Joe Elliott Says New Mirrorball Material Influenced by Queen

Def Leppard are set to release their first-ever live album this May. The album, titled Mirrorball, will feature a mixture of live classics, like “Pour Some Sugar on Me” and “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak,” and three new studio tracks. Singer Joe Elliott recently spoke with Billboard about the band’s decision to include new songs in the set.

“When we decided to do (the live album), it just got said – I don't know by who – ‘Why don't we chuck a couple of new songs on the end?’” said Elliott. “And that two became three, and in fairness it could've been four if we'd just had a little bit more time. But we wanted to tour this summer, so any fourth or fifth song we had brewing, we'll save them for the next record.”

Elliott went on to say that the three new songs are “all very different to each other.” He described his own composition, “Undefeated,” as “a very Queen-type vocal thing,” adding “it even features piano and stuff.” He described guitarist Phil Collen’s “All About Believin’” as “a pop-rock song” and called bassist Rick Savage’s “Kings of the World” as “a big, epic, rock anthem that will sound great in arenas and stadiums all over the world –

kind of 'We Will Rock You' with guitars, if you like.”

Regarding the live tracks, which also include “Photograph,” “Hysteria” and “Foolin’,” Elliott says there was minimal studio trickery in the recordings.

“I think one of the reasons a lot of artists used to — how can I say this — cheat and clean up their live recordings was because they only recorded the one night. Somebody makes the odd mistake and they don't want it going out forever, so they go in and clean it up. We didn't have to do that because we just chose the versions that had no mistakes on them. A very nice luxury. Thank you, technology.”