Def Leppard played their first show of 2025 on Saturday night in Leon, Mexico, but one of the band’s members was noticeably absent from the group.
“Vivian Campbell cannot be with us tonight,” frontman Joe Elliott explained to the crowd in attendance. “He’s just recovering from some treatment for his cancer. So, manfully, please say hello to the guy that’s standing in for him tonight, Mr. John Zocco on guitar.”
Zocco is the guitar tech for Phil Collen. He also serves as a photographer for Def Leppard and has been a touring guitarist for a long list of rock and country artists.
Vivian Campbell’s Ongoing Cancer Battle
Campbell has been part of Def Leppard since 1992, having previously played with Whitesnake and Dio. In 2013 he went public with his Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis, and he’s continued battling the disease ever since.
READ MORE: The Best Song From Every Def Leppard Album
The rocker underwent stem-cell therapy in 2014, and in 2015 he was part of a clinical trial for the anti-cancer medication pembrolizumab. He continued with immunotherapy treatment through 2022, at which point he switched to a combination of immunotherapy and chemotherapy.
Campbell has remained open with his cancer battle throughout the ordeal.
“There’s no shame in having cancer. There’s no shame in going through treatment and wearing the effects of your treatment physically,” he noted in a 2023 interview on the Lymphoma Voices podcast, alluding to the hair loss he’d suffered as a result of chemo. “And for me as a musician, there was something that just allowed me to go on stage and just focus on the essence of who I am as a musician and as a person and to just put it all out there.”
Def Leppard’s next performance is scheduled for May 15 in Puerto Rico.
Def Leppard Albums Ranked
From their metal-edged debut to their pop breakthrough to the recent records, we rank every single LP.
Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
