The Lovable lead singer of heavy metal band AC/DC on the thrill of live performance

Buzz Knight

I’m Buzz Knight, the host of the Takin’ A Walk Podcast, Music History on Foot. If you want to keep up with Takin’ A Walk episodes, or if you want to suggest a guest or be a guest, go to takinawalk.com, subscribe to our newsletter, or leave us a comment. We also appreciate, if you like this podcast, please follow us on Apple Podcast or Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Leave us a review or share this with a friend. Today we have a treat. We’re virtual because this is how we’re going to get this member of rock royalty. And we’re so excited. We couldn’t miss this opportunity to speak with Brian Johnson, the lead singer of AC/DC. Brian is the legendary front man, and he’s the author of the new book The Lives of Brian. And I’m honored to have him on Takin’ A Walk.

Brian Johnson

Hello, everybody.

Buzz Knight

Hello, Brian.

Brian

Is that Buzz?

Buzz

Yes, sir. I’m so happy to have rock royalty here.

Brian

Oh, fuck. Steady, boy.

Buzz

Oh. Brian, thanks for being on the Takin’ A Walk Podcast. It’s a tremendous honor.

Brian

Oh, honestly, it’s my pleasure, me son. Anytime.

Buzz

So, congratulations on The Lives of Brian. I want to talk about that. But I wanted to ask you, take me inside that moment when you’re on stage, the lights go down in the stadium, the music begins, the band starts breaking into Rock or Bust, or Thunderstruck, or whatever the opener is. What does that moment feel like, from your perspective, when it’s happening?

Brian

Okay. Well, first of all, it’s never boring. You never get used to it, Buzz. Every nerve is ready to go. You look along your side there, and there’s Angus just whacking away on his guitar and moving. And me, I’m limbering up, getting ready. I mean, we go on just like when you see football players before they’re going on the pitch. They’re jumping around and moving, because you know the minute you’re going to get on there, you’re not going to get a break for two and a half hours. There isn’t any balance. And then you hear the crowd, and then, when you do get on… I’ve got to say this. The AC/DC audiences really lift you, I mean actually lift you, and just give you a strength that you just didn’t think was there. And off you go. And that’s it. That’s the end of that. There’s no turning back.

Buzz

Oh.

Brian

I think what you’ve got to do is… And I’ve said it to a few other singers, when they ask what I do. I said, “Before you go on stage to sing, you fix bayonets.” It’s as simple as that. You fix a bayonet to your voice and just charge. Otherwise, there’s nothing. It’s just regular or average. So yeah, it’s a fascinating time, Buzz.

Buzz

Oh, I love it. One of the listeners to our podcast, a guy named Dennis from Tennessee, outside of Nashville, he asked me to ask you this question. He said, “How do you feel when you see young and old generations jamming their ass off to AC/DC?”

Brian

Oh, it’s fantastic. I mean, there’s not many bands can have that. And every day I’ll get somebody’s saying, “Here, there’s a photograph of my grandson, and he’s two, and he’s got an AC/DC song, and he’s dancing away to some tune or other.” It makes you feel so good because some of these tunes are 40-odd years old. And to not sound dated, to actually sound like they’re just as new as they were all those years ago, it’s a pretty good feeling inside.

Buzz

Oh, it’s the soundtrack of our lives, man. My God. So, in the book, you talk about the influence of Little Richard. Talk about-

Brian

Yeah.

Buzz

… the first time you heard a Little Richard tune.

Brian

I was off school. I had to go to the dentist or something. And anyway, the television in England then was just awful. There was one channel. It came on at noon, and it went off again at 12:30. And then it came on again at about 3:00. And it was called Watch With Mother or something like that. It was awful.

And then they said, “And now we’re going to have an interlude,” because they were very posh, the people on [inaudible 00:05:05]. “And in this interlude, there’s a young chap from America with a new pop song. And he’s called Little Richard.” And they changed scene. And here was this handsome young black man, hair pushed back, this immaculate jacket on, a little mustache, the tie. He just looked like nothing I’d seen before. And he just burst into (singing). And my jaw, everything dropped. Me jaw went south, and everything else went north. I couldn’t believe how brilliant this was. I mean, it really was a revelation. And I said, “I want to sing like that.” It was right up there. It was exciting. And he was exciting too. And of course, I hadn’t heard music like that before in me life. I didn’t know it existed. Just the boring stuff you would hear on the BBC.

