Joe Elliott spent most of the Mötley Crüe/Def Leppard tour in isolation

Def Leppard spent last summer on tour with Mötley Crüe, and while you'd think there'd be a lot of partying going on behind the scenes, Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott says the threat of COVID kept that from being the case.

"The safest way for us to keep that show on the road was just to avoid human beings as best we could," he tells Classic Rock. "So all of us in Leppard traveled separately, which is the smartest decision we made. I didn't stay in hotels. I lived on the bus, just me and Dale, my driver, in total isolation."

He adds, “That’s the price of doing business in 2022. If we cancel a stadium show in Arlington, Texas at four in the afternoon, people will have travelled hundreds of miles and spent hundreds of dollars to get there. So we avoided contact, we tested every day, and it worked. We didn’t lose one gig.”

And for all those who expected backstage to be one big party, Elliott notes, “You know, we act like children on stage but we’re actually quite responsible people when we need to be.”

And Elliott's getting ready to do it all again. Their tour with Mötley Crüe relaunches February 10 and 11 in Atlantic City, before heading to Mexico City, Mexico, February 18. A complete list of dates can be found at defleppard.com.

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