Out of the 10 contest winners of our DefLeppard/YouTube contest (see this post), Ken Detlaff from Henderson, NV was the last to collect his prize (two tickets, a backstage tour and meeting with the band) when he and his family went to the band's show in Las Vegas, NV on September 8. Here's his report.

"When I first heard of the DefLeppard.com YouTube lipsync contest, I thought this would be a great family project. My wife Lisa and our three daughters Melissa (12) and the twins Jessica and Amanda (10) were excited to make this video. My whole thought on this project was to do it for my girls. They have been listening to Def Leppard before they were even born!"

"Whenever I go to my "big TV room" and watch Def Leppard videos, Jessica always comes and sits next to me. She is a true fan, and is smitten with Joe. When she turned eight, I figured it was time for her to see them in concert. So for the last two years I have taken her to see Def Leppard live. I told her if we won, I would take her on this experience. And my other two daughters were OK with this!"

"Picking the song was easy. It had to be "TWO STEPS BEHIND". It's kind of our family motto -- whatever you do, wherever you go, I'll be two steps behind -- to let them know I'll always be there for them. I even have the lyrics taped to there bedroom doors. So we set the "stage" in front of all my Def Leppard memorabilia, brought in lights, strobe lights (on remote control) and chairs to film the acoustic version of the song. After the first take we watched it and thought that it was really good, so we sent it in. We left for vacation knowing that we wouldn't be back until after the contest was over. Of course during our vacation, I had my second thoughts -- "I wish I did that, I could have done this"..... When we returned, home we watched the other entries and thought WOW, there are a lot of really good videos!"

"The day of notifying the winners came and went. I told Jessica that we did not win. She was very disappointed. Then about 3 days later, for some reason, I was checking my spam folder and found the letter, which I quickly printed out. At this point the girls were getting ready for bed so I flew upstairs to have them read the letter. The result: everyone was screaming!"

"Fast forward to the day of the show. We picked the concert at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas since we live about 15 minutes away. At 10:30 AM, I received the phone call from crew member Matt. He told us to meet him at the entrance to the arena at 3:45 PM. So Jessica and I got ready for what we knew would be a once in a lifetime experience. We were both wearing our Def Leppard t-shirts, she had butterflies in her stomach and I was sweating bullets. My wife and other two daughters came along just to videotape us meeting Matt and walking into the arena. Matt introduced himself and asked if we're ready for the time of our lives. He told my other two daughters that he loved the video....and then went all silent looking at us. After about a minute, a huge smile came on his face and he said "OK everybody lets go!" Matt, you just made me one happy dad. So we walked into the arena and saw that the stage lights were moving and changing colors, this place was huge! Matt took us to the sound board and showed us two cameras and told us that they record every concert and view them later to fine tune each show."

"We then went over to Phil's guitars, and Matt took out his Green Alien guitar, handed it to my girls and took some pictures. Next out came the Dracula guitar and the smiles on my family's faces said it all. We then went up on stage for a few more pictures. Matt said to Jessica "this is where Joe stands" (I told Matt earlier that she really likes Joe), and we saw Joe's microphone stand which was covered with nuts and bolts. I don't know how Joe swings it around so much with all that texture it is very rough!"

"Then we sat around Rick's drum kit for some family photos. We headed backstage where Matt pointed out two small "dressing rooms" at each end of the stage. He said that was where the band members change during the show. We were then introduced to Tod, Rick's drum technician. He explained how the foot pedals work and all the electronics involved. He said the design of the drum kit with the foot pedals came to Rick in a dream after his accident. "

"It was time to move on, so we went behind the backstage area where we saw people repairing lights, tuning guitars and all sorts of equipment. We snapped some pictures by (Cheap Trick's) Rick Nielsen's five-neck guitar and by (Poison's) Rikki Rockett's drum kit. As we were standing there, in walked Rick Allen, and then Vivian Campbell. He immediately extended his hand and said "Hi Ken, I'm Vivian, nice to meet you." Talk about a moment in time when your mind goes completely blank! As we were talking with Vivian, I saw Phil Collen with his personal trainer. And then I saw the man -- Mr. Joe Elliott, walking in with CC DeVille. I looked over at Jessica and whisperd to her, "Look!" as I move my head to his direction. She looked over and I swear her jaw dropped to her knees! But then Matt took us out to the loading dock where we saw the tour busses and all the semi trucks....."

"On to the sound check. Matt took us back on stage where we stood to the side. On walked the band -- Vivian walked by, Sav walked over to us, and then Joe came out wearing shorts, high-top British Flag sneakers and a hat. We heard some of the stagehands kind of joking about his hat because he normally does not wear hats. So what does my wife do? She yells over to him "Hey Joe, nice hat". I thought I was going to die. So Joe started walking over to us, and all I wanted to do was crawl under the stage and hide. But, Joe just said "thank you, I like it too -- I got it at Walgreen's for $3.99!". After getting a picture with him, the band started to play Hysteria. For the first part of the song we were on the stage. The second part we went behind Rick while he was playing the drums. There is like a little room back there, but we saw Rick do his magic."

"Next Matt took us to the seats just in front of the thrust (the part of the stage that extends into the audience). Out came the band right in front of us singing "TWO STEPS BEHIND" - our song! My family were the only ones in the arena and Def Leppard was singing to us.....unreal! It was now about 6:45 PM and the concert would start at 8:00 PM. Matt told Jessica and me to meet him by the side of the stage at 8:20 PM."

"We watched Cheap Trick perform and then headed to meet up with Matt again. He took us backstage, handed me a signed Def Leppard guitar and gave Jessica two rolled up t-shirts. He told us that after Cheap Trick performs, we would be going to walk to the end of the thrust where he would introduce us, and Jessica would have to throw the t-shirts into the crowd. My whole life I've always wanted to be on a stage in front of a full concert hall to see what it would feel like. So I was excited! I looked down at Jessica and see the terror on her face and her eyes starting to well up with tears. She said to me, "Daddy, I can't do this, I am scared". Matt got down on one knee, put his hand on her shoulder and talked to her. He said there was nothing to be afraid of, and that really helped Jessica. So out we went, following Matt onto the stage, squeezing each others hand. I don't know how long were out there, I don't remember a thing Matt said other than hearing our names. It was another mind freezing moment. We went off the stage and Matt told us it was time to return to our seats and enjoy the show; we were now part of the Def Leppard Family. I shook his hand and thanked him, and Jessica gave him a big hug. Now my eyes were tearing up!"

"I would like to thank Matt, Joe, Rick, Vivian, Sav, Phil and everyone else involved for providing my family with an experience that we will never ever forget. I wish I could remember everyone's names that I met, but this whole experience was so overwhelming..... Everybody was so genuine and friendly! Thank you for welcoming the Dettlaff Family into the Def Leppard Family and inviting us into your home away from home!"