DEF LEPPARD's PHIL COLLEN Says Making 'Diamond Star Halos' Album Remotely Was 'Constantly Exciting'

March 18, 2022

DEF LEPPARD will release its new album, "Diamond Star Halos", 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 Vivian 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.

"It was joyful to do," Elliott told Billboard about the process. "As Sav says, at any one time there were possibly four songs getting worked on at once. And everybody was at home, so you didn't have to work on it constantly or be sitting around waiting to do your bit if we were all in the studio together or something. You could get on with doing other stuff. So it was a leisurely way of recording, but we could concentrate wholly on the record when we were actually recording. What we learned was it's not where your body is, it's where your mind's at. We were in three different countries, but we were all on the same page."

Collen added: "I think it's the best thing we've ever done. There was so much more energy by not having to go to a studio or a situation where you were waiting on anything. I'd finish something, send it to Joe in Ireland and he'd send it to Sav and…we'd just be back and forth, and when I'd wake up in the morning there'd be something new in my mailbox. It was constantly exciting. I don't think we don't want to go back to whatever that standard way was that we did before."

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.

DEF LEPPARD will return to the road this summer as part of "The Stadium Tour" with MÖTLEY CRÜE, POISON and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS. The trek 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 pandemic.

Photo credit: Anton Corbijn

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