Monday, 9th May 2022
Prev  |  Next

26 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD Play SLANG Radio Concert In LOS ANGELES

Def Leppard 1996. Screenshot

Def Leppard played a radio promo show on 9th May 1996 in Los Angeles, CA to premiere the Slang album and audio/video is available.

The show took place at the ZBT (Zeta Beta Tau) Fraternity House on the UCLA campus.

It was billed as the Slang Album Radio World Premiere and hosted by KLOS 95.5 radio.

The special was broadcast live and carried to 144 stations around the USA on the album radio network.

For songs were played live alongside band interviews and fan questions - the live debut of 'Work It Out' plus 'Rocket', 'Armageddon It' and 'PSSOM'.

After the special had ended the band played eight more live songs including some requests from the audience. New album tracks were also broadcast on radio for the first time.

The studio songs included were - 'Truth?', 'Turn To Dust', 'Work It Out', 'Deliver Me', 'All I Want Is Everything' and 'Gift Of Flesh'.

The band members discussed their new sound, Rick playing real acoustic drums again, Vivian writing songs and recording the album in Spain.

The event was attended by bassist Hugh McDonald (Bon Jovi), Craig DeFalco (Moonshine) and guitarist Bruce Kulick (ex-KISS).

Earlier in the week the band had performed 'Slang' for the first time for Top Of The Pops which was broadcast on UK TV on 9th May. Only Joe's vocal was live. Tapings for that show were usually done the done the day before so it's possible the band only flew back out to LA on the 8th May.

The band were back in rehearsals for the 'Slang' world tour by the weekend and taped an MTV Europe Headbanger's Ball special on 12th May at Mates Studios in Burbank and at the Griffith Park Observatory.

Listen to the full radio broadcast via the YouTube playlist and view short video clips in the MTV News video.


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).


Slang Album World Premiere - Magazine Article

"How do you get a multi-platinum band to play your backyard keg party?. As the old saying goes, you gotta have connections. Apparently, someone in the Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity organisations in pretty tight with a VIP at Mercury Records, which is why the ZBT frat house at UCLA was chosen to host the world premier broadcast (on KLOS 95.5 locally and via Album Network nationwide) of Def Leppard's Slang on May 9 and a performance by the band."

"After an hour of Slang selections interspersed with interviews, Def Leppard plugged in to play 'Work It Out', 'Rocket', 'Armageddon It' and 'Pour Some Sugar On Me' as college kids and KLOS contest winners crowded the stage and industryites stayed a comfortable distance to avoid flying beer."

"The radio broadcast ended there, but the band did not, and continued to entertain the ZBT invites (and others watching from nearby roofs and balconies) with eight more songs: 'Action', 'Hit And Run', 'Hysteria', 'Animal', 'Photograph', 'Rock Of Ages', 'Love Bites' and 'Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)'."

"For those luck enough to be there, it was a rare opportunity to catch Def Leppard in fine form in an intimate setting. They're now playing much larger venues on their summer tour. See Concert Calendar for dates."

9th May 1996 Los Angeles, CA Photos

Screenshots by dltourhistory/magazine scan.

Slang Album World Premiere - Press Quote

The Album Network presents The World Premiere Broadcast.

Def Leppard Slang.

Thursday, May 9th. 10pm ET / 7PM PT.

Live from the ZBT Fraternity House on the UCLA campus.

The Album Network and Mercury Records are throwing a frat party that even the alumni of Animal House would be proud of as we world premiere tracks from the brand new album Slang and cap off the evening with a LIVE performance from Def Leppard that'll have the likes of Troy Aikman and Bill Walton wishing they were still taking classes at UCLA.


Slang Album World Premiere - Interview Quotes

Vivian Campbell On Work It Out

"They did yeah. They changed it considerably though. You wanna hear the original?."

Phil Collen

"Well, you will hear it! It's coming out as well. It's gonna be a B-Side. The Demo."

Vivian Campbell

"Yeah, it's pretty different you know. It was Def Leppard-ized. It's good. (on being in the band). It gives me a chance to write more and to sing. I mean I like to do those things. A lot of hard rock bands were very focused towards being one dimensional in the 80s and Def Leppard's always been about writing songs. So that's good and it's always been a really strong vocal band and I love to sing. So it's a great home for me and you know they're alright for a sad bunch of tossers."

Joe Elliott On Slang Sound/Not working with Mutt

"Yeah Mutt's busy doing a lot of other things. He's working with his wife Shania Twain and Bryan Adams. I mean he's very busy anyway but we wanted to make an album that was different to something that we could have made if we'd have done it with Mutt. So you know it was time for a change basically."

"Well we didn't really learn to twist the knobs. But we learnt to use our ears and we got Pete Woodroffe to twist the knobs. He's a lot better at knob twiddling than we are."

Def Leppard 1996. Screenshot

Joe Elliott On Working In Spain

"Right and Phil's got a place here. But we decided we'd go somewhere where none of us lived just to be awkward."

"Well, not so much in the streets..."

Rick Savage

"Yeah we did a couple of songs on the veranda if you like. A couple of the old acoustic songs which I still believe I think have got dogs barking on the basic tracks and things like that you know. It was a just a great atmosphere top be in that sort of climate and it was very conducive to just like having a bit of a laugh really."

12th May 1996 MTV Europe - Interview Quote

Phil Collen

"We did that the other night actually. We done this Fraternity thing for the radio, a live thing. And then we finished the set we done and it was like, 'What shall we do?' and we're all standing there talking and all these kids there and they started shouting out requests. So we just done 'em. We literally done 'em and it's the first time we've really been able to do that and it was very cool."

Watch all the available fan videos on this YouTube playlist.

Def Leppard Fan Videos 1996.

Fan photos and reviews from any past tour can be submitted - Here


Def Leppard 2022.

Def Leppard / Latest Release


Def Leppard / Latest Tour

Def Leppard World Tour 2022


Related News - 14 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD Record Live Session At ABBEY ROAD Studios

Related News - 14 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD Launch SPARKLE LOUNGE Album/Film Promo Video In LONDON

Related News - 29 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD's Adrenalize Tour In OSLO, NORWAY (Video)

Related News - 29 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD Get Adrenalized In GOTHENBURG (Video)

Related News - 39 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD Start US/CAN PYROMANIA Headline Tour IN ODESSA, TX

Related News - 28 Years Ago DEF LEPPARD Unplugged In Stockholm, Sweden (Video)


share this story:





get def leppard news

Stay in touch with the latest updates.


explore def leppard tour history
All News
Tour News
Album News
All Tours