Def Leppard and Motley Crue Won't Rival On Stadium Tour

William Lee | 12-27-2019

Motley Crue is known for their big stage production but Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott says that he does not feel any pressure to try and rival the reunited band on their upcoming stadium tour.

Def Leppard, Motley Crue and Poison will be launching the Stadium Tour next summer and Elliott was asked during a recent SiriusXM interview if he felt any pressure to try to top Motley's stage production.

He responded, "That doesn't worry us; it never did. And I don't mean this as a slight on any other band, but when we've got a catalog of songs like we've got, we've always kind of, not shied away from massive pyros and all that kind of stuff.

"We've tended to think that sometimes bands overuse stuff like that because there was something else missing. It's not always true, I think with Kiss and Motley and, to a point, Metallica, you use it for effect, and that's cool.

"What we use for effect is lasers, and there's back screens with the history of the band playing away in the background or some abstract art that goes with the song very well. So it's eye candy.

"You've gotta remember, when people come to stadiums, they're not just listening, they're watching, so you do have to put some kind of a show on. But the way that we've always been is I've never been flashy like, say, a David Lee Roth or something like that. I've always just been more, just that British restraint that Brian Johnson has or Robert Plant has, where you just do your thing.

"And that's what Leppard have always been. We've always tried to just put on a classy show. that's always what we've tried to do. And [not paying attention to] what the band before or after us does, we do what we do. And I think that over the years, people have got to know what we're like live. If they've seen us before, they know exactly what to expect in the sense of, it's never gonna be below a certain standard.

"But trying to outdo Motley's roller coaster or basses exploding or Gene Simmons's blood dripping out, we never went there, we didn't see the point. It wouldn't be real if we started to do things like that, because we never did it in the past.

"I could come out on a bicycle, I suppose. [Judas Priest frontman] Rob Halford has done the motorbike to death. I could come out and roller skate. I mean, I don't know. We'll just come out there and play our songs, and interact with the crowd as people. It's what we've always done.".