The lowest point of Brian Johnson’s career with AC/DC: “I just didn’t fucking care anymore”
The life of a rock and roll star has been glamorised to no end, particularly within the world of television and film. However, the reality of devoting your life to music and performance is a far cry from the ‘sex, drugs, and rock and roll’ image that you might expect. Take AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson, for instance. In many ways, Johnson is the archetypal rock singer, having performed with the Australian rock legends for decades, but, according to the frontman, it has not always been an easy ride.
In fairness to Johnson, his journey with AC/DC has been fraught with difficulties from the very beginning. After all, Johnson was tasked with filling the impossibly large shoes of Bon Scott, the vocalist who defined the hard rock band’s early period. After the untimely death of Scott, the rest of the band debated over multiple potential replacements before eventually landing on Johnson, who seemed a natural fit for AC/DC.
As is usually the case when a band suffers a major personnel change, many fans of the group were initially sceptical about the idea of anybody – let alone a virtual unknown like Johnson – taking on the role previously played by Bon Scott. However, it is fair to say that Johnson has certainly proved himself over the decades that he has been performing and recording with AC/DC. The new era of the group remains utterly adored to this day, over four decades after the death of Bon Scott.
Nevertheless, life within a rock group, particularly one as legendary as AC/DC, is tiring, to say the least. Over the years, the endless tours, concerts, festival appearances and studio sessions have taken their toll on the respective members of the band. So much so that, in 2016, Brian Johnson was forced to leave the band’s Rock Or Bust tour due to serious health concerns. Essentially, Johnson was told that, if he kept performing, he would lose his hearing almost entirely.
As a result, Johnson departed the tour and was temporarily replaced by Guns ‘N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose. Reflecting on this period in his 2022 memoir The Lives of Brian, the vocalist recalls the dark thoughts that this replacement brought about. “I just didn’t fucking care anymore,” he wrote, “I’d always thought that the best way to go out would be at 180 mph, flat-out around a corner. You’d hit the wall and boom, it would be over, just like that. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want to die. I just wouldn’t have minded all that much”.
Johnson went on to refer to dropping out of the tour as “One of the most difficult conversations of my life”. Seemingly, the vocalist holds no particular grudges about being replaced by Rose, though he did note, “It’s like finding a stranger in your house, sitting in your favourite chair”. However, Johnson struggled to view the rest of AC/DC’s 2016 tour from the sidelines, having been an indispensable aspect of the group for decades.
Inevitably, Johnson returned to the band’s line-up in 2018 after a couple of years spent recuperating and working on other projects. The Dunston-born singer remains with AC/DC to this day, performing and recording with the band that he clearly holds dear.
