PHIL COLLEN Says BRIAN MAY Is 'Really Obvious' Person To Induct DEF LEPPARD Into ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME

In separate interviews with SiriusXM conducted earlier today, DEF LEPPARD guitarist Phil Collen and singer Joe Elliott weighed in on who should induct their band into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame next spring.

"There is a really obvious one, and we would love it, but Brian May from QUEEN would be great," Phil said. "We just played [Las] Vegas just a few months ago, and QUEEN were playing just around the corner, and I bumped into Brian at the gym, actually. And he said, 'You're playing tonight?' I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'Me too.' He goes, 'What time do you finish?' And I said, 'We finish about 11.' He said, 'We finish at 8. I'll be over later. I'll finish and I'll come straight over.' He turned up. He'd done a show with QUEEN, and he came over. And it was just, like, amazing. Brian is one of my biggest influences. I love him. I just can't get over how amazing he is. And we all do — we're huge QUEEN fans and Brian fans. And so, that would be lovely, if he'd be up for it. But, you know, we'll see."

Elliott said: "We didn't take it for granted that we were gonna get it. I know we were crushing the fan vote, but there's more than the fans — there's all the people that we don't know who they're gonna vote for. So we didn't even think about who we're gonna get to induct us, because we didn't wanna think… I don't like pre-planning that far ahead in case it all falls flat and you don't end up getting in. And then you put a lot of energy into something that you didn't need to do. And trust me, I need all the energy I can get at my age; I'm not gonna waste it on stuff until I have to. Now we will start thinking about who's gonna do it. And I suppose Ian [Hunter] would be one of the people we would think about, if he's available and wants to do it. We're open-minded. We're also realistic that some people might not wanna do it. We'll see."

The 34th annual Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony will be held March 29 at Brooklyn, New York's Barclays Center. HBO will broadcast a truncated version of the ceremony later in the year.

Ballots were sent to a voting group of more than 1,000 artists, historians and music-industry professionals.

The public was invited to participate again this year in the fan vote. The top five artists made up a fan's ballot, which counted as a single vote.

Rock Hall rules state that artists become eligible 25 years after their first records were released, but the Hall also claims that other "criteria include the influence and significance of the artists' contributions to the development and perpetuation of rock 'n' roll," which is, of course, open to interpretation.

One of the top-selling rock acts of of all time, DEF LEPPARD has been eligible for the Rock Hall since 2004.

The 2019 nominees had to release their first recording no later than 1993.