Def Leppard and Journey's co-headlining North American tour lands at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, PA on July 27. Steve Miller Band supports on this date. Ahead of the upcoming show, Def Leppard's Phil Collen spoke with Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the tour, punk, grunge and surviving in Def Leppard. An excerpt from the chat follows...
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Before we get to this tour, I just wanted to get your impression on how The Stadium Tour went.
Phil Collen: "Obviously, we were bummed that it got pushed back year after year, for like two years. Post-COVID, it finally got out there and we had the best time ever with Motley Crue, especially. We'd done South America, we all had this giant plane. It was both bands, both crews, all the equipment, and we flew around South America, and we were children. It was amazing. Talk about arrested development and kind of goofing off in these cities, but we had a real blast, I gotta say. We really enjoyed their company. The fact that we could bring very different versions of rock to people around the world, and everyone dug it. That was a nice thing, the whole tour.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: I guess touring with Motley Crue in 2022 or 2023 would be a lot different than in 1982.
Collen: "I think so. Yeah, everyone's got kids, like Nikki Sixx’s daughter Ruby was 3, and my son Jackson was 4, and they were dancing and cuddling with each other, which was really cute. You wouldn't have had that back in the day. The whole thing was just a delight.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: I was surprised to see a bill of Journey and Def Leppard. I'm wondering how you guys match up and whether you have a history with Journey?
Collen: "We have. We actually first toured with them in 2006 and our manager, who since passed away, Howard Kaufman, said, 'Yeah, you and Journey.' And we're like, 'Really?' We didn't see it working. And the first gig, it was like 23,000 people, sold out, and 3,000 people couldn't get in. That was kind of indicative of the whole tour.
"It's like three hours of people singing along to every single song. So that was the great thing, a bit like two different faces of the same coin. Obviously, very different, but they've got these just amazing songs and melodies. And you see the audience joyfully singing along to them, as they do with us, but it's obviously a slightly different approach. So it really works.
"Then we toured with them in 2018 as well. And again, great. You know when we get on stage, whoever it is, people have a blast."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: There's only a few years difference between the two bands, but there's a big difference in sound and style.
Collen: "There are. A few very different things happened, like the brand new medium of MTV. You know, with Journey, Neal Schon and Gregg Rolie were originally in Santana's band. Neal was like 16 years old, so they developed to that. And then when they got Steve Perry, it completely changed, with one of the classic rock singers of all time, who had this beautiful voice that would convey these great melodies. It was just a perfect vehicle.
"When we came along, it changed because we were a rock band but we looked more like Duran Duran than we did, say, Judas Priest. So you would have this, like I said, this new medium, which was MTV, and these very kind of catchy songs, but they were still rock. And then you also had this visual element, so that's what made it very different, although it's only a few years.
"I mean, it's only a few years that Journey hit after the UK punk scene, you know, the Pistols and The Clash, and that was only four years after Bowie and T Rex. So they're very short amounts of time. Certainly, when I look back, I’m like 'That’s 10 years,' but it’s not. Its only three years in between.
"Obviously, now, it's different again. There is no MTV, and it went from vinyl to cassette to CD to download to stream and vinyl, so it’s really weird. And then you've got the whole TikTok/YouTube kind of thing as well, so it's great to exist within those parameters."
Read more at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Tickets for all remaining dates on The Summer Stadium Tour 2024 are on sale here. Dates are listed below.
July
10 - Orlando, FL - Camping World Stadium ^
13 - Atlanta, GA - Truist Park *
15 - Chicago, IL - Wrigley Field *
18 - Detroit, MI - Comerica Park *
20 - Nashville, TN - Nissan Stadium *
23 - Philadelphia, PA - Citizens Bank Park *
25 - Hershey, PA - Hersheypark Stadium *
27 - Pittsburgh, PA - PNC Park *
30 - Cleveland, OH - Progressive Field ^
August
2 - Toronto, ON - Rogers Centre ^
5 - Boston, MA - Fenway Park *
7 - Flushing, NY - Citi Field *
12 - Arlington, TX - Globe Life Field *
14 - Houston, TX - Minute Maid Park *
16 - San Antonio, TX - Alamodome *
19 - Minneapolis, MN - Target Field *
23 - Phoenix, AZ - Chase Field *
25 - Los Angeles, CA - SoFi Stadium *
28 - San Francisco, CA - Oracle Park *
30 - San Diego, CA - Petco Park *
September
4 - Seattle, WA - T-Mobile Park ^
8 - Denver, CO - Coors Field ^
* with Steve Miller Band
^ with Cheap Trick
