Axl Rose With AC/DC In New Video
AC/DC have finally appeared on camera with their replacement singer, Axl Rose. A video featuring lead guitarist Angus Young, bass guitarist Cliff Williams, and the Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose was released on Thursday, ahead of their upcoming concert in Lisbon, Portugal, the first of their European Tour.
Saturday’s concert at Lisbon will be the Guns N’ Roses frontman’s first performance with AC/DC. This concert will also be AC/DC’s first concert without Brian Johnson since the conclusion of the Highway to Hell world tour in January 1980. Rose was chosen to replace AC/DC’s Johnson for the remainder of AC/DC’s Rock or Bust World Tour after a sudden deterioration in Johnson’s hearing forced AC/DC to cut the tour short. Rose is set to perform in 12 European dates.
AC/DC singer Brian Johnson was strongly advised against doing any more live performances due to fears of suffering permanent hearing loss back in March. The 68-year-old singer had been with the band since 1980, following the death of the original singer & front-man Bon Scott. The European dates of the Rock and Bust world tour concerts were cancelled and later rescheduled following his medical diagnosis.
Angus Young explains in the video how Johnson would be risking total deafness were he to continue performing in live shows. Brian Johnson had said earlier in an interview with Rolling Stone that he had been having difficulty hearing the guitars on stage and that he was afraid that this would hinder the quality of his performances, something he did not wish to compromise. He said that he had “no choice but to stop performing on stage for the remaining shows and possibly beyond.”
“I will be unable to perform on stage at arena and stadium size venues where the sound levels are beyond my current tolerance, without the risk of substantial hearing loss and possibly total deafness.”
The shocking news of Axl Rose replacing Brian Johnson for the remaining AC/DC shows has drawn mixed reactions from the AC/DC fans around the world since it was first officially announced back on April 17. In response to the mixed reaction, AC/DC have even offered refunds for the upcoming European shows to “do right by” their fans should they wish not to see an AC/DC concert with Axl Rose. “The band made a decision to offer this,” a spokesman for the band told Team Rock. “As they care about their fans and wanted to do right by them, they instructed local promoters to offer refunds.”
AC/DC will resume the #RockOrBust World Tour w/ Axl Rose joining on vocals. All updated tour dates can be found here https://t.co/jshRD4pBV7
— AC/DC (@acdc) April 17, 2016
Although no official statements have been released regarding this, a report claims that as many as 7,000 people have asked for a refund for the group’s May 16 concert at the Festivalpark in Werchter, Belgium. Perhaps not the biggest fans of the Guns N’ Roses singer. Axl Rose claims that he is happy to step up for the band in their time of need. After the conclusion of his AC/DC tour, Rose is says he will return to rehearse for his upcoming “Not In This Lifetime” tour, a Guns N’ Roses tour featuring the classic trio Axl Rose, Slash & Duff McKagan.
AC/DC currently have 12 European live dates booked in for May and June.
5/7 – Lisbon, Portugal
5/10 – Seville, Spain
5/13 – Marseille, France
5/16 – Werchter, Belgium
5/19 – Vienna, Austria
5/22 – Prague, Czech Republic
5/26 – Hamburg, Germany
5/29 – Berne, Switzerland
6/1 – Leipzig, Germany
6/4 – London, England
6/9 – Manchester, England
6/12 – Aarhus, Denmark
[Photo by : Invision / AP Images]
