They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but when it comes to slightly more mature leopards (or rather, Leppards) it’s a different story altogether. You see, after spending four decades making records the traditional way, the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall Of Famers were forced to rethink their hugely successful formula in 2020, it’s helped create one of the most ambitious LPs the Sheffield legends have ever made.

Diamond Star Halos may have had a hellish start, but when Hot Press catches up with singer Joe Elliott, he describes the months that followed as rather heavenly.

“The album was started the day lockdown was announced,” he recalls. “The boys were all due in Dublin to record in my home studio, but then nobody was allowed to travel. We hastily got on the phone and within 30 minutes me and Phil Collen had a game plan. We decided to go 100% remote and make this album while we were in three different countries, which is insane really.”

Once again enlisting the talents of Leppard co-producer/engineer Ronan McHugh, the band felt emboldened by this new way of working and, ironically, not being together physically actually brought them closer creatively.

“Normally when we were recording, it’d be five alpha males in a room vying for space, but because we did it like this, it opened our minds up immensely. We sound like a band that’s reborn on these sessions. We felt like a brand new band. In the past, we’ve been guilty of too much association or not enough association with Hysteria. We never thought about that once on this record. We were in a different head-space.

“‘From Here To Eternity’ is Rick Savage’s baby. It’s a Def Leppard murder ballad - it references Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and early Queen. That’s a ‘Thank you and good night’ song. It sails off into the sunset like some pirate ship. It’s a dark and unusual piece of work and a big statement. The two songs with Alison Krauss came together easily too. We’ve known each other since 1996.
“When we worked with Mutt Lange in the ‘80s, he’d countrify our harmonies sometimes by changing a word or a chord. What would happen was, over the years, country folk like Alison - and others we’ve worked with like Taylor Swift - would hear a Leppard album and go, ‘This is a fucking country record!’ We ended up getting a lot of fans from that world.”

As Joe elaborates, the genre was again at the centre of proceedings this time round.

“By total coincidence, we had a couple of songs that were country-esque,” he continues. “More Eagles-style than Dolly Parton. I was texting back and forth with Robert Plant, because his football team Wolverhampton Wanderers were playing mine, Sheffield United, in the FA Cup. He was like, ‘Alright kiddo, what you up to?’ I said, ‘Don’t tell anybody, but we’re making a new album!’

“He said, ‘Well, you know, I’ll have to tell Alison as annoyingly you’re her favourite fucking band’ (laughs). So to cut a long story short, I got on the phone with her and she was so excited to work with us. I said, ‘We’ve got two songs, we don’t know what works best so I’ll send you both.’ I got a text back 40 minutes later going ‘OMG I can’t pick, I love them both,’ so I said ‘Why don’t you do those two?’

“Four weeks later she sent us her bits and my jaw dropped to the floor. It was incredible. She took it all to another level. They were good, but she made them even better.”

And speaking of famous fans, Tobias Forge, the mastermind behind Swedish rockers Ghost, has also confessed to being an admirer of Joe and the boys. Is Elliott similarly smitten with one of the most exciting bands of their generation?

“I love Ghost,” he grins. “Phil introduced me to them about eight years ago and he was like, ‘It’s really weird, they look like Swedish death metal but sound really melodic.’ The new album Impera, oh my God, it’s just brilliant. I play them a lot on my radio show on Planet Rock. I hear some Leppard influence on some of their song structures. Fair play to Tobias. There aren’t that many musicians on the planet who admit to liking us these days (laughs). Him and Brian May is about it.”

Next month, Def Leppard, Mötley Crue, Poison and Joan Jett are set to tour together around the States, and Joe confirms all four want to take the show to Europe next year (and his adopted home of Ireland will be on the list).

But before we get to 2023, let’s deal with 2022 and his return to the road after a two-and-a-half year lay-off. Is he worried about getting back out there in the Covid era?

“I’m not worried health-wise,” says Joe. “When you’ve been around as long as me, I’ve already had a lot of things happen and survived them. I got double pneumonia in 2014 and still managed to do the tour with my side band the Down ‘N Outz. I didn’t know I had it until the tour finished. The last gig was in Dublin and I went to my doctor the next day, and he said you’ve got double pneumonia and you’ve had it a while. I was like, that explains a lot!

“Health-wise, I know how to monitor how I am. I know if a singer catches this virus it’s a lot more serious than a drummer or guitar-player. Your fingers still work even if you feel like shit. Bu we’ve had lengthy breaks from the road before. We were either dealing with making albums, Rick’s accident in 1984, or the death of Steve Clark in 1991. We’ve been in some really horrible, dark places, but we survived them. We encountered lockdown and thought, piece of piss! We can do this. This is easy. It’s annoying for everybody, but when we come out the other side, we’re so fucking ready for this.”

And to back up his statement, he teases that the band have plenty more surprises up their sleeves over the months to come...

“This album didn’t take two years to make,” says Joe. “In fact, we’ve been sitting on it for a year! It was finished at the beginning of 2021. We’ve so many other things cooking away in the background; we wanted to make sure we can drip feed you music and stuff for the next four years. We’re like the proverbial swan - it looks all dignified on top, but it’s going like fucking crazy underneath.”

• Diamond Star Halos is out on now via Mercury Records.