The AC/DC singer Malcolm Young claimed was “so bad”
AC/DC have been through many incarnations to get their current incarnation. They’ve lost multiple members along the way, with Angus Young the only mainstay who has been there since the start. Yet, despite the line-up changes, AC/DC maintained the same spirit, which refuses to die.
Brian Johnson is the AC/DC singer who has served the longest reign, joining the group in 1980 following the tragic death of his predecessor, Bon Scott. The band would have fallen without Johnson, who proved to be the perfect replacement and helped AC/DC move on to a chapter they previously wouldn’t have deemed possible.
Scott was more than a vocalist; he lived and breathed AC/DC. When news of his death broke, it seemed the Australian group’s days were numbered. Still, after a period of deliberating, they vowed to carry on for the sake of their former bandmate’s legacy and everything they’d built together.
The group began auditioning for a new vocalist and considered many different people for the role, but nobody proved right until Johnson caught their attention. Scott was deemed almost irreplaceable, and it took a prolonged search until they found the man to fill his boots.
However, despite the utmost importance of Scott’s contribution to the group, he wasn’t their original frontman. Instead, that was Dave Evans, whose voice can be heard on the band’s debut single before he was swiftly replaced by Scott, who elevated their sound to a whole new level and allowed AC/DC to fulfil their potential.
They decided to remove Evans from his position after appointing Michael Browning as their manager, who felt the vocalist was limited and could only perform glam-rock. Scott’s arrival immediately breathed new life into the outfit, and years later, Malcolm Young delivered some rather harsh words about Evans’ tenure.
“Bon basically took charge…he was older, and he’d been around in another band. He was the man of experience. We’d written one or two songs, and he encouraged us to write more,” Young said of Scott’s arrival in an interview that surfaced posthumously in The Coda Collection in 2019.
The guitarist continued: “When he came in, we had the voice of experience. We kept our ears wide open. He pushed us a little further. The first singer [Dave Evans], people cheered when he left, so we could jam. He was so bad. Bon was in a week later. He had songs, ideas, motivation. He’s serious. We were happy to be with someone like that. We were just happy to be playing. He had bigger plans.”
Despite not featuring in AC/DC when they gained mainstream success, Evans has still managed to carve a career in the music business. In 2023, he celebrated the 50th anniversary of AC/DC by performing a career-spanning set of the band’s material, combined with covers and solo work, across Europe and South America.
While he didn’t contribute to beloved songs in their catalogue, such as ‘Highway To Hell’ or ‘Back In Black’, and the band may never have hit those heights if he remained in situ, Evans still helped AC/DC in their quest to become the biggest rock act on the planet.
