AC/DC Beyond The Thunder, the podcast that features well known guests influenced by AC/DC in unique ways, travels to Nashville to visit the four-piece bluegrass phenomenon - Hayseed Dixie, capturing exclusive moonshine-inspired renditions of "T.N.T." and "Let’s Get It Up" during the episode.
Hayseed Dixie, who invented its own form of “rock grass” just over 20 years ago, claim to have first heard of AC/DC after stumbling upon a car wreck where although the passenger had expired, his collection of AC/DC records inside the vehicle was still intact. After listening to the albums at home on their 78rpm Victrola, founder, John Wheeler, decided that the Lost Highway of Hank Williams and the Highway To Hell of AC/DC were in fact the very same road.
“If you look at the words of Hank Williams Sr. and the words of Bon Scott, they’re singing about the same subject. We were just trying to reimagine the songs like, ‘What would this sound like if AC/DC were born in West Virginia and East Tennessee?'”
The debut Hayseed Dixie album, A Hillbilly Tribute To AC/DC, containing reinterpretations of 10 classic AC/DC songs, was released worldwide in 2001. Much to the surprise of everyone involved, the album proceeded to sell more than 150,000 copies in its first year of release.
“We never intended to make a record, we just made something we thought would be fun,” admits Wheeler (aka Barley Scotch, after the late Bon Scott). “When the morning shows started playing us, a bunch of record labels approached us and we thought, ‘Well, what the heck, put it out…’".
The press notoriety even caught the attention of AC/DC themselves. During the episode, the four-piece discuss how AC/DC frontman, Brian Johnson, was quoted as saying, “Man, it’s just great! All our best songs done hillbilly. This record is hilarious!”
To boot, AC/DC bassist Cliff Williams surprisingly called on Hayseed Dixie to perform during his end of tour wrap party at his home in Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Not believing it truly was the veteran bassist calling, Wheeler hung up on Williams, only to have him call again to do some further convincing. “Cliff said that (AC/DC) had been playing some of those songs for over 20 years and hearing the way that we had reimagined the songs made them realize that these are pretty good songs,” remembers Wheeler. “I thought that was like the highest compliment you could get.”
Although the band has taken on many roster changes over the years, the episode features the classic Hayseed Dixie lineup performing on the podcast, including John Wheeler who plays piano, fiddle, violin, mandolin, guitar, and sings, the 6’5” Jake "Bakesnake” Byers on acoustic bass guitar, and "Rev" Don Wayne and his brother Deacon Dale, the sons of famous Dueling Banjos picker Don Reno.
Hayseed Dixie have performed over 1,500 shows in over 30 countries, including the main stage at Glastonbury, the Download Festival, Wacken Open Air Festival, and have recorded several studio albums and a double live LP recorded in Glasgow.
Fans of the podcast can listen to this new episode and more at BeyondtheThunder.com. Also available on Spotify, Apple, Google, and Pandora.
AC/DC Beyond The Thunder podcast features professional actors, authors, athletes, chefs, CEOs, comedians, musicians, media hosts, wrestlers, even war heroes, all paying homage to one of the greatest bands of all time, AC/DC. Guests have included Slash, Hall of Fame MLB pitcher Trevor Hoffman, SNL comedian Jim Breuer, US Military War Hero Mike Durant from the film ‘Black Hawk Down’, pro wrestler Chris Jericho, classically trained Croatian duo 2CELLOS, as well as Eddie Trunk, Dee Snider, Dweezil Zappa, Scott Ian, Lemmy, Chris Slade, Mike Fraser, Hell’s Belles, Darryl DMC McDaniels and many, many more.
AC/DC Beyond The Thunder was created by duo Gregg Ferguson & Kurt Squiers, who originally quit their day jobs and set out to capture a feature length documentary as the ultimate homage, but failed to secure the band’s approval. Ferguson and Squiers decided to unearth these stories of well-known fans discussing their affinity for AC/DC and harness that energy into a podcast with the help of sound engineer, Eric Kielb. From archival interviews to all new guest episodes, AC/DC Beyond The Thunder is now in its third season with over 200,000 streams.
