AC/DC vocalist Brian Johnson celebrates his 75th birthday today. Back in 1980, Johnson passed the audition to replace the late Bon Scott, and the rest is rock ‘n roll history.
The story goes that Angus and Malcolm Young first reached out, remembering that Bon had been impressed with Johnson after seeing him perform. Johnson hit big time with the first album he recorded with AC/DC, Back in Black, which has since sold 30-million copies worldwide, 25-million-plus in the U.S., making it the fourth best-selling album of all time after the Eagles' Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975), Michael Jackson's Thriller, and the Eagles' Hotel California.
Brian left AC/DC in 2016 because of damage to his hearing and was replaced on tour by Axl Rose. He later returned to record the album Power Up in 2020. Brian Johnson is also a car guy and vintage car driver for which he’s hosted TV shows.
An auto enthusiast and vintage race car driver, Johnson has hosted TV programs on the subject.
Brian talked about his love of auto racing. He said, "I like to race them, you know, real race cars. And that's where I get me, jollies, you know, getting out on the race track and duking it out with like-minded racers, you know. When I was a kid I used to tug and pull me dad and just say, 'Dad, please take us to the races.' And of course, you know, he was a hard working man, you know, and he'd just say, 'Son, it's me day off.' God bless his cotton socks he'd take us there and it was usually raining and windswept, but it didn't matter to me -- I just heard race cars. I used to dream of actually sitting in one and watching these knights of the road with their helmets on flying around the corners. You know, it was just a dream."
Brian’s autobiography Rockers and Rollers was published back in 2000, and his memoir, The Lives of Brian, will be published on October 13th of this year.
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[Source: Classic Hits Today]