Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Def Leppard and Journey will be joined by the legendary Steve Miller Band for their summer stadium tour show at the home of the Atlanta Braves, Truist Park, on July 13, 2024.

The Journey/Def Leppard lineup is a reprise of a 2018 billing at the same venue, where the skies opened up during the show. They're prepared for Southern storms with a non-slip stage surface, but the guys hope the sun will set in dry weather as 40,000 fans file in to hear some of the biggest hits of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s Saturday night.

Likely on tap from Journey: "Faithfully," "Lights" and one of the most-streamed rock songs in the world: "Don't Stop Believin'." And from Def Leppard: "Hysteria," "Photograph" and "Pour Some Sugar on Me." Steve Miller is known for his songs "The Joker," "Abracadabra" and "Rock'n Me" (in which he mentions Atlanta). 

Def Leppard released a new glam-rock inspired track "Just Like 1973" last month.

Journey cofounder and guitarist Neal Schon and Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen talked with GPB's Kristi York Wooten about their bands' history and which songs they hope will be the biggest singalongs.
 

Schon on carrying Journey's legacy and being covered by Georgia artist Teddy Swims

Neal Schon: There's no end sight [for Journey] for me right now. I don't see it ending any time soon. I see it actually becoming bigger every year. And the newer generation of kids that are coming to see our shows, it's just phenomenal, you know? I mean, I'm just blown away, really. And they know all our material and — You know, it has to do with, you know, how long we've been doing this and all the opportunities that we've had. Whether it was [our music on] Glee, The Sopranos, the movies that the songs were in.

And then you have, like, an artist that I was watching for a long time with my wife: Teddy Swims, and, you know, he's on the internet for — we're watching him for five years, and I'm going, "This guy's got a really soulful voice. I hope something happens for him one day." And what does he do one day? He sits down with his keyboard player, JJ, and he starts belting out "Don't Stop Believin'." It looks like to be a little hotel, you know, hallway with an upright piano, no tricks, no gimmicks, just a cellphone and a lot of talent and it goes viral. So, you know, we meet ... I get invited to go on America's Got Talent and play with him and meet him and I perform with him. And then we ended up doing an another show in San Francisco. But around the time, then we were hearing, that, you know, in Forbes magazine that we have the biggest song ever in the history of time of all music [Journey's original 1981 recording of the song]. And then Teddy Swims comes with his song, you know, then he attained the No. 1 slot, too. So, just like it's a lot of synergy, you know, honestly, and timing and it just, it's — it's like, I feel really blessed because Journey has just never really had a bad time.

On the history of Journey's 'Don't Stop Believin'' and why the band loves to hear fans sing along

Neal Schon: I actually had a gut instinct about the song that I didn't feel like anybody else really did at the time. I recall being in this studio, over in the East Bay [San Francisco], Fantasy Recording Studios, where we did the album, and we're in final mixing stage, with our producers, you know, Mike Stone and Kevin Nelson. And when I'm listening back to the whole album, that song in particular kind of hit me, and I turned to the guys and I go, "You know, I think there's something special with this song. I think that it's going to be massively huge." And this is like back when we cut it, you know, in '81. And so to have it actually happen so many years later is really, it's quite amazing. And, you know, it just seems to get bigger and bigger and bigger all over the world. We're getting ready to also embark on a tour in some different countries that we've never been. You know, after we finish up this tour in '25, we're already working on a lot of stuff like that. Because that is what we do. You know, I mean, to be able to turn on the world to our music is — is quite a cool thing after all this time. And, you know, these songs are just not going anywhere. They're embedded in stone, as I said. And, you know, to see soccer fields, football fields from all over the world and people singing at the top of their lungs and using that song is just surreal again, to me, you know? 

[Performing] is the whole thing for me. You know, I love, performing live, I always have. Since I started professionally when I was a kid, even with Santana, there was nothing — there wasn't a scared bone in my body. You know, I just loved the feeling of being able to captivate an audience and to know that you've, you know, grabbed their attention and you hold their heart and soul for a second. And, that they're just being relieved of a lot of everyday issues that everybody deals with. I mean, music, I think, is the ultimate healer. You know, it always has been, since the beginning of the blues, you know, where the blues came from. It was a prayer and it was a healing music to to all that — that were involved in it and all that listen to it that are going through, you know, harder times, too. So, it's one of the reasons that, you know, I like to keep it really pure and don't like to involve politics or any one religion because, you know, all cultures should be able to enjoy our music and take it as they will, you know, and enjoy it. 

