And Johnson's first song with the band at the audition was Tina Turner’s “Nutbush City Limits.” (“It was the most electric moment of my life,” he writes). Only years later did Johnson realize they'd met.Īt the audition, co-founder and rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young offered him a Newcastle Brown Ale, a nice nod to Johnson's heritage. “He’s probably forgotten that he said that, but I didn’t.”īon Scott, the original lead singer of AC/DC died in 1980, and Johnson got an audition to replace him based on recommendations, including from Scott himself, who had heard him sing one night. Do you understand me? Never, ever give up.’ And I really took that to heart,” Johnson recalled. “He said, ‘I’m going to give you one piece of advice, Brian. On the day, Johnson recalls Daltrey riding toward him bare-chested and barefoot with no saddle, holding onto the mane of his galloping white horse (“If this isn’t a rock star, I thought to myself, I don’t know what is,” he writes.) The Who's frontman invited Johnson - then living with his band in an apartment with just four mattresses on the floor - over for a meal at his manor house. It was a meeting with singer Roger Daltrey that proved pivotal. His brother, Maurice, lent him his cloth driving cap as protection, an addition the fans loved. The book reveals the origin of his trademark cap: Once he rushed to a gig with no time to change, sweating glue and shards of glass into his eyes. “I thought that was my second Cinderella story, but there was more to come,” he says. He had a little business and a little band. Johnson rebuilt his life, becoming a windscreen fitter - later a car roof fixer - and founded Georgie II. But, of course, it was also a reminder that I’d had my shot and blown it.” He moved in with his parents and recalls once watching AC/DC on BBC. My marriage, my career, my house,” he writes. He gave up a good career at his engineering firm, but Geordie had only one Top 10 hit and soon fizzled out. The band made it to the “Top of the Pops” - a show that was a crowning achievement for any nascent band. Johnson, who would later pen the immortal lines “Forget the hearse/’cause I’ll never die,” made his live debut in the deliciously named The Toasty Folk Trio, survived a horrific car crash and finally found some success in the band Geordie. He would meet Chuck Berry but it didn't go well. He attended one of Jimi Hendrik’s first shows in Britain, saw Sting perform when soon-The Police star was 15 and made friends with members of Slade and Thin Lizzy. system, he joined an airborne infantry regiment of the British Army. Johnson was an apprentice engineer who sang on the side and was a young father and husband. “Many have described that song, ‘Tutti Frutti,’ as the sound of rock ‘n’ roll being born - which is fitting, because my dream of becoming a singer was born in that moment, too,” he writes. Music was his North Star and he recalls first hearing Little Richard sing "Awop bop/a-loo bop/awop bam boom” at 11 and freaking out. "It was to validate the lives of all the wonderful people that I met that helped shape my life - friends from school, friends at the factories, friends in the music.” “It wasn’t so much to validate my life," he said of the book.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |