Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott told us that the genesis of the band’s new single, “Kick,” is not that far off from how the band stumbled upon its classic “Pour Some Sugar On Me” from 1987’s Hysteria.

“Kick” — the lead single from the band’s upcoming album, Diamond Star Halo, which drops on May 27th — came about in nearly the same exact way the band’s signature Top Two hit did 35 years ago: “Phil (Collen) rang me up and said, ‘I’ve got this other song — but we’re done.’ Well, it’s open-ended; there’s no delivery date, there’s no record deal. And we better go band-wide with this and I think Sav (Rick Savage) was the first to comment: ‘OMG — ‘Sugar’ anyone?’ (Laughs) What that was, was he wasn’t comparing the song to the song — he was comparing the situation to the situation. Back in 1986, ‘(Pour Some) Sugar (On Me)’ was the last song written for Hysteria. We were done. It was an 11-track record — finished. And then the idea of ‘. . . Sugar’ came along and it became, arguably, the most important songs on the record — if not our entire career.”

Def Leppard hits the road with Motley Crue, Poison, and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts on June 16th at Atlanta’s SunTrust Park