Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliott, center, is still sore over missing a Dean Martin performance the first time Leppard played Vegas in 1983. "By the time I decided to go, the last two tickets were gone." From left are Rick Savage, Phil Collen, Elliott, Rick Allen and Vivian Campbell.

It's the morning after the opening night of Def Leppard's U.S. tour, and lead singer Joe Elliott is groggy.

"We only got here at 6 o'clock this morning," Elliott says in a phone interview from New Jersey, "so I'm just kind of coming around now with a cup of tea, looking at this awful weather."

Though he's just waking, the veteran hard rocker is soon lively and colorful discussing everything from his fondness for Dean Martin to the monotony of playing "Photograph" for the gazillionth time to his disdain for Eddie Vedder.

He's most excited talking about the beginning of his band's tour the night before in Boston.

Elliott, 44, says his age hasn't affected his onstage energy as Def Leppard plays mid-'80s hits like "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Love Bites."

But he acknowledges it takes longer to recover from a show than it did 25 years ago.

"I came out like a greyhound in the first song last night," he says. "I woke up this morning, and I'm like (gravelly voiced singer) Tom Waits."

Although his voice is typically repaired by the steam of a hot shower, Elliott notes that playing in low-humidity locales like Las Vegas -- as Def Leppard will be doing Sunday -- can be murder on the vocal cords.

"We didn't play Vegas too many times (in the '80s) because we used to complain that the air screwed up everybody's voice," Elliott says.

His memories of the group's first trip here aren't warm ones.

"We played Vegas back in '83," Elliott says. "The hotel we were in, Dean Martin was playing that night, and I hemmed and hawed about going, and by the time I decided to go, the last two tickets were gone. I was so pissed off."

Unlike then, when the band had only a couple of albums' worth of songs to perform, Def Leppard now has nine studio albums to cull for live material.

But fans should expect only the best of the veteran group's catalog.

"This is a greatest hits tour for us, playing only 90 minutes," he says. "We're not padding the set out with album tracks."

Concertgoers also will likely hear the band's versions of Badfinger's "No Matter What" and David Essex's "Rock On." Keeping with the theme, Def Leppard's next studio effort, due out in the spring, is an all-covers album.

Its track-listing is laden with glam rock staples that were burning up British charts when the band's members were coming of age in their native England: David Bowie's "Drive-In Saturday," T. Rex's "20th Century Boy," Roxy Music's "Street Life" and Mott the Hoople's "Golden Age of Rock 'n' Roll."

Why no covers of hard rock luminaries like Black Sabbath?

"People might say, 'Wow, they didn't do any Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple,' but that's not really where we came from," Elliott says. "We were into Slade, Sweet, Bowie, Mott, T. Rex. ... That's what we got exposed to, so it's no surprise to me that that's why we make records that sound that way, with a slightly harder edge."

Asked if he tires of playing the same material over and over, Elliott compares Def Leppard's songs to clothes. "You wear something for a couple of weeks, and then you kind of leave it alone for awhile," he says.

" 'Sugar' never really gets old. I don't mind doing 'Sugar' in rehearsals. I do mind 'Rock of Ages.' I do mind 'Photograph.' But I have no doubts that Pete Townshend feels the same way when he has to rehearse 'My Generation.' I only have 20 years on my pain, but that poor guy. Here's the way I look at it: If the Stones have to rehearse 'Satisfaction,' this is no big deal."

But don't get him wrong. Elliott says he's not complaining. He's got a hard place in his heart for rock star complainers.

"I really don't like it when people complain and moan about a classic song they have to play. My theory is, then don't (expletive) write one. It's like my whole thing with Eddie Vedder not wanting to be famous. Then go back to pumping gas. I don't care."

Some closing words of wisdom?

"Don't be in a (expletive) band if you don't want people to know who you are."