AC/DC's Brian Johnson can't wait for live music's return

Brian discusses the coronavirus pandemic

Brian Johnson on stage with AC/DC in 2015
Author: Scott ColothanPublished 1st Sep 2020
Last updated 1st Sep 2020

Legendary AC/DC vocalist Brian Johnson says that live music is a “big miss for everybody” during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Brian caught up with his good friend Joe Walsh over the weekend on the Eagles axeman’s Old Fashioned Rock N' Roll Radio Show and the subject immediately moved onto Covid-19.

Brian said: “Ain’t it awful? I’m out in a little town called Henley just west of London in the countryside, it’s pretty here but still you want to go and see the family up north … now they’ve had another bit of a lockdown… every time you think you’ve beat this thing, it comes back and bites you on the ass.”

He continued: "I think it's made us realise how much we took for granted. When you've gone to a gig or something and you hear somebody hit that guitar, like your good self, and just knock the snot out of it and you just get that shiver down your back.

“Now when you hear a band start up, hearing the live music — I think that's a big miss for everybody."

Brian Johnson and Angus Young

Asked if he has spoken to Angus Young recently, Brian replied: "Actually, it's the craziest thing. Angus's wife, Ella, she loves to cook. And that's what we were talking about… how to make scones. It had nothing to do with music.

“Angus is safe and well. And Phil (Rudd) is safe and well. Cliff (Williams) is up in the mountains of North Carolina… Cliff's a huntin' and shootin' and fishin' man. And I don't know where Stevie (Young) is. He'd be somewhere. This has sort of knocked everybody for six.”

Looking forward to the future, Brian finished: “It would be lovely to get out there on that stage and just give it everything you’ve got.

“I think it’s going to be the biggest roar you’ll ever hear in your life when any band anywhere in the world gets up there and the guitarist hits that guitar and the drummer knocks a rhythm out. It’s going to be brilliant.”

Rumours that AC/DC are returning with a new album and Brian Johnson back on vocal duties have been widespread since August 2018 when fan photos emerged that seemingly depicted the Brian, Phil Rudd and engineer Mike Fraser outside Vancouver’s Warehouse Studios where Stevie and Angus Young were also spotted that week.

In January 2019, grindcore band Terrorizer revealed on Facebook that Brian Johnson told them he had rejoined AC/DC and he was “sick of denying it.”

There has, however, been no official word from AC/DC themselves.