Songfacts®:

• "Just Like 73" is a rock anthem that whisks us straight back to the glittery, bell-bottomed glory days of the 1970s. Released on June 13, 2024, the song is a love letter to the glam rock era, dripping with nostalgia and brimming with that unmistakable swagger that made the decade so fabulously over-the-top.
• Speaking in a video about the song, guitarist Phil Collen was all in on the glam factor, explaining that they went for Gary Glitter producer Mike Leander's drum sound from the early '70s. They mixed it with a "Slade-type backing vocal, which is kind of really shouty, loud and aggressive, almost like football-hooligan kind of chant."
• Frontman Joe Elliott made it clear that "Just Like 73" isn't just about sound - it's about capturing a moment in time. "Because of it being based around that whole kind of '73 vibe - it was glammy, very British glam – I wanted to write a lyric that kind of reflected that," he said.
• Def Leppard teamed up with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave axeman Tom Morello, who contributes a guest guitar solo.
• So how did the Morello collaboration come about? Apparently, the guitar maestro heard Colleen's original demo of the song with just him and Joe Elliott on it. "He's, like, 'Oh my God, this is great,'" Colleen explained to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "So, he told our friend Brian Monaco, who is actually president of Sony Music, and Brian's, like, 'What do you think about Tom being on it? He loves this thing.' And it was, like, 'Yeah, that'd be awesome.'"
  
  "I remember talking to him about it," Colleen continued. "He said, 'Well, what do you hear?' and I said, 'Well, you gotta do your Tom Morello thing.' And he did. [I] heard it back and said, 'This is absolutely perfect.'"
  
  "The song is about us discovering the music that kind of shaped our lives, you know, the [David] Bowie/T. Rex period of the very early '70s, and he totally got it, and kind of nailed it," Colleen concluded. " So, we're overjoyed about that."
• Morello, for his part, seemed just as thrilled to be along for the ride. "I had a blast rocking a solo on 'Just Like 73,'" he said, reminiscing about how he used to play "Rock of Ages" in his college cover band. "Here, Def Leppard are still killing it in stadiums with a brand new tune that's one of their best."