Def Leppard is in the midst of a U.S. summer tour that runs through an August 31 show in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The British Rock & Roll Hall of Famers also have a couple of other concerts lined up in 2025, and will follow those with a recently announced Las Vegas residency February 2026.
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Meanwhile, in a new interview with USA Today, Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott revealed that band also is planning to release a new studio album next year.
The album will be Def Leppard’s 13th studio effort and its first since it released the glam-rock tribute Diamond Star Halos in 2022. The band members—Elliott, guitarists Phil Collen and Viv Campbell, bassist Rick Savage, and drummer Rick Allen—recorded their parts for Diamond Star Halos separately from various locations, in large part because of the global health crisis at that time. According to Elliott, the process worked so well that Def Leppard is making the new album in a similar fashion.
“We’re blessed that technology has allowed us to do this,” Elliott explained to USA Today. “We get together metaphorically rather than physically and do Zoom meetings all the time. This way five people can work on the same song at the same time and it adds excitement to the flavors of what you’re doing. Laptops have become Abbey Road [studio].”
As for the status of the upcoming album, Elliott reported that the band has “plenty of stuff” lined up for the project. He told USA Today that Def Leppard now needed to decide which songs make the final cut, and choose a title for the album and a running order for the tracks.
Recent Def Leppard-Related Music News
The most recent original song Def Leppard has put out is the non-album single “Just Like ’73,” which was released in 2024. That track featured a guest appearance by Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.
The band also released a cover of the classic 1961 Ben E. King hit “Stand by Me” in January 2025. The track was released as a charity single to benefit the FireAid initiative helping those affected by the devastating wildfires in Southern California. Def Leppard’s version of “Stand by Me” also was featured in the 2025 Netflix film Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger.
Meanwhile, Elliott and Collen have collaborated with Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke on a new version of that band’s tune “Seagull” for the upcoming album Can’t Get Enough: A Tribute to Bad Company. The tribute record will be released on October 24.
More About Def Leppard’s Performance Plans
Def Leppard’s next show takes place Saturday, August 9, in Lincoln, California. After the band’s U.S. summer trek wraps up, the group is scheduled to play a September 7 headlining set at the Radio 2 in the Park festival in Writtle, U.K., and an October 11 concert in Gary, Indiana.
Def Leppard’s 2026 Las Vegas residency runs from February 3 through February 28 at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace.
The rockers also will headline the 2026 Wacken Open Air Festival, which runs from July 29 to August 1 in Wacken, Germany. Check out the group’s full upcoming scheduled at DefLeppard.com.
(Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images)
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