Exclusive: Def Leppard Announces Summer Tour With Styx And Tesla
After spending last year on the road as special guests for Kiss, Def Leppard will be back atop the bill this summer and taking Styx and Tesla along for the ride, Billboard is exclusively announcing.
The 48-date tour kicks off June 23 in Tampa, Fla., running through Oct. 4 in Bismarck, N.D. And Def Lep frontman Joe Elliott tells Billboard that it will be a band-of-brothers situation.
"We've toured with both of these bands before," Elliott says. "Styx is a great bunch of guys and as American as mom's apple pie all the way through. And we had Tesla on board when we did the Hysteria tour back in '87; they were out for at least six or seven months with us before they went off to do their own thing. So it'll be a great time on stage and backstage, I think."
Elliott adds that, "We've always been keen on taking out bands that people know. It's done us a world of good to go out with a name on the poster that doesn't just say, 'Plus special guest...' We've tried it; We had Tripping Daisy in the '90s, who were great people to work with but nobody knew who they were, and it didn't make for a great evening of anticipation, if you like. People would go, 'Who's this lot onstage?' Nobody's going to go see Tesla and Styx and not know who they are. They're going to say, 'I know all those guys and all those songs. That's a show I want to see.'"
Read more at Billboard.com
Written By: Gary Graff
