With the first show of their impending European tour with Guns N’ Roses‘ Axl Rose on vocals looming, AC/DC continue a press blitz. The band’s guitarist Angus Young and bassist Cliff Williams were joined by Rose for a recent chat with NME. Rose is of course scheduled to fill-in on vocals for Brian Johnson, who recently had to step down from the band or risk permanent hearing loss. Some excerpts from the aforementioned conversation can be found below:
On learning of Johnson‘s condition and if they considered just performing with numerous different guest vocalists:
Angus Young: “It was a crisis that came then, and we had to act. We were in Miami at the time, when all of this came up, and unfortunately, when you’re in that situation you got to make decisions pretty quick, because there are a lot of people waiting. We were supposed to actually play in Atlanta, so you’re kind of going ‘what do we do now’. Because of the nature of Brian’s deafness, we knew that there was no easy fix. So you’ve got to then say, ‘what do we do here?’ The options were very limited and you think, if we just stop with all of this machinery it’s going to be a hell of a lot of legal entanglement…”
On if Johnson will be able to rejoin the group in the future:
Angus Young: “He has to be very careful of what hearing he’s got left. This is what he told us – he was gutted about not finishing [the tour] because he says he would have loved to have gotten through. It was his call, what he wanted. He made that decision himself. He didn’t want to be deaf. And I perfectly understand that – when you stop doing this, you want to walk away with all your pieces! I don’t even want to leave without my fingernail!”
On if Axl has spoken Johnson since being enlisted into the group:
Axl Rose: “No, I have not spoken with Brian, only because we haven’t spoken much about Brian. There hasn’t been any negative talk with the guys or anything, it’s just the time schedule of having to get things together for the shows, while also I had Guns N’ Roses commitments and then breaking the foot. The day I found out it was broken I left the hospital to rehearse. My only day off was the surgery day and the next day was back to rehearsals.”
In a separate interview available below conducted by the BBC‘s Matt Everitt, Rose stated that he’s open to continuing on with the band after they complete their previously booked commitments, stating:
“There’s makeup dates in the States, and if I don’t get throw out before then, I’m looking forward to doing [them]. I think after that, it’s about what they wanna do. I’m in if they want me in, and we’ll sort it out, but right now that’s getting ahead of ourselves with everything else that’s on the table.”
Currently scheduled dates with Rose fronting the band include:
05/07 Lisbon, POR – Passeio Maritimo De Alges
05/10 Seville, SPA – Estadio De La Cartuja
05/13 Marseille, FRA – Stade Velodrome
05/16 Werchter, BEL – Werchter Site
05/19 Vienna, AUT – Erns-Happel Stadium
05/22 Prague, CZE – Letnany Airport
05/26 Hamburg, GER – Volksparkstadion
05/29 Berne, SWI – Stade De Suisse
06/1 Leipzig, GER – Red Bull Arena
06/4 London, UK – The Stadium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
06/9 Manchester, UK – Etihad Stadium
06/12 Aarhus, DEN – Ceres Park
