Angus Young has revealed that AC/DC’s original frontman Bon Scott thought that his eventual replacement Brian Johnson was “incredible.”
Speaking on 95.5 KLOS radio (via NME), Young discussed the time Scott supported Johnson’s pre-AC/DC band Geordie, prior to the former’s death in 1980.
“Bon had been in a band that had toured in Britain, and they were opening for the band Brian was in, which was a band called Geordie,” Young said.
“Anyhow, they were gigging away, and as Bon told the story, he was saying he was listening to Geordie performing and listening to Brian, and then he heard this screaming. He said it sounded like Little Richard was on the stage. He said this guy was howling and yelling. And then he said then he saw the guy on the floor. Bon thought it was great, it was the best act, the best singer he had seen in a long time,” he continued.
“But what he didn’t know, afterwards he found out, Brian had an attack of appendicitis. But Bon thought it was part of the act. He thought, ‘This guy is incredible.’ ‘And he was still hitting these high notes.’”
In other news, Young recently revealed he came up with ‘Highway to Hell’ while sitting on the toilet.
“We had started with the Highway to Hell album … we’d been in Miami, and we’d been in a rehearsal room and that’s what we were doing… We were putting together new tracks. And we’d been there a couple of weeks and we were going a bit slow. And then I had come in one day with [my brother Malcolm] and just before we got in, I said, ‘I’ve got a good idea in my head,'” he recalled during an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe.
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“So I got in and he came in, and I started playing the beginning, the intro. Malcolm got behind the drums and he said, ‘Right, you let me know when you hear the downbeat, the first downbeat of what you want,’” he added.
“So he came in with the beat. That’s how we set it up. But I didn’t have anything to sing. And he was saying to me, ‘Well, have you got something you can come up with?’ And I said, ‘Okay, give me a few minutes.’”
“And I went to the toilet, and then I was in the toilet and I was there and I’m sitting and thinking. And I’m just sitting on the throne, more or less, and then I go, ‘I think I’ve got it. I’ve got it. I’ve got it. I’ve got the idea in my head.’”
“And then I came in there and I said, ‘I’ve got it. Highway to Hell.'”
Check out Angus Young discussing Bon Scott and Brian Johnson:
