Def Leppard’s Joe Elliot Gives Health Update After Being Hospitalized

Def Leppard’s Joe Elliot Gives Health Update After Being Hospitalized

Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe are out currently on “The World Tour,” and Leppard guitarist Phil Collen said the bands are having a blast together. 

“It’s great,” Collen told Radioactiva Colombia. “We’ve known ’em for years. I’ve known all of ’em since the ’80s — early ’80s — and we played with them first time in ’83. It’s great. It’s like being at school with all of your best friends. It’s really fun. 

“We’ve got this [shared chartered] airplane [on the tour] that all of us are on there. And it’s great. There’s two bands that are still around. And I think it means more as you get older. There’s this thing being young, but there’s something about really doing it still later on that makes you — I don’t know — appreciate it more.”

Speaking of being appreciative, Def Leppard singer Joe Elliot was grateful to get out of the hospital in time to perform at the band’s show in Bogota. The show went on as scheduled, but it came just hours after Elliot was hospitalized for respiratory issues. 

“I am alive and well,” Elliot said in a social media message just prior to the show. “Little woozy, I’ll be honest. Severe … moderate to severe altitude sickness. I would hate to know what severe altitude sickness … I wouldn’t want to wish it on my worst enemy. But here I am. So I’ll put everybody’s mind at rest. I’m here, and we are going on at 8 p.m.” 

The previous trek featuring Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe (as well as Poison and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts) didn’t come without its challenges. Crüe drummer Tommy Lee had to sit out most of each of the band’s early shows when it was reveled he broke his ribs in an accident at home. Bret Michaels played on through numerous shows with an undisclosed illness. “The Stadium Tour” also proved to be the curtain call for Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars, who apparently retired from the road due to his long battle with ankylosing spondylitis — a chronic, inflammatory form of arthritis that mainly affects the spine and pelvis.

Ironically, Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil, who faced the lion’s share of online scrutiny in the lead up to the band’s return, has by most accounts performed well and is in the best shape he’s been in recent memory. 

B.J. LISKO
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