{"id":946420,"date":"2026-10-26T02:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T02:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/946420\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T02:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T02:36:12","slug":"in-2016-axl-rose-replaced-brian-johnson-on-tour-with-ac-dc-johnson-couldnt-bring-himself-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/946420\/","title":{"rendered":"In 2016, Axl Rose replaced Brian Johnson on tour with AC\/DC. Johnson couldn\u2019t bring himself to watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Brian<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Harry (Howard<\/p>\n

October 25th, 2026 \u00b7 10:30pm GMT <\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t believe in serendipity, look at Brian Johnson<\/a> and AC\/DC. That will change your mind. <\/p>\n

Bon Scott had one of the greatest voices in rock, and he was a massively intrinsic component to the niche that AC\/DC were steadily carving out for themselves. As such, when he passed, there were plenty of people who thought that that might have been the end for the band, but the band wound up finding Brian Johnson. Sceptical fans tuned into the Back In Black album, but the minute they heard the opening line on \u2018Hells Bells\u2019, they knew the band was in safe hands. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe start of that album, \u2018Hells Bells\u2019, it took a long time before Brian opened his mouth,\u201d said Joe Elliott when discussing Johnson\u2019s AC\/DC debut. \u201cThere was this big intro, and it was really clever how they built that song up, almost like the start of \u2018Shine On You Crazy Diamond\u2019, where you\u2019re waiting for the vocals to come in. In that intro to \u2018Hells Bells<\/a>\u2019 you\u2019ve established the sound of the band, and then in comes this new singer and\u2026wow! At the time, he made it cool again to sing high.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, when Bon Scott sadly passed away, the band managed to find a suitable replacement, but what about when Brian Johnson couldn\u2019t perform? No, the gravelly voiced singer hasn\u2019t passed away, but there was a period in 2016 when he was forced to stop gigging on the AC\/DC Rock or Bust Tour because doctors told him if he were to keep playing, then there\u2019s a chance he would totally lose his hearing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A daunting prospect for sure, and a risk that Johnson wasn\u2019t comfortable taking; however, the rest of the band wanted to keep touring and taking their shows to as many crowds of people as possible. Johnson wasn\u2019t out of the band, but AC\/DC needed to find a suitable replacement, and they did just that in the form of Guns N\u2019 Roses\u2019 Axl Rose.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI called the day I read about it in the news, that there was a situation going on with Brian\u2019s hearing,\u201d said Rose when discussing the circumstances leading to him fronting the band in an interview with The Guardian. \u201cI called a guy who\u2019s their production manager right now \u2026 So if I could help, and if I was able to do it, and they were interested, I\u2019d love to help. And that\u2019s how it started. I wasn\u2019t looking at it like, \u2018I\u2019m singing for AC\/DC\u2019. I was looking at it like, \u2018Y\u2019know, if I can, and if they think I\u2019m able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, how did the shows go? Well, it depends on who you ask. If we\u2019re being objective about it, Axl Rose did a fine job; he was never going to sound better than Brian Johnson singing those songs because they\u2019re Brian Johnson\u2019s songs; however, he carried the AC\/DC sound well and did the tracks justice. Some fans liked that the show went on, whereas other loyalists were angry at the replacement, but this was a move that was always going to divide audiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n

In more interesting news, what did Johnson think? Well, simply put, he was heartbroken<\/a>. He thought that Axl Rose did a great job filling his shoes, but also said that he \u201cjust couldn\u2019t watch.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like finding a stranger in your house, sitting in your favorite chair,\u201d wrote Johnson in his book The Lives of Brian. \u201cBut I bear no grudges. It was a tough situation. Angus [Young] and the lads did what they felt they had to do. That said, after the band released a statement confirming that I was leaving the tour and wishing me all the best for the future, I couldn\u2019t relax or concentrate on anything. It was just always there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ Harry (Howard October 25th, 2026 \u00b7 10:30pm GMT If you don\u2019t believe in serendipity,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[272450,323939,120495,162668,114336,31841,49,48,361,75,31861,207709],"class_list":["post-946420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-2010s","tag-323939","tag-ac-dc","tag-angus-young","tag-axl-rose","tag-brian-johnson","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-guns-n-roses","tag-malcolm-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}