AC/DC finally saluted by Rolling Stone
November 3rd, 2008 by Wade Tatangelo in News
Back when Rolling Stone was the Pitchfork of its day, the mag enjoyed dissing awesomely hellbent hard rock bands like, say, Led Zeppelin. AC/DC is another act that RS and other critics have largely ignored or wrongheadedly slammed over the years. “The [hard-rock] genre has hit a new all-time low,” RS wrote of AC/DC’s spectacularly scuzzy 1976 debut LP High Voltage. The mag makes up for past sins, sorta, this week by putting the big boogie bad asses on the cover and running an excellent 4,800-word profile written Senior Writer David Fricke.
The piece opens with great quote from singer/Sarasota resident Brian Johnson:
AC/DC singer Brian Johnson perches on the edge of a sofa in a New York hotel room with a blank look on his face, mumbling to himself in a grainy whisper, his head and shoulders drooping with exhaustion. There is nothing wrong with him. Johnson, a robust man who is built like a bear and who talks in a booming growl, is doing his imitation of AC/DC guitarist Angus Young on tour, backstage just before showtime.
“It’s amazing, watching him in the dressing room,” Johnson says with a raspy cackle through his thick northern-England accent. “He can be totally knackered, in the middle of a long stretch of shows, sitting there with a cigarette and a cup of tea.” Johnson goes into that gnomish slouch. “Then it’s, ‘Twenty minutes, boys.’ He gets up, hardly a word, disappears around a corner — and comes back in those clothes. He’s got a fag in his mouth, a jaunty look on his face, his guitar slung on him.
“He’s like Clark fucking Kent!” Johnson exclaims. “He goes into a phone booth and comes out as the 14-year-old imp, ready to rock!”
Read: “AC/DC and the Gospel of Rock & Roll.”
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