VIVIAN CAMPBELL On Next DEF LEPPARD Album/Writing New Country Song

Tuesday, 23rd September 2025

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Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell was recently interviewed on UK radio and mentioned the next album with audio and a full transcript available.

The band are currently on a short break ahead of some October shows.

Vivian appeared on UK radio and mentioned the next album.

Next Def Leppard Studio Album

During his recent radio interview with BBC Radio Ulster Vivian suggested the new album will be released in 2026.

He also said the band have up to 18 songs ready for it and revealed one of his songs is a country song in 3/4 time that the band may or may not use.

Vivian first mentioned a new album release in the next year and up to 18 songs in a June interview with SiriusXM radio when he also gave some very positive health news.

Belfast Show/Health/History/Inspiration

Vivian also talked about his recent visit to Ireland/Northern Ireland, the 2026 Belfast show, his musical inspirations and early bands plus his health situation (repeating what he said in June).

Read some quotes below and listen to the full audio via the BBC 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).

Def Leppard 2025.

Vivian Campbell/BBC Radio Ulster September 2025 Quotes - (Transcribed by dltourhistory)

From the streets of Belfast to the biggest stages in the world, Vivian Campbell has carved out a legendary career — from DIO to Whitesnake, and for over three decades now, as the powerhouse guitarist of Def Leppard.

With the band back on the road for the 2026 tour, and a Las Vegas residency on the horizon, the band keeps finding new energy on stage.

Yes, to find out if he's looking forward to returning to his roots, Vivian joins us now.

Welcome to the program. Good morning to you. It's good to hear, Vivian, that you have completely lost your Belfast accent — or maybe not quite?

Yeah, I've been in America for a long time, so it's definitely thinned it out.

I went to L.A. when I was 20 years old to do the Holy Diver album with Ronnie Dio, and I never escaped until about six years ago.

I escaped to New Hampshire, which is where I live now. It's very different. I gotta say, I really, really like it here.

You know, I never felt comfortable in California, but one thing led to another — and I was marrying, children — then you can't leave.

Not that you've lost your accent at all — there's the odd word in there that sounds a bit different, but...

I know. Yeah, it's a bit strange. Yeah.

Do you miss home?

I do, actually. I was just there last week because we played in Chelmsford at the BBC Radio 2 In The Park Festival.

And then the following day, my wife Kate and I, we went over to Dublin and picked up a rental car and headed up to Donegal.

It was a short trip, but it was really, really nice. It was the first time I'd been back in over a year. Normally, I like to get there at least once, maybe twice a year.

2026 Belfast Show

And Vivian, you're set to come back to Belfast in June next year to play the Belsonic Festival.

What does that mean to you — to be playing a homecoming show like that?

It really is a privilege for us to come back and do this — to headline it.

It's big for everyone in the band, but especially big for me, obviously.

Is there extra pressure when it is, you know, so to speak, a home crowd? Because we're very proud of people from here, especially when they do well — but we can also be quite critical. Do you ever feel pressure?

No, no actually. No, I don't. I actually feel a little bit more emboldened every time I play Belfast.

You know, it was different — like, the first time I came back and played in Northern Ireland was with Dio in 1984, I think. We played the Antrim Forum, which was just a horrible-sounding room.

I mean, it's like this square, concrete room and the sound was bouncing all over. But, you know, I was a little intimidated about that because I felt that there was a bit of tension there.

But ever since then — and certainly every time I've been back with Def Leppard — you know, I've been in Leppard now for 33 years, and we've played in Belfast a bunch — and every time I've been back, it just gets better and better.

And I really do feel a lot of love from a Belfast audience, and I really appreciate it.

And you've been in Def Leppard, there as you were saying, for 33 years. The band itself has been going for over 40 years.

So what's the secret to it? Like, what keeps you going?

Do you still feel like you're drawing in the younger generations that are discovering your music even today?

Yeah, we're definitely, you know, encouraged by the fact that over the past 15 or 20 years even, there's been this slow build of a younger generation coming in to watch our shows.

And that's very, very encouraging, because not only are the numbers of our audience growing, but with a younger audience comes more energy.

We really feed off of that, you know, because the bulk of our show — to be honest — we've been playing for decades.

And, you know, so for us to go out and play them night after night, we rely upon the audience to give us that feedback — to have that energy and that enthusiasm about hearing these songs and hearing us play them.

You know, we don't take it lightly. We're geezers — we're in our 60s — and to be able to continue to do this, and to have our audience continue to grow — it's a privilege.

Why the hell wouldn't you want to do this?

And there's a couple of things about Def Leppard that I can point to, having had the experience of being in other bands.

I mean, let me count them: I started with Sweet Savage in Belfast, Dio, I was in Whitesnake for 20 minutes, Riverdogs, Shadow King — I was even a stunt guitar player for Thin Lizzy.

There's such a great work ethic in Def Leppard — it's just off the charts. Everyone is working to a common goal, and we all realize that the music is so much more important than any of us.

And I think there's a collective ego that goes with that.

You know, we still share a dressing room, which is pretty remarkable for a band of our age.

