Joe Elliott Surprised Fans During Def Leppard Las Vegas Residency

By Bruce Henne | Published: Feb 22, 2026 3:02 PM EST

(hennemusic) Joe Elliott recently surprised fans during Def Leppard's Las Vegas residency, and are sharing video footage from the show. The series - which kicked off at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace on February 3 - features a mix of Def Leppard's classic tracks and hits from throughout their career alongside some surprises in the mix, as well as featuring the live debut of the UK group's latest single, "Rejoice", which arrived just ahead of opening night.

"This song's been an amazing journey from concept to conclusion," says Elliott. "I said to Phil [Collen] one day, 'I've got this idea for a lyric where the narrator is at absolute rock bottom and wants to rise up to a higher level. Do you have a musical piece that might match with that?' And he said, 'As it happens, yes I do.'"

"I had this riff, this idea for a song a while ago actually," adds Collen, "so when Joe came to me I created this drum loop based with a tribal sound and it fit perfectly with this other arrangement I had. I sent it to Joe and it was like magic - he sang straight over the top of it. And that's how the song was formed.

"Then we gave it to Ronan [McHugh] who'd done a proper drum loop with different sounds. It all started gelling and just sounded like a powerful chant. We love it. It's hard rock for us. It's got a bit more of an 'oomph' than stuff we've been doing for a while. It's kind of magical."

Watch some Def Leppard live concert video from Las Vegas here.