PHIL COLLEN Says DEF LEPPARD Likely To Play DETROIT On 2027 Tour

Tuesday, 25th August 2026

By Chele Drappel/Screenshot

Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen spoke to US radio about the Live 2026 tour, Manraze and the yet to be announced 2027 tour.

The Live 2026 Tour continues in October and November with ten more shows scheduled.

Including a return to Mexico and South America.

Detroit Video Interview

Def Leppard will resume the Live 2026 tour with a brief return to the USA in Hollywood, FL.

The show talkes place on 15th October at Seminole Hard Rock Live before nine more shows in Mexico and South America.

Phil was recenty interviewed by WRIF 101 radio in Detroit and talked about the reaction to the band's Las Vegas Residency, the Live 2026 UK/European tour, Manraze/box set, Mutt Lange, Queen/Brian May, the next Def Leppard album and at the end a brief mention of the 2027 tour.

2027 Tour

It seems likely Def Leppard will return in 2027 with another big tour of the USA having missed out the big cities in 2025/2026.

Vivian said the band were "avoiding the big markets" on the 2025 tour.

With Def Leppard set to celebrate 50 years as a band in 2027 they may be set to return to these big markets in either stadiums and/or arenas.

And of course, with a new album to promote and the 40th anniversary of 'Hysteria', it will likely be the biggest touring year since 2018.

Phil is asked about a return to Detroit at the end of this interview and replies with "2027".

Detroit is one of the most played cities in the USA outside of Las Vegas.

The announcement of any tour will 'probably' happen in the last half of 2026/early 2027.

A return to Japan and Australia also seems highly likely.

Some kind of live appearance in the UK would also be fitting in their 50th year.

Read some quotes below and watch the full interview via the link.

Visit the Tour News section. For more news on future tour plans.

Visit the Album News section for more news on new music (based on band member quotes).

Phil Collen August 2026 Interview Quotes - (Transcribed by dltourhistory)

Phil, great to talk to you. How's things, man? Great to talk to you.

Wonderful.

You know, I'm actually taking a little break. We just—Def Leppard just finished a European tour. We finished up with a festival in Germany called Wacken, which is like a metal festival. But it was so brilliant. We just loved it.

And, of course, it rained when we went on stage and, you know, it'd been like beautiful sun. And that's kind of typical. But we had a blast.

And then we kick off in South America in October.

Don't you have—do you have a residency coming up, or no?

We've always got a residency coming up. So, yeah, we did. We finished one in February. We were at Caesars Palace in Vegas, which was great. Hopefully, we go back. We had such a brilliant time.

And as I kept saying to everyone, at least two of those shows were in the top five shows we've ever done in our career. They were really, really brilliant, as was some of the stuff we just did in Europe, especially Manchester, for some reason. That was mind-blowingly great.

So, yeah, I mean, that's a good sign. You know, I never thought that would happen, that you could actually say, you know, a few years in, you're doing your best gigs ever.

Yeah. So that's—so wait a second. What made those gigs so great?

Just the energy and how relaxed we were. Like, in the last night of Vegas, me, Joe and Sav were in the audience. We're just walking around the audience playing guitar, singing and people high-fiving, you know, touching you and slapping you—not hard—but just a vibe.

You know, there was just an energy there that went both ways.

And the same thing with the European tour, especially, for some reason, Manchester. You know, Sheffield was great. That's where the band's from. I'm from London. O2 Arena was spectacular.

But I just think that Manchester, for whatever reason, at the edge, there's some great footage. And Nuno Bettencourt from Extreme would come up with us every night and jam. And that was great.

And the last night of that, the arena part was Paris. And again, the reviews were just stunning. You know, Le Monde, which is, you know, a French newspaper, it was like one of the best reviews we've ever had in France. And especially from an actual newspaper, it was actually really cool.

That's great. So, you know, when people come to see you and, you know, like when you're in Vegas or whatnot, people fly from all over the world. So those are diehard Def Leppard fans.

So when people come to see you here in Detroit or wherever, those are Def Leppard fans, too. But you think that they've kind of—they've kind of risked more to go see you guys in Vegas. So maybe they're bigger fans, huh?

I think they are. I think there is that. And I think that that opens that up as well.

But like I said, you know, no reason why Manchester should be like—none of us are from there. It was like, wow.

But Detroit is great. We got a real history with Detroit, obviously. You know, we've recorded live stuff there and we've got a history with it, you know, all the way going back. So, no, love it.

Yeah, I was just talking with—what's his name from Tesla? Frank Hannon. And he was telling me about that tour, the Hysteria tour. That's like the tour that folklore is made of, isn't it?

Without a doubt, without a doubt.

You know, we did that. We were in—I think it was somewhere in Wyoming, or it was Casper, Wyoming, we were in, which is like a population of about five. But we sold out the arena.

And Brian Wheat, this is before, he said, "I think Hysteria is going to go 12 times platinum."

I'm like, "Really?"

He said, "Yeah, I think it is."

And it went 13 times platinum in the US. So, yeah, great. We take it.

Yeah, that is awesome.

Well, speaking of, you know, stuff you've been doing, you talked about how you're taking a little bit of time off, but you still are doing things right now. It's Manraze: Lock Stock & Barrel, the complete recordings.

I was supposed to talk to you about this a couple of months ago. That came out in May. So tell me about that. We had all this material. I didn't know we had two albums out.

