DEF LEPPARD's Next Album Will 'Surprise A Lot Of People': 'We've Written The Fastest Song That We've Ever Recorded'

In a new interview with Riff X's "Metal XS", DEF LEPPARD singer Joe Elliott spoke about the band's latest single, "Rejoice". The track was released in late January ahead of DEF LEPPARD's return to Las Vegas for their "Def Leppard: Live at Caesars Palace The Las Vegas Residency" that kicked off on February 3. "Rejoice" is available via UMe now on all streaming platforms. Joe said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's an opening song, for sure. Basically, it's the first song that we've released from our upcoming new album, which will be out early next year. But because we had the residency in Vegas, we just thought it was a great opportunity to introduce some new music to that particular show. It was gonna be really spectacular.

"Caesars Palace is a fantastic place to showcase a band like us," Joe continued. "There's something about doing a residency that opens your mind to the setlist. It's different to touring. So as well as bringing back songs like 'White Lightning', which we haven't played for 33 years, and changing the set around and just rearranging it and making it more theatrical, because you are in Vegas, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to open with 'Rejoice', because the great thing about the gig at Caesars Palace is the stage sinks down, so you can come up like a boy band. [Laughs] And so dry ice and all that lot. And the drum loop, we can extend it at the front of the song so it gets the crowd going. It's very tribal. So it was a brilliant spot to play a new song. And it's one of the greatest places to do a new song as the opening tune because everybody's so excited that you're coming on. It's really not that important what you're playing as long as it's not an acoustic ballad or something. So 'Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)' would have worked fine, but 'Rejoice' worked better because it's a new song. So it's a psychological thing of we're still a current band. We're not just a legacy artist that's just playing a greatest-hits set. We wanted to change it up. And the song itself is a very uplifting song. I mean, when I said to Phil [Collen, DEF LEPPARD guitarist], 'Look, I've written this lyric that starts off with 'I'm bored with boredom. I'm sick of all this flack.' It's very much somebody that's in a bad place that wants to go somewhere better, hence the chorus being 'I wanna go higher.' And I said, 'We need something that's got a really cool drum loop and it's got to be mid-tempo. You got anything?' And he said, 'Yeah, as it happens, I do.' And he sent me the backing track, and I went, 'This is perfect.' And we worked it, and we wrote that song probably in half a day, because all the parts were there. He'd already written his bit, unbeknownst to me, and I'd written the lyrics, unbeknownst to him. And when we told each other we had a song — boom. It doesn't always work that quick. You get one song per album [where] that works, and then the others are hard work."

Regarding what fans can expect from DEF LEPPARD's upcoming LP, Joe said: "It's a very varied album. It's a very eclectic record. I think it's gonna surprise a lot of people. But if I told you too much about it, it wouldn't be that much of a surprise. But I will say this much: it's like the direction that DEF LEPPARD has gone in over the last 15 years or so musically, from the 'Def Leppard' album through 'Diamond Star Halos' and even reworking the 'Drastic Symphony' stuff. People shouldn't be too surprised that our music works in those environments. When you listen to 'Drastic Symphonies', things like 'Switch 625' end up sounding like a James Bond car chase, which is how we always should have sounded. Doing the piano version of 'Pour Some Sugar On Me'. If you can do a song in a different way to the way it's normally done, you've normally got a good song. We always say that if you can campfire a song, the song's good, no matter which way you're trying to record it. So we are writing songs tailored to that way of thinking. So there's big bombastic — I'm not gonna say ballads, but slower tunes that are very in the vein of QUEEN or Elton John, because there's a piano involved. And then there's other stuff that's... I think we've written the fastest song that we've ever recorded, and things in between. So some of it will sound like what you expect, because that's what we do. But some of it we've gone off a tangent and, 'Okay, yeah, this is gonna be fun. It's gonna be fun to see how people react to this because it's not like anything we've ever done before.' And that's the fun of doing this. We don't wanna make 'Pyromania 2'. We don't wanna make 'Hysteria 2'. We've done that. We wanna make something different but equally as interesting."

