In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, drummer Chris Slade recalled on Axl Rose joining AC/DC back in 2016 as a replacement for Brian Johnson as doctors had ordered him to stop touring immediately, as his hearing loss had accelerated and he risked complete deafness if he persisted on the road.
When asked “What happened on the tour that led to Brian’s departure?”, Slade responded: “Brian was getting unhappy. He kept saying, ‘I’m feeling bad. I’m feeling bad for the fans.’ I wear in-ear monitors. First time I ever used them. I could hear everything perfectly, including Brian.
“I kept going, ‘Brian, it’s really not as bad as you think it is. I know you have professional pride. But you keep saying you screwed up. It’s really not as bad as you think.’ I don’t know the end of the story. The band, including Brian, was in Miami. Tim [Brockman], the tour manager said, ‘We’re going to be staying here for a while.’
“I went, ‘Oh, really? I thought we were going to a new city next week.’ He said, ‘No, we’re going to be here for a few weeks.’ I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘I’ll tell you later.’
“I never got the story,” he added. “But I had been talking to the crew and they filled me in. All I know is — and this is serious; I don’t know the details — all I know is that Brian went from Miami to home. He lives in Florida anyway. As far as I know, he stayed there.”
Asked if there were any possible replacements besides Axl Rose, Slade said: “We were in Atlanta, Georgia, and we auditioned a few people. Some of them were really good. I said, ‘What’s happening tomorrow?’ Someone goes, ‘Tomorrow we’ve got Axl Rose.’ I went, ‘What?! Axl Rose!’
“I knew his reputation. ‘Wow, that is left field. I never saw that coming.’ I’d only ever heard his GUNS N’ ROSES voice. I didn’t know he could cut it. He showed up the next day at the rehearsal place in Atlanta and he seemed like a really nice guy. He was telling jokes.
“The rest of us were like, ‘Wow. This is unprecedented.’ At least in my mind, that is,” Slade continued. “When he started singing, it was like, ‘Wow!’ I never even knew he could sing like that. It was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. He turned out to be the nice guy that I thought he was. I found out he wasn’t putting on an act or anything. That’s how he was.”
Slade was also asked if other auditioned singers for relatively unknown, to which he replied: “Relatively unknown, I would say. Some tribute-band guys and some of those guys are really good, as we all know. And, of course, I had no input whatsoever. Nobody says, especially to the drummer, ‘What do you think?’ [Laughs]”
TWISTED SISTER frontman Dee Snider said in a recent interview on 95.5 KLOS radio station that AC/DC will likely embark on stadium tour along with new album release.
Asked when fans will finally get a chance to hear new music from AC/DC, Snider said: “I think that everybody — and you’ve seen this with the movie industry; you’ve seen this across the board — not everybody, but a lot of people have said, ‘Let’s just put a hold on everything until everything until things settle down a little.’
He continued: “I think they’re planning on a tour to go with the new record, and I know they’re spoiled old brats like me — they don’t wanna do it online or something. They know they’re gonna be playing stadiums on this tour.”