Manraze is me, Paul Cook, the drummer from the Sex Pistols, and Simon Laffy, who was the bass player in my band Girl. We were in this kind of post-punk, glam-metal band, if you like.

So we just got together over 20 years ago. It was around the time my dad was dying. He had terminal cancer. And I was just with him in London. And Simon would come over because he knew my dad and say hi. And we just started writing songs.

And I literally said, "Paul Cook would be great on this track." And literally two days later, I took my dad to the hospital. I come out, and there's Paul Cook getting in his car.

And I said, "Your ears must be burning. I've just been saying it'd be great if we got together and played."

We'd never played before.

He said, "Yeah, that'd be cool."

So we went to this little rehearsal room and, bang, it really clicked.

And one of the songs that we recorded in a little demo studio was a song called—I forget what it's called now.

You know, "Surrender"?

No, no, that was the latest one. There was one. I forget. I'll remember it in a minute.

Anyway, we recorded this, and that never got put on an album. So that's part of this five-CD box set, you know, with the instrumentals, live tracks, and the first two albums, and songs that weren't released, like "I Surrender".

Yeah, "Surrender" to me has this kind of pop sensibility, almost like a Tears for Fears type thing, especially around the chorus. Do you get that?

Yeah, absolutely.

I think there was a—no. Yeah, all of that stuff, which I'd pretty much taken from Marvin Gaye. It was like that kind of—because he could get up there and do that, and I do it in a rock song. It's kind of cool, you know.

And obviously, you know, Detroit, you know, Motown and all that stuff. You've obviously been to the Motown House and to some of the stuff that came out there, and some of the beautiful singing songs and the whole thing. It was like, yeah, just incredible.

So, yeah, the influences go all over the show. So I can definitely hear the Tears for Fears thing as well.

Yeah. What is it—what is, like, the unwritten rule in Def Leppard as far as outside projects? Do you guys have any?

No, no, you can do whatever.

And I think we're actually getting to the point where some of the inside projects of the Def Leppard stuff, we're kind of taking some of the restrictions away that you have over the years.

I mean, Queen, Prince, the Beatles, all of those bands, they—David Bowie, you know, they didn't have any restrictions. And that was great.

So we're learning to chill out a little bit and do that. And it becomes way more enjoyable.

Obviously, you do have guidelines. You have parameters. You say, yeah, like in Def Leppard, we couldn't do a reggae song, for example. But Manraze, I can. Yeah, we do.

But, you know, it's like, yeah, it's like the Police were my favorite band. And so they would dunk into reggae all the time, but still keep this kind of rock edge.

So we do that. You know, you learn from your heroes and then we kind of try and apply it all.

But, like, if—I don't know, just throwing this out there—Metallica said, "Hey, Phil, we want you to rip a guitar solo on this song," you don't have to ask anybody. Just kind of just do what you want.

No, that'd be great. Let's know what it is. I want to hear it.

So, yeah, for sure. That would be great.

Yeah, and I saw recently that you were talking about the upcoming music that you're working on right now, which might drop in '27. Is that right?

But we are Def Leppard, so hopefully, but, yeah, not surprising anything, you know.

Yeah, and you were talking about how it is so diverse. You guys are just taking chances, doing different things. You're at that point in your career. Just throw it all up and see what sticks, hey?

Absolutely. I mean, you have to see what it's like at the end. But if it's all in context, that's the thing.

But I like the approach of us not even taking chances, but just, like, following your flow. You know, that's what some of our favorite bands, they would do that.

You know, when Freddie Mercury came up with "Bohemian Rhapsody", everyone thought he was insane, but it wasn't.

It was genius. And so the bit of that you learn from—like, you learn from your heroes. So we take some of that on board.

Did you see that? Did you see the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody? Did you watch it?

I did. I loved it.

And I thought Rami played, you know, Freddie, was amazing. I thought he kind of nailed it. You know, it was—that's beautiful.

So, yeah, it was really cool. I enjoyed it.

Well, I'll tell you what, this—this Manraze, Lock Stock & Barrel, the complete recordings—and Joe, always great to have you here in Detroit.

And maybe we'll see you here coming up in the future. And good luck with that.

Absolutely. 2027.

Watch the full interview at - youtube.com

Def Leppard Live 2026 North/South American Tour

Thursday, 15th October - Hollywood, FL @ Seminole Hard Rock Live

Saturday, 17th October - Querétaro, Mexico @ Autódromo de Querétaro - (New City)

Monday, 19th October - Mexico City, Mexico @ Palacio De Los Deportes

Wednesday, 21st October - Guadalajara, Mexico @ Arena VFG Guadalajara

Saturday, 24th October - San Salvador, El Salvador @ Cuscatlán Stadium - (Outdoor Stadium)

Thursday. 27th October - Alajuela, Costa Rica @ Anfiteatro Imperial Parque Viva - (First Time in Country)

Friday, 30th October - Quito, Ecuador @ Estadio Olimpico Atahualpa - (Outdoor Stadium)

Monday, 2nd November - Bogotá, Colombia @ Movistar Arena

Thursday, 5th November - Buenos Aires, Argentina @ Movistar Arena

Sunday, 8th November - Santiago, Chile @ Movistar Arena

Def Leppard / Latest Release

Rejoice - (Digital Single)
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Def Leppard Tour 2026

Def Leppard - 2026 Tour
Def Leppard - Interviews 2026
Def Leppard - Tour News
Previous News - 21st August 2026
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