Def Leppard plan a 45-date 2027 tour with Goo Goo Dolls

Four months on the road

Def Leppard will spend most of the first half of 2027 on the road in North America. The Sheffield band announced a 45-date arena tour on 8 October 2026, with Goo Goo Dolls and The Struts on the bill, opening at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on 2 March and closing at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on 2 July, Matt Wardlaw reported for Loudwire.

The tour takes in most of the big arenas in the US and several in Canada, along with one of the most famous outdoor venues in the country, the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, on 1 May. Madison Square Garden in New York follows on 23 June.

It comes as they finish work on a new studio album, which Loudwire reports is expected to arrive in 2027.

Matt Wardlaw reported this first for Loudwire. Checked against Loudwire: Def Leppard Announce Massive 2027 North American Tour With Goo Goo Dolls + The Struts.

The full route

The tour opens in the north-east and Canada in March: Allentown on 2 March, the Bell Centre in Montreal on 5 March, Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on 7 March, Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on 9 March, Centre Vidéotron in Quebec City on 11 March, the Prudential Center in Newark on 13 March, TD Garden in Boston on 17 March, Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on 19 March, Capital One Arena in Washington on 21 March and PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh on 23 March.

It then heads west through the United Center in Chicago on 25 March, the Target Center in Minneapolis on 27 March, Ball Arena in Denver on 29 March and the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on 31 March. After a break, the band pick up in Texas and the middle of the country in April: the Moody Center in Austin on 13 April, North Little Rock on 16 April, Dickies Arena in Fort Worth on 18 April, Mobile on 20 April, Wichita on 22 April, Lincoln on 24 April, Kansas City on 26 April and Glendale, Arizona, on 29 April.

The West Coast leg runs from the Hollywood Bowl on 1 May through Chase Center in San Francisco on 5 May, Sacramento on 7 May, Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle on 9 May and Spokane on 11 May, to Rogers Arena in Vancouver on 14 May and Rogers Place in Edmonton on 16 May.

The final stretch starts in San Antonio on 29 May and takes in the Toyota Center in Houston on 1 June, Oklahoma City, Milwaukee, St Louis, Louisville, Savannah, Tampa, State Farm Arena in Atlanta on 17 June, Columbus, Cleveland, Madison Square Garden on 23 June, Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville on 25 June, Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia on 27 June and Charlotte on 30 June, before the last night in Indianapolis.

An artist fan club presale was set for 10am local time on Monday 12 October, followed by card and phone network presales and a general sale at 10am local time on Friday 16 October through Live Nation, according to Loudwire.

From Sheffield to hard rock's Thriller

Def Leppard came out of Sheffield in the late 1970s as part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, but they were never only a metal band. Joe Elliott told Michael Hann for The Guardian in 2018 that the group always had "this inner demon of pop wanting to come out". He said the bassist Rick Savage loved Queen and T Rex, while he loved T Rex, Bowie, Sweet and Slade.

That pop instinct came through on Photograph, the single that turned them into stars of MTV, and its album Pyromania went diamond in the US, with platinum sales 15 times over, Hann reported. Making it cost the band their founder, the guitarist Pete Willis, who was sacked partway through the recording because of his drinking. "The band had to come first," Elliott said.

The follow-up took four years. In that time the drummer Rick Allen lost an arm in a car crash in 1984, and returned on a custom-built electronic kit with foot triggers. With the producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange, the band then made Hysteria, released in 1987. Hann wrote that it spawned seven singles, sold somewhere in the region of 25 million copies and deserves its reputation as hard rock's Thriller, because the band built the songs from the best sections they could write rather than recording songs as they stood.

Tragedy followed success. The guitarist Steve Clark died as a result of alcohol abuse in January 1991, and was replaced by Vivian Campbell. Elliott told The Guardian he often had the hotel room next to Clark's on tour and could hear through the walls the pain he was in. The band carried on through the grunge years, with Elliott saying they were big enough that even with some fans gone they were still playing to 24,000 people a night instead of 36,000.

There were still hits in the 1990s. Two Steps Behind, first a B-side, ended up on the soundtrack of the film Last Action Hero after the composer Michael Kamen asked the band for an unreleased song. The band's biggest UK hit was a power ballad rejected for the 1992 album Adrenalize and later revived for the greatest hits album Vault, and its original 1990 demo carried Clark's last solo for the group, Elliott told Hann. In 2006 they made Yeah!, an album of covers of the songs they grew up on, and Elliott said that even as a live attraction they could not give up on making records.

Still filling stadiums

Def Leppard were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019, and won the fan ballot that year, Ben Beaumont-Thomas reported for The Guardian. The band had once said they would politely refuse the honour, and even after accepting the nomination Elliott argued that the Hall of Fame did not reflect what ordinary fans thought mattered.

They remain one of the biggest live draws in rock. In 2018 they played Hysteria in full in arenas, which Hann reviewed at The O2 in London. In 2023 they co-headlined a world tour with Mötley Crüe, and Christopher Lord, reviewing the European opening night for The Guardian, described 23,000 fans at Bramall Lane, the home of Sheffield United, and a band that had sold 100 million albums over five decades. Allen, he wrote, seemed close to tears after his drum solo.

Hann described Elliott in 2018 as still "delightfully fannish" about music, and Elliott compared an older band to a footballer who moves from centre forward into midfield. You can still do a job, he said, as long as you know your limitations.

A new album in 2027

The band released a new single, Rejoice, early in 2026 as they began their latest residency in Las Vegas, Loudwire reported. They have been working on a new album in spare moments since, including in a basement studio they set up in Las Vegas during the residency.

The guitarist Phil Collen told Ultimate Classic Rock in July, as Loudwire reported, that the new record was influenced by Queen and the way that band worked. He said the members of Queen would put everything into each other's songs while keeping a recognisable sound, and that Def Leppard had started working the same way. He called the album really diverse, and said the band's last record, Diamond Star Halos, had been made during the Covid pandemic by sending ideas back and forth.

Elliott said in early July that the band had about 18 songs on their working list, "nearly two albums", and would choose the 10 or 11 that fitted best. No title or release date has been announced.

Before the tour starts, the band finish 2026 with shows in Mexico, El Salvador and Costa Rica, after a warm-up date booked for Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida, on 15 October, according to Loudwire.

Prices we are tracking

We have tracked 12 of the US dates on StubHub since 10 October. At 4.25am Eastern time on Friday 30 October, the cheapest ticket for most of them sat between about $95 and $115 before fees, plus StubHub booking fees at checkout.

Madison Square Garden was the cheapest of the dates we track, at $91.18, its lowest since we began tracking and down from $146.01 on 10 October. Chase Center in San Francisco was at $94.05 and the United Center in Chicago at $95.71, both at or close to their lowest. Philadelphia was at $99, Washington at $101 and the Hollywood Bowl at $101.23, against a high of $134 for that show earlier in the month.

At the other end, Fort Worth was the dearest at $128.70, its highest so far, up from a low of $93.06. Seattle was at $114, Newark at $111.94, Houston at $111.09, Boston at $106.85 and Austin at $104.40. All of these figures are before fees, plus StubHub booking fees at checkout.

The spread across the tour is narrow, so for most fans the nearest date is likely to be the best value. The live prices for each date print below this story and are checked hourly, and you can set an alert on any of them to get an email when the cheapest price for your date falls.

Tickets today

What StubHub lists now, checked hourly. Prices are listing prices; StubHub adds its booking fees at checkout.