How a fortunate bout of appendicitis saved Brian Johnson’s career
When you have a band like AC/DC, you need to have a singer to match the energy and ruthlessness of such blues-infused distortion-obsessed rockers, and Bon Scott was exactly that.
His voice could hold up against the hard riffs and chaotic solos of the band, but not in a way where he felt over or undercut; rather, just in a way that complemented the band’s sound to a tee.
He passed away in 1980 as a result of alcohol poisoning, and it left the remaining members of AC/DC struggling with what to do next, with the answer coming in the form of music. Angus and Malcolm Young, along with Bon Scott, had already started working on their next record (what would become Back In Black), and so, in a bid to give themselves something to do and also mourn the loss of their friend, they simply kept making it.
There was no plan to actually release the album, and instead, this was just the brothers’ most effective means of coping. They still felt somewhat connected with their friend through this music, and it provided a sense of comfort in what was otherwise an incredibly stressful time. It so happens that said music wound up being phenomenal.
Once the fog had settled and the music was complete, it was a no-brainer for the two brothers that the rest of the world needed to hear it, but they were then left with a separate problem: who do you get to sing it? Neither Angus nor Malcolm can sing too well (the occasional backing vocals dotted around AC/DC’s discography will tell you that), so who do you call upon to fill the shoes of one of the best vocalists in rock?
Their producer, Mutt Lange, talked about hearing a singer called Brian Johnson, who had previously fronted a band called Geordie, and as soon as Angus and Malcolm heard the name, it stuck out to them, but they couldn’t quite remember why. Eventually, they put two and two together, and the means by which they knew the name were pretty serendipitous. It turns out, Johnson had already received the Bon Scott seal of approval before his passing, as when Scott had toured with another band in the UK, he saw Geordie live and became obsessed with Johnson’s vocal style.
“Malcolm remembered that Bon had once toured in a band through England,” recalled Angus, “And he was telling this story of this maniac he saw on stage one night rolling around on the floor, screaming his head off. He said ‘It was the best singer I saw in a long time’, and that was the band, it was Brian.”
Rolling around on the floor and screaming like a maniac sure sounds like pretty stereotypical rockstar behaviour, and so it makes sense that the performance stayed in Scott’s head. However, it was later revealed that Johnson’s eccentric behaviour that night wasn’t the result of the spirit of rock ‘n’ roll taking over, it was something much more…internal.
“Apparently, he had a bout of, an attack of appendicitis,” laughed Angus, “And they had to come and wheel him away, you know. But Bon didn’t know that, he just thought it was part of the act!” Not many people have ever looked back on appendicitis and considered it a good thing, but Brian Johnson, it seems, is part of an elite group.
