Deff Leppard's Joe Elliot has said that the band is "now more known for selling tickets than albums".
The singer made these comments while speaking to Virgin Radio UK, where he was asked if it is fair to say if himself and the rest of the band still enjoy the buzz of touring, almost 50 years after the band formed.
"Yeah, and it's something that, fingers crossed, has never gone away", Elliot said.
He continued: "In 48 years since we formed, and this lineup's been together for 33 years, which has a ridiculous achievement, when you think about it. Through all the hardships that we've had — I mean, we lost Pete [Willis, former DEF LEPPARD guitarist] along the way, we lost Steve [Clark, late DEF LEPPARD guitarist], and Rick [Allen, DEF LEPPARD drummer] had a really terrible accident but stayed in the band".
"So there's been a lot of kind of odd times, but there's been so much more good times, if you like. And it's, like, well, what's not to like? I mean, we are just all on the same page, and I think that's why we like it so much", he added.
"And I think that just comes from the working class background that we came from. I mean, our parents were the children of World War II, and when you've had those [Monty] Python-esque-like, 'You don't know what it's like to have to choose between a cardboard box and a pair of wellies for a Christmas present.' You never lose those stories 'cause they told you when you were a kid and you just remember 'em forever. They become more comical the older you get".
"But I think that that working class kind of upbringing that we had, when you get to become this, I suppose now people would say elitist rock band, we just jump on the opportunity to just keep this thing going because it's so much fun".
Elsewhere, Elliott also spoke about what keeps himself and his Def Leppard bandmates motivated when it comes to writing new music.
"Let's be honest: DEF LEPPARD now is more known for selling tickets than albums. Albums, it's Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, et cetera", he said. "Us, yeah, we sell records. I think we just went into some — not Guinness book, but whatever — we've Top 10ed an album in five different decades, which is pretty cool. It's a great story for the aunties and uncles and stuff like that. But we still wanna make records. That's the great thing".
"When the lockdown came along, literally the day that everybody was supposed to fly into my studio, fly into Ireland, into my studio, they shut down all flights. So I got on the phone with Phil [Collen, DEF LEPPARD guitarist] and I said, 'What are we gonna do now?".
"And in a 40-minute conversation, he said, 'Well, we could do it remotely.' I said, 'What have you got?' He said, 'Well, I've got three [songs].' And I then explained to him he actually had four because we had this song called 'This Guitar' that we'd been sitting on for years and we've got to do it. I had three. And then we brought Sav [bassist Rick Savage] into the conversation. He had two".
"So in 40 minutes we had nine songs. And we decided to do what QUEEN always did. If we wrote a song and you had a start, middle and an end, that was it. No argument — we're doing it. No 'oh, can we take that bit out and put my bit in?' We just trusted each other that we'd written songs, and that's how we did the last album. It was the most freeing thing we've ever done".
"We had the most fun making an album where we were essentially 3,000 miles apart from each other and gluing it all together in our engineer's studio. And it sounds like we did it in Abbey Road [studio]. And we're doing it again".
Earlier this week, Def Leppard's Vivian Campbell revealed that he would often "shut up" on stage whilst performing live in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. More on this here.
