DEF LEPPARD, POISON, LITA FORD: U.S. Tour Dates Announced

DEF LEPPARD will make a return to the United States this June with a massive summer tour. Joining the band for this highly anticipated trek are POISON and LITA FORD.

"We had such a good time going out with POISON in 2009 that we thought it only right to do it again!" says DEF LEPPARD singer Joe Elliott.

First leg 2012 U.S. dates:

Jun. 20 - Salt Lake City, UT @ USANA Amphitheater
Jun. 22 - Irvine, CA @ Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
Jun. 23 - Las Vegas, NV @ Red Rock Amphitheatre
Jun. 25 - Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center
Jun. 27 - Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center
Jun. 29 - Atlanta, GA @ Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood
Jun. 30 - Tampa, FL @ Tampa Bay Times Forum
Jul. 02 - Cincinnati, OH @ Riverbend Music Center
Jul. 03 - Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
Jul. 06 - Cleveland, OH @ Quickens Loan Arena
Jul. 07 - Detroit, MI @ DTE Energy Music Theatre
Jul. 10 - Baltimore, MD @ Merriweather Pavilion
Jul. 11 - Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center
Jul. 13 - Wantagh, NY @ Nikon at Jones Beach Pavilion
Jul. 16 - Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
Jul. 17 - Hamilton, ON @ Copps Coliseum
Jul. 19 - Chicago, IL @ Allstate Arena
Jul. 22 - Cadott, WI @ Rock Fest

In a recent interview with AOL's Noisecreep, DEF LEPPARD guitarist Phil Collen stated about the band's upcoming road activities. "We're actually going to be back on tour around when the [film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical 'Rock Of Ages'] is out, and it would be a lot of fun to get some of the other bands featured in 'Rock Of Ages' out with us," he said. "Nothing has been finalized yet, but apparently POISON will be joining us — at least according to [POISON singer] Bret Michaels, who has been telling everyone that they'll be touring with us this year. [Laughs] We went out with POISON in 2009, and we all had so much fun. If it does end up happening like that, I would love for the third band to be someone like TWISTED SISTER, since they're also in the new movie. I think that would make for a great lineup."

"Rock Of Ages" is a love story told through the music of DEF LEPPARD, PAT BENATAR, BON JOVI, JOURNEY, POISON, TWISTED SISTER and other artists from the 1980s.

"Rock Of Ages" stars Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Paul Giamatti, Malin Akerman and many others. It scheduled to arrive in theaters on June 1.

In a 2009 interview, DEF LEPPARD frontman Joe Elliott defended his band's decision to tour with POISON — a group that, just a year earlier, he trashed in the media. Speaking to Noisecreep, Elliott explained, "I didn't say that [POISON's] music had no substance, I said that ours had more. That's a totally different thing. Yes, it was taken out of proportion. Truth be known, it was a dumb question from a foreign journalist in a press conference where I could barely hear what was going on and I was getting really agitated with being in the room in the first place, so I couldn't hear the questions. It was a dumb question from a dumb journalist, to a dumb singer about a dumb subject."

He added, "My belief is that we're better than them ... but I would say that if they just said it about any band whether it be THE WHO or [THE ROLLING STONES] or THE BEATLES — not because I'm an arrogant idiot, but because when you're in a band, you are absolutely 100 percent allowed to believe that you're the best band in the world.

"So if that question had been asked of Bret Michaels, I would have expected him to have answered it in a very similar way. He's entitled to think that they're a better band than us, because he's in the band, you know what I mean? So that certainly wasn't ... it's not that I thought they had no substance, I just thought that we had more."

(Thanks: NJthrasher)