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Axl Rose Says He Means ‘No Disrespect’ To AC/DC Frontman Brian Johnson

By Val Powell
Published on: 09:27 PST, May 6, 2016

Australia-based rock and roll band AC/DC will resume its Rock or Bust World Tour on Saturday, May 6, in Lisbon Portugal. It will feature Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose, who filled in the shoes of Brian Johnson.

In an interview with BBC 6 Music, Axl Rose said that he is a big fan of Johnson, and “wants to do it justice.”

“I’m happy and excited in one sense, but I think it would be inappropriate to be celebrating, in a certain way, at someone else’s expense,” he added.

Axl Rose also said that he would not celebrate just because he was tapped to get the job. He even described the entire situation as “unfortunate.”

The Rock or Bust World Tour, which aims to promote AC/DC’s latest album Rock or Bust, began in June last year. The musical offering should be nearing a close in the next few months.

Unfortunately, Johnson found out that he has a serious hearing complication. With this, he had to stop performing, otherwise he would “risk total hearing loss.”

The 68-year-old musician did not have a choice but to drop out from the band, where he served as lead vocalist for 36 years.

Since news broke out, the Australian band has been looking for replacements. In a recent report, a spokesman even hinted that the band would get an A-list musician to replace Johnson for the remaining months of the tour.

That guy was eventually revealed to be Axl Rose, who has been the vocalist of Guns N’ Roses since its inception in 1985.

According to reports, it was Axl Rose who first contacted AC/DC upon hearing the news. He said he reached out to the band’s production manager and offered his help given it is in the middle of an album world tour.

“I wasn’t looking at it like, ‘I’m singing for AC/DC.’ I was looking at it like, ‘y’know, if I can, and if they think I’m able to do it,” Axl Rose added.

Unfortunately, AC/DC fans were not pleased with the selection, and thousands of tickets have reportedly been refunded. However, reports claimed that these refunded tickets have since been resold to other interested fans.

As for guitarist Angus Young, he said that everyone was devastated to hear that Johnson was leaving.

“In his heart he wanted to finish [the tour] but because of that hearing factor he had to make the decision,” he added. The guitarist revealed he even talked to Johnson before his decision.

There are rumors floating that Johnson’s departure was acrimonious. Young seemingly admitted that the band has been undergoing troubles recently.

“It’s a hard thing to do, and he’d had the problem since we kicked off touring. It was his call,” he said.

However, the AC/DC guitarist said that while the decision was painful, no one wanted to see Johnson in a “tragic situation.”

Young also remembered some band members in the past and how they left AC/DC. His brother, guitarist Malcolm Young, developed dementia. In 1980, original lead singer Bon Scott died after choking on his vomit from a night of binge drinking.

He said that after experiencing all that, they want band members to leave the band in “full body shape,” and not in a “tragic way.”

Now that Axl Rose will be suiting up as lead vocalist for AC/DC, it seems Young and company are pleased to have him on board. In a Facebook post, Young and bassist Cliff Williams appeared alongside Axl Rose in a short video inviting their fans to their Lisbon concert.

Axl Rose appears with Angus Young and Cliff Williams to promote concert

Aside from singing at the concert in Portugal, Axl Rose will also perform for AC/DC in their upcoming gigs, until the end of the world tour in June.

[Photo by Robert Cianflone / Getty Images]

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