Def Leppard have a new song on the way.
Bassist Rick Savage tells Stereogum, "We have just mastered a one-off single, and playing on it is Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine, who was a huge fan back in the day when he was growing up. [Our second album] High ‘n’ Dry was like his Bible. He’s playing a solo on our new single, it’s going to be out there pretty soon."
Also in the same article, singer Joe Elliott spoke out against those who say the band uses backing tracks in concert.
"I don’t get angry at this. I’m flattered because their standards must be very different to ours. For anybody that thinks we use backing tracks, it must mean that when they hear us, they can’t believe how good it is for real.
"The fact is that if you rehearse the way we do and you’re as talented as the band are as musicians, then maybe you would believe it. I’d be happy to invite any of those guys to come stand side stage with a pair of headphones on so they could actually hear what’s coming out of the stage.
"We don’t use backing tracks. We use effects. God, who wouldn’t? When there’s four people singing, we use effects. There’s no tapes of backing vocals. We use keyboards. We use a few drum loops because... But backing tracks or playing along to a backing track — we’ve never done that, never. We’ve never mimed to the vocals, or we’ve never had multiples of stuff on tape. It’s literally live."
Leppard will release a 40th anniversary edition of Pyromania in numerous configurations on April 26th. And they start their next tour on July 6th in St. Louis with a stop in Arlington at Globe Life Field on August 12th with Journey and The Steve Miller Band.