The 62-year-old rock legend from Belfast shared the milestone update during an appearance on Eddie Trunk’s Trunk Nation, revealing that this is the first time he’s been declared fully in remission since his 2013 diagnosis.
Campbell was forced to miss two of Def Leppard’s major performances—one in Nashville in October 2024 and another in Mexico in January 2025—while recovering from an intensive bone marrow transplant.
He made his triumphant return to the stage on May 15 at Coliseo José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and performed again just two days later at the Boardwalk Rock Festival in Ocean City, Maryland.
Speaking about his recovery, Campbell shared an emotional timeline of his treatment:
“Doctors told me really my only chance for of cure was to do a donor transplant, and that’s exactly what I did,” he said.
He explained that he began chemotherapy during Def Leppard’s tour last summer in preparation for the transplant.
“Starting last summer during our tour, I started doing more chemo in preparation for it. Then right after the tour, they started giving me very hardcore chemo leading up to the transplant,” he said.
A major setback occurred when his initial donor became unavailable in November, but fortunately, a new match was found just before Christmas.
“I went into hospital. I was in for about three and a half weeks, and I did what has turned out to be a really, really successful transplant,” Campbell said.
In April, a PET scan confirmed the good news:
“I did a PET scan in the middle of April and I’m a hundred percent clean, completely in remission for the first time in 12 or 13 years. And I am obviously overjoyed. You couldn’t ask for more than that.”