And it was just defining moment for me in me life. And I couldn’t go out and buy the record yet. We couldn’t afford it. We didn’t have a record player. So it was not until I heard it playing from a woman’s house and I banged on the window, and I said, “Could you play it again, please?” She said, “You cheeky little bugger. Okay, then, come on.” So she opened the window and put it on again. And she came outside and started doing the hand jive and taught me how to do the hand jive. And I’ll never forget her. What a lovely lady, Buzz.

Buzz

Oh.

Brian

And I got it played again.

Buzz

That’s so awesome. What a great story. My God.

Brian

Yeah.

Buzz

Brian, how special was it to have to leave the band due to the hearing loss and then to return triumphantly in 2020? How special was that for you, my friend?

Brian

Ah, it was more than special. I was 69 or something when I had to give up. And I thought, “Hey, listen, you shouldn’t complain. Who else got [inaudible 00:07:28] for this long?” But I think it was the suddenness of it going. I mean, it wasn’t gradual. I mean, it just hit me after a gig. It’s all in the book, the whole horrible thing that I had to go through with the operations and everything. But to get it right again through Mr. Ambrose, who designed these new earpieces… and I worked with him for three years, Stephen… and to get back with the boys in the studio and do an album, I cannot tell you. And it was such a good album too, Power Up. I was so proud of it. And then, to rehearse again with the boys in Holland. We were all ready to rock, to go out. We rehearsed for about three weeks, and then the pandemic hit. I mean, talk about bum luck. It was horrible. And there we were, ready to rock. So, that’s just the way things go.

Buzz

Well, and when you really come down to it, you really are a choir boy at heart, right?

Brian

I was, yeah. Me mother was Catholic, but my father was C of E or Protestant or whatever. And so we were confused to say the least. And I was a choir boy in the Catholic choir because they paid you money. You got one shillings and sixpence to sing on Sunday morning. And of course, I first went to the Catholic mass, and I thought, “Oh, boy, these guys are…” There was all kinds of shiny clothes on. And then this guy walked round, and he was throwing water on people and then had a smoke machine, with the chain. I thought it was very entertaining. I didn’t know what was going to happen. And then, at the end of the mass, the priest came up, and he got some crackers and wine out and shared it with everybody. This was good stuff.

Buzz

And in closing, Brian, I know-

Brian

That’s the way I saw it. I was only an 11-year-old, and I’m thinking… And at the end of it, the only thing that disappointed me was the fact nobody gave him a round of applause. I thought he’d done very well. Nothing. Nothing. They just walked out.

Buzz

Oh. Brian, in closing, how important is having a sense of humor being in the business that you’re in?

Brian

Oh, I think you have to have one. I’ve seen people who don’t have a sense of humor at all, and they’re very sad and lonely. And I don’t mean nothing about that, just you’ve got to laugh at yourself. You’ve got to laugh at this business. You have to because it’s [inaudible 00:10:41], the whole thing. You’re singing, and having that talent to be a good guitarist or singer or drummer and everything. But you’ve got to laugh at tension, is always good. We’ve lost Taylor Hawkins. What a lovely, lovely man he was. That’s why everybody loved him. He had a wonderful sense of humor, and friendly and always willing to laugh. So yes, I would say a bit of sense of humor is very important-

Buzz

Oh,

Brian

… especially on long tours and things like that because there’s a lot of boring traveling goes on. You know?

Buzz

Yes.

Brian

But you have to just have a sense of humor about it all.

Buzz

Oh. Well, thank you for the sense of humor. Thank you for the joy of the music, Brian. Congratulations on The Lives of Brian, and I’m so grateful that you are on my podcast.

Brian

Well, thank you very much there, Buzz. You take care, and a festive season greetings to everybody.

Speaker 3:

Takin’ a Walk with Buzz Knight is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Buzz Knight is an established media executive with a long history of content creation and multi-platform distribution.

After a successful career as a Radio Executive, he formed Buzz Knight Media which focuses on strategic guidance and the development of new original content.