Chords for Def Leppard's Hysteria Las Vegas Residency - Behind the Scenes

Hold this for a second.
[A] _ _
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ [D] I _
_ [B] didn't know you were wearing them underneath.
No, _ I'm getting quite comfortable wearing my old shirts.
Looks like ten pounds of potatoes in a five pound bag. _ _
[Dm] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ [F] _ _
[E] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ We just got an [Am] offer.
[E] The tour finished, we were going home to _ prepare for time off.
And we got a phone call saying that _ [Am] _ the [Dm] joint wanted us in to do a residency.
_ [E] Would we play the [G] entire album?
_ So [D] of course, we had a listen, we had a chat.
[G] We've been asked over many years if we'd play an entire album when we go out on tour.
But it's never the right time to do it because you're normally promoting a new record.
And you don't want [E] the two to be fighting against each other. _
With no new music to promote and _ a bit of time on our hands, it seemed like the perfect time to do it.
It's something we've always wanted to do, an album all the way through.
It's something we've talked about for twenty something years.
That cheap trick used to do it and we thought this is ultimately cool.
_ This [E] residency came up and then they said, [D] but could you play [A] an album, [G] Hysteria?
We said, yeah, great.
And it was as simple as that really.
It's a different challenge, but it's an interesting one [D] to revisit certain things that _ we hadn't done for such a long time.
And also, [C] one of the fun things is that it gives [Am] us an [D] opportunity to play other songs as well.
The other part of the set before the main event, which is the Hysteria [C] thing, is _ [G] doing [D] obscure songs in the opening [C] set,
which is kind of cool as well.
It makes it more fun.
Once we start Hysteria, everyone [G] knows what they're going to get.
[A#] So we have to make a conscious effort of knowing that they don't know what they're going to get for [D] the first half of the show.
And with eleven _
[C] performances, we can [G] _ _
do literally eleven different [D] sets.
We're going deep, you know.
We're going _ relatively [C] deep.
_ First album, [G] which we don't really [F] visit too often.
[D] A couple of tracks off High and Dry that either haven't been played [C] in years _ [G] or have never been played, literally, [D] in 31 years or something like that.
So, yeah, we're going pretty [F#] deep. _ _ _ _ _
[C#] _ _ _ _ [A#m] _ _
[F#] We have the most [F#] amazing _ stage [B] production manager, Faye McMahon, who used to be our [C#] lighting designer.
And he [F#] really wanted it to be _ perfect.
He came up with all the ideas.
He said, I want it to look like this.
He obviously [D#m] _ [B] knows how the band [F#] should look and sound.
He's been with us all the time.
[C#] We're not really doing too much in the opening set [B] because we wanted to have a bigger impact.
If we were using the screens all the way through, it kind of gets [E] tiring after a [F#] while. _
So we're letting the music do the talking to [B] a point in the first [N] _
half of the set.
But then when we take a little intermission and become like out on the Hysteria, that's when you get the bells and whistles.
So definitely a visual feast as well as a sonic one.
So it is.
It's all the Flash and Vegas and [B]
everything under budget as well, [G#] which is even better.
I'm certainly not going to have a mullet or _ _ _ _ _
ripped [B] jeans now.
We're in Vegas.
I'm going to go all Elvis [C#] on your ass. _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ When you're [G] so involved with it, even when you're recording at the time, you listen back [F] after this amount of [A] years and go,
you know what, it still sounds pretty [G] bloody good.
_ To my ears, it's like, [F] I still think it's one of the most perfect albums.
I mean, you know, that's not the [G] be all and end all of making records.
But in this particular [A] instance, I [Am] still don't think it could really be improved upon.
Perfect. _
Honestly, when we finished the record, I remember me and Steve Clark, we said,
[C] if our [Am] mothers are the only people who buy this, we're satisfied.
This is like the [D] ultimate, you know, with actually artistic expression, all that stuff, you know,
actually culminated in this record.
And it [A] sounded _ more than we could have ever dreamed of.
When I first started learning these [Dm] songs, I'm like, I [C] can't believe it.
Was I [D] high or something?
[A] Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
[G] _ _ _ _
_ _ [D] We are actually taking it to [C] a festival in France _ in June.
[G] They've asked us to do the album, but [D] we'd also probably consider [C] coming back, _
doing a different album, [D] doing this as a [G] residency somewhere else,
whether it [D] be in Sun City in South Africa [Em] or [F#] New Jersey, you know, wherever, you know what I mean?
I [C] think also, you know, we're still conscious about [D] writing new material.
You [G] know, it can't conflict with something new that you're [D] doing as well.
It's fantastic [G] as a side project, if you like, you know,
but there will be new material [D] at some point coming out.
And [G] so this is about one specific album that we did in the 80s, you know,
and it's cool to do it that, you know, but we are we are we are still writing songs
and we are still trying to progress, you know, [D#] in the here and now [C] as well.
It's really cool.
I mean, after, you know, 30 something years in the [G] industry,
in this band, you become a little [D] jaded, but it's [C] really cool to get excited about something that's,
_ I [G] don't know, so old, but so refreshing and so cool.
_ _ _ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _ [N] _ _