 

On cowriting 'Lights' with Steve Perry in 1978

Neal Schon: I say "It's time to get out your lighters. Oh, not lighters, cellphones." And the whole place just lights up every night, you know? And so, that's a high point for me. And [the song is a great remembrance of the beginning stages of us becoming a way bigger band when [former singer Steve Perry] joined the band [in 1977 and left in 1987 and again in 1998 after a brief stint; Arnel Pineda joined in 2007] and, you know, "Patiently" was another song was the first song I wrote with Steve. And then we continued to write, you know, a lot of great material after that. And the reason it's really special to me is I'd never really written for a singer like Steve before, and I didn't even know if, you know, I was capable of doing it because I came from more of a an R&B blues fusion background. More like, you know, the stuff that I played in Santana. I was listening to a lot of jazz artists, you know, Miles Davis. My father was a jazz musician. My mother was a singer.

 

Collen on Def Leppard's early MTV days

Phil Collen: Yeah. Well, I was in this band called Girl, and we were glam rock, we were post-punk, we were from London, so it was very much, you know, we would go out and you'd see Billy Idol and guys from the Pistols and stuff. Just — just out and about — The Clash. So it was that and we kind of tried to make a version of the New York Dolls meets Aerosmith, only we were English, so it was very glam. And, we that's how I met Joe and the guys, and everyone was into that same kind of thing. When I, when I joined the band, I thought I was just helping them out. The recording solos on on on the PA minor, but like a producer got me planned on everything and got me singing backing vocals and and that was the big change. We, we kind of had a blueprint and it was. Well, he did, and it was Queen meets AC/DC. So you had the aggression and back to that Slade backing vocal thing, with a rock pop sensibility. So you combined this, you made this hybrid and then MTV came out, and that was such an important thing, because instead of looking like, you know, Judas Priest or other rock bands, we looked more like Duran Duran, which had an absolutely different appeal. When you took it broader, you know, and people would just— I remember playing these places in the States and some places didn't have cable and some did and the reaction would be ridiculous. I mean, we'd get mobbed, like, you know, like a boy band. And that was really weird. And then you go somewhere else and it would be completely different. They didn't have cable TV. So all of these things, added up to the perfect storm, all the stars lined up. And that's really what happened. And the sound of the record. 

 

On developing the 'wall of sound' vocal harmonies that drive Def Leppard's sound

Phil Collen: I've got the loud testosterone voice. So when [producer Mutt Lange] heard it, "That's great, we can feature this." But I think it was we really do our singing. It's not like samples. So every day, I practice, I have to practice. And like [lead singer Joe Elliott] and — I've told this story — we'd done [a show in] L.A. a couple of years ago. And the next day (we had two in a row), and it was San Diego. He warmed up for eight hours before! And we do that. We do at least an hour a day when we're on tour and I sing all the time, so it's really important. It's almost another instrument. Some people have a keyboard for that and we have backing vocals, but it takes a lot of work, so that's really cool. And again, you know, you have to give credit to Mutt Lange, who's always the best singer in the room. He sings one-take vocals just like that. And you hear him on, you know, the Shania Twain stuff, AC/DC you hear his voice, Bryan Adams, you hear his voice. And on our records. So that was really instrumental. And again, going back to the Queen thing, you know, they had these very beautiful songs and you had Freddie Mercury, who was just really coming into his own, and being allowed to flourish. I actually put a lot of their success down to the, the intellect of the guys in the band and how they allowed him to be himself. Because I know in rock bands that there's a tendency to be a bit close-minded. Those guys didn't. And it just gave us this beautiful talent that we, we got, we got these Queen sounds. So anyway, you would base your stuff on on the Queen backing vocals and and like I said, we would keep the rock aggression as well. 

 

On which Def Leppard songs are the ultimate in fan participation

Phil Collen: Well, they, you know, it's "Pour Some Sugar On Me," because everyone, for whatever reason ... You know, it started — it's got a really weird story — It started with strip bars in Florida requesting it. And it snowballed from the radio requests. And the album was done and dusted. And then all of a sudden, the song's getting requested on in Florida. So it went from there. So you see that and everyone, you know, still to this day brings out their inner-stripper. But other people just heard it and they sing along to it. And it's still really exciting to see people get so excited about one of your songs. And we've got a few of them, like "Photograph." You have people tears in their eyes and "Hysteria," especially on the song "Hysteria." Yeah. That hits an emotional core, that one, too, for whatever reason playing it does. So we love that. So yeah, there's nothing like writing a song and actually have it go in full artistic circle, it coming back at you by, but you know, the people who it's intended for. So that's a beautiful thing, always.

Click here for more information on the tour.

Tags: rock music  Georgia  1980s  Atlanta