF LEPPARD's first new studio album since 2008's "Songs From The Sparkle Lounge": "I keep wanting to say [it's] probably one of the most honest records we've ever made, but that makes everything sound like everything else we've done has been dishonest or something, [which] it's not. But it's one of the most refreshingly, kind of, easy albums that we've made. There was no big fights or [that] it took forever to do. It was done over a period of about… by the time it's finished, over about 14 months. But that's only because we did a month's work last February [2014]. We did about another two weeks in May. We just did another month this February just gone — last month. And little bits in between where I'd be on the mic while the rest of the guys were back home, you know. So we've not spent a massive amount of time on it. It came very naturally."

He continued: "We got together last year to write what we thought was just gonna be an EP. And we'd been listening probably a little too hard to the naysayers, saying that the album [format] was dead. We were kind of thinking, 'Well, maybe it is, you know. Let's just do an EP.' But when we all played each other everything that we had, we had 12 songs that we couldn't really whittle down to three of four; we liked them all. So we looked at each other and said, 'Well, maybe the album's not dead then, you know, because I think we've just written one.'"

Elliott added: "When we got back together last May to work more on those 12 songs, we wrote three more. So, you know, we had this pool of 15 songs knocking around, of which, you know, 12, 13 or 14 will make the album, no doubt. But it's a… it's got a bit of everything. It's got some stuff that will be instantly recognizable as DEF LEPPARD, and it's got some stuff that's just us stretching our wings a little further than normal, and making a record that people of our mature age should be making. But it rocks. It's a real good record."

Asked if DEF LEPPARD will perform any new songs on tour this summer, Elliott responded: "No. Absolutely not. Because the album won't be out until the tour's finished, and we don't want inferior versions up on YouTube, etc., that are circulating before the real versions are available."

He continued: "We were gonna have the record out in time for the tour — that was a consideration until, basically, to be honest with you… As soon as we… As soon as the world heard, or certain people in the world heard that we had this new album, so many people have come knocking on our door, because we're free agents. We owe it to all of them and to ourselves to at least listen to the offers in front of us. And we can't rush that. That's gotta be a natural progression of things. So, we wanna make sure we make a great record, not a quick one, you know."

Regarding whether DEF LEPPARD has a title for its new album, Elliott said: "At the moment in time, we do not. We are always one of these bands that say, 'Well, the album's coming out soon. We'd better give it a name.' It always cracks me up when somebody say, 'We're going in to record our new album, and it's gonna be called 'blah blah blah'.' It's, like, 'You know that already? How and why?' Now, at this moment in time, it's all about getting the songs right, picking a good running order for it, and then packaging it up, and then thinking, well, what word's gonna look great on the sleeve?"

DEF LEPPARD will return to the road April 15 for a Canadian tour, followed by Europe in May and June. A U.S. tour with STYX and TESLA will kick off June 23 in Tampa, Florida.

DEF LEPPARD released a deluxe, expanded edition of 1996's "Slang" album in February 2014.