AC/DC released their latest studio album, Power Up, in November 2020. Frontman Brian Johnson is featured in a new interview with Cleveland.com, focusing on his memoir, The Lives Of Brian.
During the chat, Brian is asked if he thinks we’ll see more of AC/DC, on stage or with another album, to which he responds: "I would love to do music again, whether it’ll be guesting with somebody, whether it be actually playing live with the boys. I’ve heard that term “hell freezes over” a million times before with people saying “I’m not doing that again.” But I’d be up for it. I think everybody hopes to make more music. But I feel like now the next thing I’ve got is, I want to jump into my race car, put the helmet on and just go racing. It’s a bit like music, a bit like the start of a show - the flag drops and the bulls*** stops and it’s just you and lots of other people trying to go as fast as you can. I guess I’ve always liked that element of danger."
Read the full interview at Cleveland.com.
Dey Street Books recently released The Lives Of Brian in North America. The 384-page hardcover, written by Brian Johnson, hit store shelves in the UK back in October 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.
