How Robert Plant And Joe Elliott’s Competition Led To Alison Krauss Collaboration, Phil Collen Explains

Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen recently joined an interview with Metal Edge to discuss their upcoming album, ‘Diamond Star Halos.’ He also opened up about how they ended up collaborating with Alison Krauss on two songs.

Diamond Star Halos,‘ the twelfth studio album of Def Leppard, will finally arrive on May 27, 2022. It will mark the band’s first new album in seven years since their 2015 self-titled album. The band members remotely recorded the album during the pandemic.

The lead single of the album, titled ‘Kick,’ arrived on March 17, 2022. Later on, the group also released the second single, ‘Take What You Want,’ about a month ago. The forthcoming album will also feature vocals from Alison Krauss on two tracks and the contributions from David Bowie pianist Mike Garson on two other songs. The band will have a chance to promote the album on their upcoming ‘Stadium Tour.’

Talking about the new record, Phil Collen reflected on how Alison Krauss got involved and performed duets with Joe Elliott. The guitarist revealed that competition between Robert Plant and Elliott made it possible. As Collen stated, the two musicians were having a conversation about their soccer teams and which teams were worse than the other.

Amid their conversation, Joe mentioned Plant about their new record. Then, Robert Plant said Alison Krauss would be pleased to hear it as she is a massive fan of the band. Then, their collaboration naturally happened, and Krauss sang two songs, ‘This Guitar’ and ‘Lifeless,’ from their forthcoming record.

How Alison Krauss joined Def Leppard’s upcoming album in Phil Collen’s words:

“This is a good name-dropping thing. Joe was talking to Robert Plant about whose soccer team sucked most. Actually, Plant’s team, Wolves, beat Sheffield United, which is Joe’s team. So they were talking, and Joe said to Robert, ‘You know, we’re actually doing an album.’ And Robert said, ‘Oh, I’m out with Alison. She’ll be pleased to hear.’

Because apparently, she’s a big fan. So that’s what started it. And Alison is actually singing two songs on the record. So that, again, was just kind of a natural thing. It wasn’t like, ‘We should get Alison Krauss.’ It just evolved naturally. The whole album was like that.”

After a long break, Def Leppard will finally return to the stage with their long-awaited ‘Stadium Tour.’ Mötley Crüe, Poison, and Joan Jett will also join Def Leppard on the stage. The bands will hit the road from June 16 in Atlanta to September 8 in Las Vegas.