Def Leppard guitarits Phil Collen is featured in a new interview with Jeb Wright at Classic Rock Revisisted discussing working with Tesla on their new album. An excerpt is available below.

Jeb: You’re producing the band Tesla.  How did this even come about?

Phil: "What happened here is interesting… we’ve been friends for years, it’s actually me and Brian Wheat you know, and just all the guys. They supported us on the Hysteria tour and so we’ve always been in touch with each other. We did a tour last year, as a matter of fact. I started writing this Delta Deep song with Helen and Debbi and I said, 'You know what? This would sound great if Jeff Keith sung on this as well...' and that’s how it started off. I played it to Brian Wheat and he said, 'Jeff sing on it?' he said, 'How about we record it? It sounds like a Tesla song. You produce it.' That’s really how it came about."

Jeb: “Save that Goodness” is the name of the song.  That was going to be a Delta Deep tune?

Phil: "It was, it was going to be Delta Deep with Jeff Keith on it, but Brian said, 'Shit no, that’s a Tesla song, that’s going to belong to us.' I said, 'You know what? Fair enough.' It totally suited their style of playing. They’re such great players and I just think they deserve a lot more than people give them credit for; they are such a great band."

Jeb: Oh, I agree.

Phil: "I’ve always thought that. I think they need to raise the bar a little bit. There are a lot of different bands from that genre and that generation, and I think they need to get their props. I think just pushing them a little bit further and seeing what else they’ve got was really good. And since they started recording they got really excited, really quick. Everyone was just coming up with so many ideas for a new album. I just can’t believe how that sounds. If you took Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Queen, The Beatles and AC/DC and mixed it all up, that’s what the new Tesla album sounds like."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

On September 30th, Tesla performed at Matthew Knight Arena in Eugene, Oregon. They were joined on stage by Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen for new song "Save That Goodness", which was written and produced by Phil Collen for the Mechanical Resonance, Live! album. Check out the fan-filmed video below.