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Wed 5 August 2026 19:34, UK
Every vocalist, whether it’s Axl Rose or Liam Gallagher, would drop everything at a moment’s notice if their favourite band came calling.
They might be era-defining stars in their own right, but if the chance arose to step in and save the day for the band they grew up idolising, all bets would be off. For most musicians, that’s nothing more than a fantasy. For Rose, though, it became reality when he got the call in 2016.
At the time, AC/DC had a huge world tour ahead of them, which likely paid hundreds of people’s mortgages beyond those in the band. However, frontman Brian Johnson had to leave the band due to a sudden bout of hearing loss, which could have been permanent if he had played another show without getting treated.
Initially, they postponed the shows, before Rose heard the news, volunteered, and AC/DC hit the road. The Guns N’ Roses frontman saved the day, but he quickly realised, despite all the years of practice in the show, that Johnson’s job wasn’t easy.
Admittedly, Rose has always been his own unique animal behind the microphone. There are many great vocal runs that he got up to during the Appetite for Destruction era, but by Use Your Illusion, people realised that they weren’t dealing with just another screecher. This was a raw vocalist who was at home on stage; the only issue for many years was just whether he’d turn up.
Rose also wasn’t always the most cordial bandmate to work with. He was the one who demanded that the group be given necessary treatment before shows and lived up to the rockstar persona. But when working with a band like AC/DC, he’d thankfully grown out of all that by 2016, as they were not going to take any of that shit.
The Australian rockers have always exhibited an ‘on with the show’ mentality, and nowhere is that better exemplified than on 1980’s Back in Black. They had just buried their former frontman, Bon Scott, but with Brian Johnson at the helm, they had a phoenix from the ashes moment with every track on the classic record, which has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide.
Further reading: From The Vault
Whereas Scott had a voice suited for rough-and-tumble rock and roll, Johnson took over with his trademark screech that remains almost impossible to copy. So when the frontman had to bow out due to his health concerns and problems with his hearing, Rose stepped up to the plate, giving it his best shot despite being aware it was a challenge of the highest order.
On the eve of their first show together in Lisbon, he frankly admitted of the task ahead to Billboard, “I can’t take anything away from [Brian Johnson’s] singing. He’s a great singer, and it’s really challenging to sing. I’m just trying to do it justice for the fans…”
While, admittedly, there are not many easy songs in the AC/DC catalogue, Rose then singled out Back in Black, conceding, “A lot of the Back in Black stuff is really challenging.”
Despite his reputation for being unhinged if he so much as chipped a fingernail, which may have been true many moons ago, Rose couldn’t have been more committed if he tried. As the temporary AC/DC frontman, he tried his best and, more often than not, reached similar levels that Johnson could. In fact, it’s a wonder why some rock fans had such severe pushback to Rose as a choice, considering his screech on ‘Paradise City’ sounds just like a more youthful version of Johnson.
While Johnson was irreplaceable, Rose, who is far better suited to Guns N’ Roses, did as well as anybody possibly could. Furthermore, where he came up short in vocal areas, he made up for it with bundles of stage presence that can’t be taught in school. Most crucially, he spent a summer living the dream as only the fourth person in history to front AC/DC.
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