The song Brian Johnson sang for his AC/DC audition
AC/DC have had a tumultuous time as a band. When their lead singer suddenly passed away after they broke out to major success, the remaining members could have been left in a tailspin. That was until Brian Johnson showed up for an audition.
Even when the group first began, there were near-constant lineup changes. Formed in 1973 by brothers Marcus and Angus Young, it took a while for them to find their footing. It wasn’t really until 1974, when Bon Scott joined the fold, that things started to come together properly.
Bringing a love for blues music and a distinctive rock vocal to the group, Scott was a vital addition. He’s the voice behind hits like ‘It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock and Roll)’, ‘High Voltage’, but most notably, ‘Highway To Hell’. Really, it was Scott’s voice that had gained the band’s attention as the 1979 album Highway To Hell gave the band their first chart hit, propelling them into the ranks of the top rock acts around.
But then tragedy hit. On February 18th, 1980, just as the band were working on Back In Black, Scott died of alcohol poisoning at the age of 33.
What’s a band to do? How do you ever replace such a vital member? How do you survive, let alone keep growing, without the singer that coloured your songs? For AC/DC, fate stepped in and delivered Brian Johnson, a down-and-out singer from Newcastle, England.
“I was living at home with my parents in my thirties, a fucking loser,” Johnson joked on the Howard Stern show. His original band, Geordie, were well and truly failing to get anywhere fast. He’d given himself only a few more weeks of trying to make music work when he got a random call from the other side of the planet. AC/DC were looking for a new singer, and his name had been thrown into the ring.
“There was a fan from Cleveland, who, to my eternal debt I thank, Mutt Lange [Record Producer], who said you’ve got to try this guy,” Johnson explained. He even gained a recommendation from Scott himself, adding, “And unwittingly Bon Scott himself had said, ‘Of all the singers I have seen in England this kid called Brian Johnson was the best’… which was a very nice thing to say.”
So when the band needed a new vocalist, Johnson was brought in for an audition. You might think that to impress a rock outfit, Johnson would’ve delved into the depths of the genre. Maybe he would’ve simply sung an AC/DC song to prove he had the chops or rage through some other heavy hit. But no, instead, he busted out a Tina Turner number.
To impress the group and secure his place as their new vocalist, Brian Johnson auditioned with Tina Turner’s 1973 hit, ‘Nutbush City Limits’. It might feel like a random choice, but remember this was in Australia, a country that has, for some reason, adopted the track as a kind of unofficial national anthem. So naturally, the AC/DC boys loved it.
The rest, as they say, was history. Providing that iconic rock vocal heard on ‘Back In Black’, ‘Thunderstruck’, ‘You Shook Me All Night Long’ and no end of other hits, Johnson has Tina Turner to thank.
