"We obviously think it's really f****** lame," Collen tells The Telegraph. "I love Guns N' Roses, I think they're really cool, I'd love to see Slash and Axl and Duff play together, that's great. But I think it's f****** lame considering we've been hardcore. Our integrity's still intact, we've never split up. We've gone through if someone had a little sniffle or something, we soldier on.

"Someone dies, someone loses an arm, someone gets cancer, we soldier on. With Guns N' Roses, if someone has a little barney backstage, they can't deal with each other. I know it's difficult, but I do think it's pretty lame when you compare anyone else to us."

Former in Sheffield, UK in 1977, Def Leppard have survived the death of guitarist Steve Clark in 1991 from alcoholism, drummer Rick Allen losing his left arm in a car accident in 1984, and guitarist Vivian Campbell's diagnosis with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 2013.