AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson’s favourite song of all time: “Makes me smile every time”
Brian Johnson‘s life has revolved around music long before he took over from Bon Scott in AC/DC.
Born in 1947, Johnson is older than rock ‘n’ roll as we know it today, and the moment he was first introduced to the genre by Little Richard was a life-affirming event.
The eye-opening introduction happened by chance when he was sitting at home due to being ill as a child, which put him on track to one day stepping on a stage himself. “My jaw dropped, and I was going, ‘What the hell was that?’ It was brilliant, I was tingling,” he later said on the Rockonteurs podcast.
From this point on, Johnson became hooked, and although it wasn’t readily available, he devoured every possible second that he could get his hands on. Then, when The Beatles came along, Johnson was at the perfect age to follow their journey. To this day, they are responsible for crafting his favourite song of all time.
AC/DC may be cut from a different cloth than The Beatles, but they somewhat inspire every band to an extent. For Johnson, there was something deeper he could connect with, too. They were also ordinary people from a culturally similar region of England, and they proved to him that anything was possible.
When Johnson appeared on Joe Walsh’s Old Fashioned Rock’ n’ Roll Radio Show, he was tasked with naming his favourite song in the world, and the answer was an effortless decision for the singer to make. “Right off the top of me head, the thing that makes me smile every time I hear it is ‘Get Back’. And if you listen to Ringo’s drumming on there, it’s sensational,” he responded.
The creation of ‘Get Back’ was documented in Peter Jackson’s series of the same name, which showed how Paul McCartney magically riffed it on the spot. It is a miraculous moment of genius that was somehow caught on camera, which will stand as a lesson for songwriters for generations to come.
While it’s not one of The Beatles’ most complicated tracks, ‘Get Back‘ is a perfect example of how the band managed to master the art of simplicity, and McCartney made writing a pop masterpiece seem effortless. Johnson broached this subject, adding: “I remember somebody said to be, ‘Oh I could have wrote that’. And I said, ‘Well why didn’t you?'”
Despite being the frontman of AC/DC, who has been playing to stadium-sized crowds for the last 40 years, Johnson will never be able to shake off how much he loves The Beatles and his view that McCartney is a superhero.
Whenever McCartney walks into a room, even if he’s at a glitzy afterparty following the Grammys, everybody else falls silent in his presence or slips over their words.
During an appearance on QFM96’s Torg & Elliott radio show, Johnson revealed that McCartney has been the only musician that he’s crumbled in front of, revealing, “I didn’t know what to say to him. I mean, for the first time I was absolutely tongue-tied. And then Ringo Starr walked in beside him. And it was Paul that spoke to me, ’cause he heard me talking to somebody. And he said, ‘Hello, Geordie.’ You know, because they call us Geordies, with the accent.”
Johnson continued, “And I went, ‘Hello, Paul. Sir Paul. Your honour. Your majesty.’ I didn’t know what (to say). I just came across like I was breaking a friend’s teeth in — I couldn’t speak. So it was hard.”
While their first encounter was an awkward affair, Johnson is proud to say now that McCartney, the man responsible for his favourite song of all time, is now a friend.
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