Being one of the longest-standing bands, Def Leppard surely has a certain plan they have followed for their live shows all these years. In a recent interview with 89 A Rádio Rock, the band’s vocalist, Joe Elliott, explained the tactic they commonly use at their concerts and how the Rolling Stones also applies the same thing.
The band has been currently on the road for their world tour with Mötley Crüe, following the release of their latest album, ‘Diamond Star Halos,’ which came nearly seven years after their 2015 album ‘Def Leppard.’ Fans have anticipated the album and the tour for a long time. So, as the shows have started, they are curious about what kind of setlist awaits them.
Not long ago, Bret Michaels of Poison made a commentary about the band’s live performances. He stated that Leppard preserved their success by including new songs along with popular pieces on their setlists. Now, in a recent interview, Joe Elliott himself confirmed Michaels’ statement and gave more details on their reasoning.
The musician first claimed that because different audiences attended each of their performances, they did not frequently vary their setlist. He explained that playing different songs for every crowd would be unpleasing, and they would not do that to make a critic happy. Consequently, they will stick to the same setlist for all the concerts of their upcoming tour.
Elliott expressed the band’s logic behind their decision:
“We’re not gonna change the set around too much because it’s a different crowd every night. And this is the one thing that critics of that situation never really take into consideration. If we were [playing to] the same fifty thousand people every night, we would change the set more. But it’s always different people.
And you drop one song and play another one, and somebody will come on and say, ‘Oh, they didn’t play ‘Photograph,” or, ‘They didn’t play ‘Foolin’.’ They played something else instead.’ So, we can please somebody, an armchair critic. We’re not gonna go there.”
The vocalist also informed the audience that they would play the songs people wanted to hear while also adding a few new pieces. Because as much as they want to share their new songs and promote their new album, he stated, the audiences don’t attend their shows ‘to be educated.’ So, instead of mainly playing the new songs, they ‘do a bit of a mixture.’ He pointed out that examples like the Rolling Stones and Queen, who have been around for a long time, also share their viewpoint.
The musician’s explanation read:
“We’re obviously gonna be playing songs that people wanna hear. This is what the Rolling Stones ostensibly do, or [Paul] McCartney, or Genesis, or U2 — anybody who’s been around for years. Depeche Mode, Queen…
[Fans] don’t come to be educated in stadiums; they come to be entertained. If you’re gonna educate people, you play a small place and play your entire new record to the ones that really care. What we do is obviously do a bit of a mixture of everything.”
Apparently, Def Leppard will use the tactic they have used for years on their upcoming shows as well. Their setlist will be a good mixture of old and new songs and remain that way for the rest of the tour to please their audience instead of the critics. They want to entertain their fans and also keep them updated on their new work, just like many other long-running bands like the Rolling Stones.