New Def Leppard Album

I thought he was skirting around it the other day — the fact that you still play and get along so well because you don't speak to each other.

But they’re still all there within the band, Vivian, yes?

There is, yeah.

You know, I've said this before: it's not like we're The Monkees and we go on holiday together in matching pajamas — but we have a healthy respect for each other.

We do like each other. And that's one of the reasons why we share a dressing room — because if there's any issue that's floating around, it's got to be dealt with. It can't be allowed to fester.

And being in one room together really serves that purpose. We come off stage and we go back into our collective dressing room, and we analyze the show.

There's a genuine camaraderie. We genuinely like each other.

You know, Joe told me 33 years ago — he said that Def Leppard is going to be one of those bands, one of those great British institutional bands like Queen, like The Who.

That's what we're aiming for — a career band that keeps growing and growing and growing.

And we still make new music. We've got a new record that's going to come out sometime next year — we’ve already got like 18 songs or something for it.

And we don’t want to just be a nostalgia act.

So we just keep going and going. We still have a lot of ambition. We still have a lot of gratitude. We still absolutely love doing what we do.

And that energy, I think, shows when we go on stage. I think people pick up on that.

That was Def Leppard — Pour Some Sugar on Me — and we are chatting to Vivian Campbell from the band.

New Def Leppard Country Song

Are you still inspired by the same sort of topics to write music about, or what are your inspirations for the new songs that you're putting together now?

You know, my inspiration — it has to be something personal with me.
Everyone writes to different degrees. I don't write a lot, but when I do, it has to come from somewhere personal. It has to be sparked by something, you know?

But there's also an argument to be made that you have to put the time in to find something.
Like, if I spend a few hours a day with my guitar just goofing around, I'll inevitably come up with something that piques my interest.
And I'll go, "Oh, that's nice!" — I'll whip out the iPhone and just do a little memo recording of it.

That's the easy part.
The hard part is going back and working on that, and finessing it into a song.

But every now and then, something comes super easy.
Like, I just wrote a country song a couple of months ago.
So I gave it to Joe and the guys and said, "I don't know if you want to do anything with this," because it's actually in 3/4 time — which Def Leppard has never done.
And it's got the word "drinking" in it.

So those are the two things that, in my mind, sort of make it lean towards country.
There may or may not be a country song on the new Def Leppard record.
Or they might just think, "Nah, this is too much of a stretch."

But that song came very, very easily to me.
It literally just fell out.
Within a couple of hours, I had the song — for the most part.
Those are always the good ones.

Health

You've been very open about your own health journey as well.
I believe you're in remission from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
How does that impact your approach to what you do every day?

I don't think it ever really changed too much regarding my approach to everything.
You know, my glass has always been half full.

So the day that they told me I had cancer — it was obviously very, very shocking.
When you hear that for the first time, you tend to go into a bit of a downward spiral.

But, you know, within a day or so, I decided I was just going to continue.
I was very fortunate that I was diagnosed early, and there were ever-advancing treatments and whatnot.

And then this past January, I was in hospital to do a donor stem cell transplant.
And I've been very fortunate that that seems to have worked — so now I'm in 100% remission, and everything worked out great.

I had a fantastic donor.
I still don't know his name.
I just know he's a 21-year-old American male.
And in a couple of years, I can find out his name and buy him a beer.

He probably hates Def Leppard.
"Oh my God — can I have my stem cells back?"

But in this day and age, when there's so much dreadful news in the world, it's nice to know that somewhere, there's a young man who — for whatever reason — decided he would become a donor to some anonymous person.

And he saved my life.

Early Days

Going back to the early days, then — what was that initial spark?
Because it’s led to such an incredible career that many — or most — guitar or music lovers could only dream of.

I remember watching Top of the Pops and seeing Marc Bolan.
That did it for me. T. Rex — the hair, the guitar, the glitter...

Then you had Bowie and his whole Ziggy Stardust thing.
I always loved the sound of the electric guitar.

From there, I remember hearing things like the opening riff to Day Tripper by The Beatles — the distortion, the guitar, and that little piece of feedback that happens right before it — I was like, "Yes!"

And then in 1972, I think, my cousin gave me Rory Gallagher’s Live in Europe album.
That was the first album I had, and we were like, "Oh my God!"
Rory Gallagher live was just fantastic.

Then the following Christmas, I was at the Ulster Hall to see Rory.
And then the Christmas after that — and the one after that — like, every year.
He was my first real guitar hero.

And then eventually I discovered Thin Lizzy, and the great guitar players with Lizzy — Brian Robertson, Scott Gorham — and then ultimately Gary Moore, another Belfast man who, in my opinion, was the greatest guitar player on the planet.

So that was my path in terms of guitar players.

Viv, it’s really good to get talking to you, then.

My pleasure.

Thanks very much, Vivian. Good to speak to you.

Cheers.

Okay — cheers, Viv, for that.
And of course, Vivian Campbell and Def Leppard have a Las Vegas residency next year and are going on a UK and European tour in 2026, including playing Belsonic in Belfast on Friday the 26th of June — and tickets are available now.

Listen to the full interview @ bbc.co.uk/sounds

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