Brian Johnson: a phone call, Nutbush City Limits and Back in Black | Highway to Hell

Why fans still care

BRIAN JOHNSON joined AC/DC five weeks after Bon Scott died and was recording in Nassau a month later. That record was Back in Black. It’s now 27 times Platinum in the US, and Rolling Stone Australia calls it the best-selling rock album there. In 2026 he’s still singing Hells Bells to stadiums.

Early life

He grew up in Dunston, on the Tyne in north-east England. Northumbria University, which later gave him an honorary doctorate, describes him as born “along the river from the University”. What got him singing was Little Richard, that raw, screamed style. His first band was called Section 5.

Career chapters

1. Early 1970slead singer of Geordie
2. 1973All Because of You reaches number 6 in the UK
3. March 1980auditions for AC/DC in London
4. April 1980records Back in Black in Nassau
5. 29 June 1980first show with AC/DC, Namur, Belgium
6. 1981For Those About to Rock We Salute You, AC/DC’s first US number one
7. 2003Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
8. 2014honorary doctorate, Northumbria University
9. 2016steps back from touring; Axl Rose fronts the remaining dates
10. 2020Power Up debuts at number one in the US
11. 2023back on stage at Power Trip, California
12. 2025the MCG, Melbourne, AC/DC’s first Australian shows in a decade

Geordie early 1970s

Geordie were a Newcastle glam and hard rock band. They put four singles on the UK chart: Don’t Do That, All Because of You, Can You Do It and Electric Lady. All Because of You went highest, to number 6 in March 1973. After Geordie he fixed car windscreens for a living.

The call and the audition 1980

After Bon Scott’s death in February 1980, AC/DC needed a singer. Johnson took a call from a woman with a German accent who wouldn’t say which band it was. She let slip “AC” and “DC”. In London that March he sang Ike and Tina Turner’s Nutbush City Limits for the Young brothers, and by the end of the month he was in the band.

Back in Black 1980

By April he was at Compass Point Studios in Nassau with producer Mutt Lange. Malcolm Young, Who’s Who number 28, asked him to write lyrics, and his first for AC/DC was You Shook Me All Night Long. Malcolm saw the album as a tribute to Bon, though a celebration rather than a wake. It came out on 25 July 1980.

He played live before the record was out: on 29 June 1980, at the Palais des Expositions in Namur, Belgium. A warm-up gig, opening with Hells Bells. “I was a very nervous boy,” he later said. Namur has since put up a statue of him.

The arena years 1981 to 2016

For Those About to Rock We Salute You gave AC/DC their first US number one in 1981. Johnson shared lyric credits through Blow Up Your Video in 1988. From The Razors Edge in 1990, Angus and Malcolm Young wrote the songs. Black Ice was another US number one in 2008. In 2016 he stepped back from touring, and Axl Rose fronted the remaining Rock or Bust dates.

Power Up and the road back 2018 to 2026

In August 2018 the band gathered at Warehouse Studios in Vancouver with Brendan O’Brien. Power Up came out on 13 November 2020 and debuted at number one in the US. In Australia it held number one for three straight weeks, AC/DC’s longest run at the top there. On 7 October 2023 the band played Power Trip in Indio, California, their first show in seven years. In November 2025 they played the MCG, their first Australian shows in a decade, and in 2026 the tour moved through South and North America.

Craft, sound and style

The voice

The Rock Hall calls him a “vocal powerhouse”. Tony Platt, the engineer on Back in Black, set Bon Scott’s very quirky voice against Johnson’s sheer power. He also said some of the notes were a real challenge, and that Johnson was under a massive amount of pressure in 1980.

Recording Back in Black

Platt captured his vocal with a Neumann U87. Johnson sang screened off at the back of Compass Point’s live room. Once warmed up, he didn’t want the air-conditioning too cold. The aim was three or four master-quality takes, comped together. Backing vocals came from Lange, Malcolm Young and Cliff Williams, the band’s bassist.

Writing to a title

With the Youngs, the title comes first, and Johnson says it matters a lot. For Back in Black he wrote words to titles they handed him. “It was me at the end of the pen,” he wrote in his memoir.

Stories people still tell

1. The audition song.

   A popular story says he auditioned with a Little Richard song. He didn’t. He sang Nutbush City Limits. Little Richard was the boyhood inspiration.

2. Bon had heard him first.

   Angus Young has said that Bon Scott once saw Johnson sing with Geordie and called him a great rock and roll singer in the style of Little Richard. It reaches us second-hand, through a 2012 book.

3. Wembley, 2022.

   The 2022 tribute concert for Taylor Hawkins at Wembley had Johnson singing Back in Black with Foo Fighters and Lars Ulrich of Metallica, another face in Highway to Hell.

Legacy

AC/DC were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, presented by Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, and Johnson’s signature is on the plaque. Northumbria University made him a Doctor of Music in 2014. At 78 he told USA Today the shows are “more fun because we don’t care anymore”.