AC/DC singer Brian Johnson recently appeared on the BBC Radio 2 show, Tracks Of My Years, hosted by Ken Bruce. In the 25-minute audio clip below, Johnson selects ten songs that were personally influential to him. He chose:
Little Richard - "Tutti Frutti"
Steppenwolf - "Born To Be Wild"
Black Sabbath - "Paranoid"
The Rolling Stones - "Jumpin' Jack Flash"
Led Zeppelin - "Rock And Roll"
Elvis Presley - "Jailhouse Rock"
Joe Walsh - "Rocky Mountain Way"
Dire Straits - "Sultans Of Swing"
Roy Orbison - "In Dreams"
Ike & Tina Turner - "Nutbush City Limits"
"I’ve had some long nights and some great nights, bad days and a lot of good ones. Now I’ve gone and written a bloody book about it… The Lives Of Brian is coming this October," states AC/DC singer Brian Johnson.
On October 25, 2022, Dey Street Books will publish The Lives Of Brian in North America. The 384-page hardcover, written by legendary AC/DC vocalist Brian Johnson, will hit store shelves in The UK nearly two weeks earlier on October 13, 2002 via Penguin Michael Joseph Books.
Originally scheduled for release a year earlier in October 2021, The Lives Of Brian is Brian Johnson’s memoir from growing up in a small town to starting his own band to ultimately replacing Bon Scott, the lead singer of one of the world biggest rock acts, AC/DC. They would record their first album together, the iconic Back In Black, which would become the biggest selling rock album of all time.
Brian Johnson was born to a steelworker and WWII veteran father and an Italian mother, growing up in New Castle Upon Tyne, England, a working-class town. He was musically inclined and sang with the church choir. By the early ’70s he performed with the glam rock band Geordie, and they had a couple of hits, but it was tough going. So tough that by 1976, they disbanded and Brian turned to a blue-collar life.
Then 1980 changed everything. Bon Scott, the lead singer and lyricist of the Australian rock band AC/DC died at age 33. The band auditioned singers, among them Johnson, whom Scott himself had seen perform and raved about. Within days, Johnson was in a studio with the band, working with founding members Angus and Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams, and Phil Rudd, along with producer Mutt Lange.
When the album, Back In Black, was released in July—a mere three months after Johnson had joined the band—it exploded, going on to sell 50 million copies worldwide, and triggering a years-long worldwide tour. It has been declared “the biggest selling hard rock album ever made” and “the best-selling heavy metal album in history.”
The band toured the world for a full year to support the album, changing the face of rock music—and Brian Johnson’s life—forever.