Earlier this month, Elliott told Marjorie Hache of France 24 about the lyrical inspiration for "Rejoice": "Well, the title kind of sums it up, really. I wanted to write a really uplifting, positive-message song, and I said to Phil, 'I got this great idea. I need it to be mid-tempo. I want it to have a big intro drum loop so we can actually walk on stage to this and expand it and make it longer live.' But the whole idea of the song is, it starts off — I mean, it's a great opening line, is, 'I'm bored of boredom. I'm sick of all this.' And, 'I wanna be in a better place.' So it gets to the climax, you go through the bridge, and you get to the chorus, it's, 'I wanna go higher.' So it's just very uplifting. It's a joyous, uplifting song."

Joe continued: "That's what we are — we're an escapism band. We're not here to preach. We're not here to tell you who to vote for. Other people can do that. We like to take you away from that and just come and have a good time. It's not meaningless — there is a message there, and the message is, we need to share this moment together and make it a positive one. And 'Rejoice' just about sums that all up."

Asked if the release of "Rejoice" means that there is a whole new DEF LEPPARD album on the way, Joe said: "Absolutely. We're actually recording it. As I speak, somewhere in the world, people are adding their bits to some new songs.

"We've developed a whole new method of recording, which was brought on by COVID," Elliott explained. "I've got a studio at home, and everybody has always gracefully come to my house to record. We'd do a month at a time, and then everybody goes home. But they couldn't travel. So we ended up recording remotely, and we found it to be exhilarating. Everybody got to be at home with their families, yet still make a record. And we trusted each other that we were writing songs. And so everybody just played on everybody else's bits, and it's easy to do. We don't all record in one room when we are in the same studio — we do it, the drums and the bass and the guitars and the vocals; it's all layered. So we've been recording while we were in Vegas [for the latest residency]. On days off, we had the drums set up in the basement of the theater, and Rick [Allen, DEF LEPPARD drummer] played loads of drums on his days off, and they'd do guitars in their hotel rooms, stuff like that. And I sing when I get home. So we've got about 17 or 18 songs written. So we've actually almost got two albums recorded. So we're still deciding which songs are gonna go on album one, if you like. And then we're looking at an early '27 release."

"Def Leppard: Live at Caesars Palace The Las Vegas Residency" ran through February 28, 2026 at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. These new shows followed the band's sold-out residency successes in 2019 and 2013.

In January 2025, DEF LEPPARD released a cover of Ben E. King's 1961 classic "Stand By Me". All proceeds from the song went to FireAid, which raises money for those impacted by the fires that swept through Los Angeles in January 2025.

DEF LEPPARD's version of the song is featured in the Netflix film "Bank Of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger", which was released in January 2025. The band can be seen performing the track before the credits.

DEF LEPPARD's "Just Like 73" single, featuring a guest guitar solo from RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE guitarist Tom Morello, was made available in June 2024.

DEF LEPPARD's 12th studio album, "Diamond Star Halos", came out in 2022. A year later, the band followed it up with "Drastic Symphonies", a collection of reimagining of some of DEF LEPPARD's greatest hits with London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Abbey Road. The album spent 15 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Current Classical chart.

In late 2024, DEF LEPPARD guitarist Vivian Campbell underwent a bone marrow transplant as part of his treatment plan for Hodgkin's lymphoma, with which he was diagnosed in 2013.

In June 2025, Campbell revealed that he is "completely in remission" from the cancer of the lymphatic system.

Campbell — who before joining DEF LEPPARD in 1992 was well known for his work with DIO and WHITESNAKE — went public with his Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosis in June 2013.

Vivian underwent three separate spells of chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, only for his Hodgkin's lymphoma to return.

Seven years ago, Campbell underwent spine surgery.

Vivian and his DEF LEPPARD bandmates were finally inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in March 2019 — 14 years after the British rockers first became eligible.

Photo credit: Ross Halfin (courtesy of Ume)