DEF LEPPARD's New Album, 'Diamond Star Halos', Will Be 'Strongly' Represented On 'The Stadium Tour'

DEF LEPPARD is set to launch "The Stadium Tour" with MÖTLEY CRÜE and guests POISON and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS on June 16 in Atlanta, Georgia. The 36-date trek, which is due to wrap September 9 in Las Vegas, was originally scheduled to take place in the summer of 2020 but ended up being pushed back to 2021, and then to 2022, due to the coronavirus crisis.

Asked by Wes Styles of the Rock 96.7 (WIHN-FM) radio station how much of DEF LEPPARD's upcoming album, "Diamond Star Halos", the band will perform on the upcoming tour, guitarist Vivian Campbell said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Actually, probably more than people will expect. I think there's just such a strong feeling behind this record within the band and also to our record label. We've got a very, very enthusiastic team on our record label for this, and we feel that they're bullish on this record, which we are too, so we think it makes sense to represent it strongly this summer on the tour. Some people might say that's not wise, because new music generally doesn't play well in that sort of environment, but we believe if it's strategically placed during our show, then we can — I don't wanna say get away with it, because I don't think that that's really our mindset, but I think if we strategically place it in the set, which we obviously will, that it'll come across, it'll represent well.

"I think the songs on this record, there's strength in them and they can be there in the set next to classic hits, like 'Animal' and '[Pour Some] Sugar [On Me]' and 'Photograph' and stuff, which we'll obviously be playing also — we have to play those hits," he continued.

"The hardest part for us is that there's four bands on the bill, so we can't play for three hours or anything — we've gotta kind of curtail things. But we'll definitely be representing the new record."

"Diamond Star Halos" will be released on May 27 via UMe. The 15-song follow-up to 2015's self-titled LP was produced by the band and longtime engineer Ronan McHugh.

Over the past two years, DEF LEPPARD recorded "Diamond Star Halos" simultaneously in three different countries with singer Joe Elliott in Ireland, bassist Rick Savage in England, and guitarists Phil Collen and Campbell and drummer Rick Allen in the United States. The band also enlisted Alison Krauss and David Bowie pianist Mike Garson to guest on the LP.

The artwork for "Diamond Star Halos" features images by world-renowned photographer and director Anton Corbijn, styling concepts by Maryam Malakpour and graphics by the U.K.-based Munden Brothers.

Collen told American Songwriter that "Diamond Star Halos" turned out to be "way deeper" and "way more diverse" because he and the other members of DEF LEPPARD didn't follow any boundaries and blueprints like they had in the past. "There's more on it than a lot of our previous records, in terms of depth, in terms of instrumentation, in the way we experimented with different sounds, and how we actually projected the songs themselves," he said. "That was mainly because we had the opportunity to do that. When you record it on your own, there are no time constraints. You weren't holding anybody else up that wanted to get into the studio chair to record their bits. You just did it on your own, in your own time, and sometimes you allowed yourself the freedom to go down some like blind alleys."

Photo credit: Anton Corbijn