There are few bands from the hard-rockin' '80s that can still play arenas and amphitheaters today.
But this year, two of those bands decided to team up and hit the road together and bring another iconic band from the '70s with them for good measure.
Def Leppard, Poison and Cheap Trick will all perform at the USANA Amphitheatre on Tuesday. Among them, they have sold millions and millions of records (including some of the biggest albums in history in Def Leppard's "Hysteria" and Cheap Trick's "Live at Budakon"), and they continue to perform before tens of thousands of fans each year.
While the members of Cheap Trick are the elder statesmen of the tour, there's is no slowing them down.
The legendary quartet from Rockford, Ill., that started in 1974, is still producing quality albums and continues to be one of the hardest touring bands in the world.
Cheap Trick still play in the range of 200 shows per year. Their most recent release is appropriately titled "The Latest." It's an album that in addition to CD, was released on vinyl and even 8-track.
"We're number one in the world in 8-track sales," said the always entertaining Rick Nielsen, baseball cap-wearing lead guitarist extraordinaire.
"We're never going to be the next new thing. ... darn it. We grew up in an era where (vinyl and 8-track) was clunky but cool. It's so wrong but right. That's like Cheap Trick anyhow. We're perfect but so flawed it's unbelievable. I was my parents' best kid and my parents' worst kid. We make albums; we don't make singles."
Starting Sept. 13, the band will begin a nine-night run in Las Vegas playing the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" in its entirety, accompanied by a full orchestra. It's a show that the band first performed in 2007 with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.
Cheap Trick has been called the "American Beatles" in Japan and has worked with legendary producer George Martin in the past.
The Hollywood Bowl show was the perfect fit for the band, Nielsen said. The members didn't pretend to be a tribute band, so they didn't have to wear costumes or magically develop British accents on the way to the stage.
"We knew how to be faithful to the music but without trying to copy note for note and sound for sound," said Nielsen, who admitted he actually had to practice for the show. "I knew it in my head, but I never played the stuff."
One band member Nielsen knew he didn't need to worry about doing the Beatles justice was lead singer Robin Zander.
"Robin is a man of a thousand voices. He can sing McCartney, he can sing Lennon. He can sing with the best screamers," he said.
Now, Nielsen and the rest of Cheap Trick are excited about their upcoming Vegas run.
"We're not just a show next to the slot machines. We went to England, met with George Martin and got his blessing. It's a pretty cool operation. We're not acting or something like that. I don't go on a trampoline or underwater."
In a way it's almost a crime that Cheap Trick, a band that has been cited by the likes of Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana as being influential in their careers, is regulated to the concert's opening slot.
But Nielsen said he wasn't bothered. To him, success isn't measured by the number of hits or album sales or awards but rather the fact they are still playing.
"We can play the bar, we can play the honky tonk ... we're still out there doing it. That's what a musician is. That's success. It's not getting into the Hall of Fame, it's not the number of hits. We started in the garage and we'll probably end in the garage, hopefully without the car running."
Every summer, with the exception of one, since 1999, Poison have been touring the U.S. The group actually formed in the early '80s, and released their debut album, "Look What the Cat Dragged In," in 1986. That lineup was broken in 1991 when guitarist C.C. DeVille and the band went their separate ways. But DeVille rejoined in 1999 and the band has been flying high ever since.
A resurgence in popularity in Poison's music, as well as new found fame in the form of reality TV, has put the band at the top of the summer's most anticipated tour list each year, despite the fact they perform essentially the same set list every year and have not put out an album of all original material since 2002.
But bassist Bobby Dall hinted that might just change soon.
"It's looking like it might happen one of these days. It's quite possible. ... and probable," he said.
This year, Poison are not playing the closing spot, but rather before Def Leppard. Dall said the band doesn't mind, because overall it's about a total package of a great night of music.
"There's a lot of respect between the bands and we're having a great time. Everybody is getting along. It's been fantastic. In this economy, it's very important to bring a great production. Summer festivals are what the business is all about. We don't mind opening for Def Leppard at all," said Dall. "What else can you say? It's three hours of music everyone knows."
Those words come despite a publicized (and possibly over-hyped) feud between Leppard lead singer Joe Elliot and Poison drummer Rikki Rockett before the tour was announced. Whatever problems there might have been seemed to have been resolved, however, as there has been no talk this tour of problems between the bands.
