Talking to Def Leppard’s Phil Collen (Herald, 6.29.09)

Now based in Southern California (Poison’s CC DeVille lives just down the street from him), Collen also uses his time on the road writing new material and recording demos on his laptop. “I use Garageband on the computer just like any teenager nowadays,” he said. “A lot of really interesting stuff is coming out now that people have easy tools like that to do what they want. That said, I’m glad we came up when there was actually still a music industry around and people could still throw big bucks at us.” Those big bucks helped build the band members’ retirement accounts, thank you very much, but Collen and company have never really given up the grind. The group continues to push forward by releasing new records every few years and trying everything from a set full of covers (2006’s “Yeah!”) to a team-up with country crooner Tim McGraw (on last year’s “Songs from the Sparkle Lounge”). “There are always new people appearing in the world to win over,” Collen said. So don’t expect Def Lep to deliver a blatant rehash of your ripped jean jacket days at the mall. Even their show’s lights and moving LED screens get updated every year. “It’s like, ‘The new iPhone is coming out this Friday!,’ ” Collen said, “except it’s some new piece of equipment we have to dodge.”