Joe Elliot has described Def Leppard’s Stadium Tour opening night set the “wettest gig” the band has played in 40 years.
The highly anticipated trek — which was originally scheduled for 2020 before being twice delayed — features Def Leppard co-headlining with Motley Crue, with Poison and Joan Jett rounding out the lineup.
Last night’s show (June 16) in Atlanta stayed dry for most of the night, until Def Leppard came on to close things out.
“We have just finished the wettest gig we have done since Mannheim in 1986,” Elliott declared in a video recap posted to the band’s YouTube channel. “It rained all night long. But the crowd stuck with us. Nobody left. Nobody moaned. And one down, 35 to go.”
Guitarist Phil Collen called the experience “amazing,” adding that “everything that could have gone wrong did.” “We had kind of like a hurricane, storm — whatever that was — coming through. And just drenched. The drums went off at one point. We carried on like nothing had happened. And we played the new songs, and they were great — they just slotted straight in, like any of the classics.”
Watch Def Leppard’s Recap Following the Stadium Tour’s First Show
Def Leppard’s set featured four songs from their recently released 12th studio album, Diamond Star Halos. The band played one warm-up gig before the Stadium tour began, a club show at the famed Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles. Prior to that, their last concert was in November 2019.
The Stadium Tour will wrap across America, with dates scheduled through September. Def Leppard and Motley Crue will take turns closing the show on alternating nights.
Though the Crue’s set didn’t feature any acts of nature, it was notable for a different reason. Drummer Tommy Lee excused himself from behind the drum kit after five songs, explaining to the crowd that he sustained four broken ribs recently and was told not to perform. He was replaced by session drummer Tommy Clufetos, who finished out the show.
“The fact that Tommy was told by the doctor to not play with 4 broken ribs & he beasted half our show is a miracle,” bassist Nikki Sixx tweeted the morning after the concert. “We are a band and are proud of his strength. He is doing the whole tour and day by day adding more songs. What a fucking animal.”