Def Leppard recorded their new album in the basement of a casino on days off during their Las Vegas residency.
The band performed Def Leppard: Live at Caesars Palace at the casino’s Colosseum venue throughout February and frontman Joe Elliott has now revealed they kept busy throughout the run by setting up a makeshift studio space where they could work on tracks for their next record.
The first song from the album, Rejoice, landed in January but fans will have to wait until next year for the rest of the album. In an interview with France’s Oui FM, Joe explained: “Well, the single is the lead-off track, if you like, from the new album. The song is called Rejoice. We released it in time for the Vegas residency.
“We did a Vegas residency in February, and we wanted to play a new song, so it made sense to actually put it out.”
Joe went on to reveal they are still working on their new music after starting the recording process off in Las Vegas, adding: “The album won’t be out until early ’27, ’cause we’re still recording it.
“We were actually recording parts of it in Vegas on days off. We would go down into the basement of the casino and set it up as a studio, and we would record. So we’re still actively recording now and mixing.”
Joe added the band have around 18 songs for the new project, which he described as “a very eclectic collection of tunes”.
He said: “We’ve got about 18 songs. So we’ve kind of got nearly two albums. We’re not gonna put all 18 on the album. We’re gonna pick and choose which 10 or 11 we think are the right ones.
“So, yeah, we’ve got some great songs – very varied. I will tell you this much, we’ve written the fastest song we’ve ever done.
“And we’ve also written the most ridiculously over-the-top, pretentious, massive, big, kind of bombastic song that we’ve ever written, too, and lots of stuff in between.
“So it’s very varied. It’s a very eclectic collection of tunes. A lot of people will be shocked, I think, because of the direction that we’re going in, ’cause it’s not one direction. It’s 10 different directions. And we love being able to do that.”
He concluded by saying: “So, yeah, we’re working on it actively. We’re touring this summer, and we’ll be working on the album up to going on tour and then when we come off.
“So we need to get it finished by the end of the summer for an early release next year.”