AC/DC singer Brian Johnson has nothing but good things to say about GUNS N’ ROSES frontman Axl Rose for filling in for him at the end of AC/DC’s “Rock Or Bust” tour.
AC/DC had to initially postpone the last 10 dates of their spring 2016 North American tour after Johnson was advised to stop playing live or “risk total hearing loss.” The band went on to complete the final dates with Axl Rose as a “guest vocalist.”
Brian Johnson recently sat down with Ultimate Classic Rock and spoke about Axl stepping up to front AC/DC for those final dates. Johnson said: “He jumped into a tough, tough vocalist gig. You’ve got to be on top of your game for that. There’s not many resting places. You’ve really got to go in full chop, all of the time. And for him to do that at such short notice was pretty fantastic. I’ve got a lot of respect for what he did, you know. A lot of respect.”
AC/DC’s North American tour ended in Philadelphia in September 2016, and despite initial fan trepidation, Axl got generally good reviews for his performances. Guitarist Angus Young said at the time: “I mean, under the situation that we had, it was very good that he volunteered and said, ‘Hey, if I can help, let me try.’ So he’s been very good. And he had to learn a lot of songs very quickly, and he’s done a great job.”
AC/DC will release their long-awaited comeback album, “Power Up”, on November 13.