Another publicized incident this year happened during a live television broadcast of the Tony Awards. Poison opened the show, performing their big hit, "Nothin' But a Good Time," one of two songs used in the Broadway smash "Rock of Ages." During the show, Michaels was walking back to the drum riser as the song ended, and was clotheslined by a moving (and very heavy) set piece, resulting in a broken nose.
But Dall said the band really only wanted to focus on the positive aspect of the performance at this point and not on what happened or who was to blame.
"It was a great experience. It was one of the best things the band has been involved with from a television standpoint," he said.
As for the play, he said sitting in the audience, watching Poison's songs being sung to the band by the group of talented Broadway performers was an "amazing" experience.
"It was fantastic," he said.
Dall, who lives in Florida in the summer but has his winter home in Utah ("Go figure," he said), said there were a lot of important bands that came out of the '80s, such as Def Leppard and Guns N' Roses, but, "We were the ones that were able to become iconic over the years. We are capable of working and playing every summer, and I feel really blessed. It's frightening to turn on classic rock radio and hear yourself, but it's also wonderful."
In the 1980s, Def Leppard were one of the biggest bands in the world.
"High 'N' Dry" and "Pyromania" are standards in nearly every hard rock music fan's album collection from the '80s. And 1987's "Hysteria," which produced seven hit singles and has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide, jetted Def Lep into the stratosphere of popularity, garnering fans who weren't traditionally hard rock listeners.
Today, the band originating from Sheffield, England, still fills arenas and amphitheaters as they did 20 years ago thanks to concert performances that are as much about being visually entertained with a spectacular stage show as they are about being rocked by the music.
"It's actually going really well," Leppard drummer Rick Allen told the Deseret News about the current tour during an off day from touring recently in Florida. "We've been out (on tour) these past five, six years. We've created a momentum we haven't experienced in a long time. We're busier now than we ever have been."
Two dates were postponed recently after guitarist Vivian Campbell had to return home to be with terminally ill father.
"It was one of those times we had to say, 'Viv, you've got to go home,' " Allen said
But now the Leppards are back on track and their biggest problem is one that all up and coming bands would like to have. ... having too many songs to fit into one show.
"We try to play a couple of different set lists," Allen said. "There's so much material. It's insane trying to play something that's going to please everyone."
Def Lep's most recent album is "Songs From the Sparkle Lounge," released last year. The first single from that CD was "Nine Lives," which featured an appearance by country music superstar Tim McGraw.
"Tim was always a huge rock fan growing up. It just so happened he went into country," he said.
Allen's brother is actually McGraw's tour manager. It was that connection that lead to another collaboration that on the surface sounded like an odd pairing but ultimately worked well.
Taylor Swift was a big Def Leppard fan growing up. When she found out who Allen's brother was, she set out to try to get the band to perform with her on the CMT show "Crossroads." The episode premiered late last year.
"Her songs are fantastic. She's a great songwriter. Once we started rehearsals together it just felt very natural to play," Allen said. "Amongst musicians, there's no division. We see music as an inclusive thing. We play the same chords, we just dress them up differently."
In June, there was a touching moment for Allen, whose personal story of triumph over tragedy is arguably unparalleled in rock history.
In 1984, just as Def Leppard were coming off breakthrough success with the album "Pyromania," Allen's left arm was severed in a car accident. But rather than replace him, the rest of the band rallied around Allen, who was just 15 when he joined the group. A group of engineers helped him design an electronic drum kit that allowed him to play using foot pedals in place of his left arm.
Def Leppard's first major show following the accident was at Donnington Park in England in 1986.
"We had another guy standing by to play drums," Allen said. "But it was decided that I should play the show on my own. The anxiety was just off the scale. When Joe introduced me at the show, it was pretty much the highlight to my life. Everyone in the audience really supported me."
The roar from the crowd that day was deafening.
In June of this year, Allen and Def Leppard returned to Donnington for the Download Festival. Again, when Allen was introduced, it turned into a five-minute roar of ovation from 80,000 fans.
"It kind of took me full circle," he said. "Really the same thing happened again, all these years later. I feel so blessed to be doing what I'm doing. It restores my faith in human beings."
If you go...
What: Def Leppard, Poison, Cheap Trick
Where: USANA Amphitheatre, 5400 S. 6200 West
When: Aug. 25, 7 p.m.
How much: $28.75-$129
Phone: 801-467-8499, 800-888-8499
Web: www.smithstix.com
e-mail: preavy@desnews.com