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Watch DEF LEPPARD And MÖTLEY CRÜE Flip Coin To Decide Who Gets 'Priority' Billing On Shared Chartered Plane
February 21, 2023A video of DEF LEPPARD and MÖTLEY CRÜE members flipping the coin to decide who gets "priority" billing on the two bands' joint plane can be seen below.
In the clip, which was uploaded to DEF LEPPARD's YouTube channel, LEPPARD singer Joe Elliott can be heard saying: "We've rented a plane together, and it's fucking massive. And we're gonna dress it. And the thing is, like, what name goes first, MÖTLEY or LEPPARD?"
Hot off the heels of the biggest North American stadium tour of 2022 with more than 1.3 million tickets sold, DEF LEPPARD and MÖTLEY CRÜE are going global in 2023 with their co-headline "The World Tour" along with special guest Alice Cooper. After the launch of European and Latin American dates, the U.S. dates will take place in August.
Produced by Live Nation, the U.S. leg of the world tour kicks off on August 5 in Syracuse, New York. The bands will bring their electrifying stage shows across America throughout the month of August including being the first-ever show at the H.A. Chapman Stadium in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Earlier this month, MÖTLEY CRÜE and DEF LEPPARD played two shows at the 7,000-capacity Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Atlantic City gigs marked MÖTLEY CRÜE's first U.S. live appearances since the announcement that founding guitarist Mick Mars would no longer tour with the legendary rock act. He is being replaced on the road by former ROB ZOMBIE and MARILYN MANSON guitarist John 5.
During a recent appearance on the "Appetite For Distortion" podcast, DEF LEPPARD drummer Rick Allen was asked to weigh in on Mars's recent decision to no longer tour with MÖTLEY CRÜE because of his long struggles with degenerative disease ankylosing spondylitis. Ankylosing spondylitis is a type of arthritis that causes inflammation in the spine joints and ligaments and can lead to stiffness over time, according to the National Institute Of Arthritis And Musculoskeletal And Skin Diseases.
Allen, who most recently toured with Mars as part of DEF LEPPARD and MÖTLEY CRÜE's 2022 "The Stadium Tour", said: "It was Mick's decision to really move on and just get to the next part of his life. And we all know that Mick has suffered terribly, terribly with pain; you see it on his face all the time. And I think the only time I ever saw him truly in his element [was] when he was up on stage playing with the band. It was more his decision. That must have been a super hard decision. I mean, it would have been different if the guy was being thrown out of the band, but it wasn't like that at all. It was a personal choice that he made. And you can't say that that's wrong. It was right for him at the time.
"Over the months — well, actually years — that I've known him, I really started to talk to him," Rick continued. "So unassuming. Such a soft, gentle soul. And when I first met him years ago, I was actually quite afraid, you know. [Laughs] But he's the exact opposite of that — just a really sweet, generous person. So it must have been a very difficult decision for everybody to have to go through that."
The 71-year-old Mars — whose real name is Robert Alan Deal — served as MÖTLEY CRÜE's lead guitarist since the band's inception in 1981.
In his statement, Mick said that he had decided to step back from live shows due to his "ongoing painful struggle" with ankylosing spondylitis and while he will continue to be a member of the band, he cannot "handle the rigors" of touring life.
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