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AC/DC's BRIAN JOHNSON has never voted in his life: 'fuck politicians'

31-10-2022

While promoting his long-awaited memoir “The Lives Of Brian”AC/DC singer Brian Johnson touched upon his love of cars, telling The Telegraph that he owns everything from a Ford GT40 to a 1954 MG TF. Asked if he has “anything electric”, Brian replied: “Steady, son. You go too far, I sink, monsieur!”

When the interviewer tried to tell Brian that “electric vehicles are “the future,” Johnson shot back: “It’s not the future. They’re dirty. They’re going to be dirty to get rid of, too. Electric’s where it is because politicians want to look green in front of people. It’s all nonsense. Fuck ’em.”

Johnson, who turned 75 on October 5, went on to say that he isn’t fan of politicians on either side of the Atlantic, and revealed that he hasn’t actually voted in his life. “People go, ‘Oh, well. It’s your fault then.’ I go, ‘No, no. It’s your fucking fault for voting these cretins in,'” he said. “What would happen if both the candidates got zero votes? Revolution, that’s what would fucking happen. And we’d get the right people in.”

Johnson previously expressed his distaste for politics in a 2020 interview with The Independent, conducted just days before that year’s U.S. presidential election. Brian, who has lived in Sarasota, Florida since 1995, explained why AC/DC has never aligned itself with a political cause. “Bollocks to politicians,” he said. “Fuck them, I want nothing to do with them.”

The title track of AC/DC‘s 1990 album “The Razors Edge” is thought to be the only song by the legendary band which is a rumination on global politics (“There’s fighting on the left and marching on the right…’),as founding guitarist Angus Young explained to Canadian TV channel Much Music‘s news program “FAX”. “The world was at peace again and everyone thought, ‘Ah, the Berlin Wall’s come down and it’s gonna be a party every night,'” he said. “And you can see now that it’s not that way. It’s our way of saying the world’s not perfect and never will be.”

“The Lives Of Brian” was published in the U.K. by Penguin Michael Joseph, a division of Penguin Random House, by publishing director Rowland White. It was published simultaneously in the U.S. by Dey Street Books, an imprint of the William Morrow Group at HarperCollins.

Johnson joined AC/DC in 1980 after the death of previous lead singer Bon Scott.

His first album with the band, “Back In Black”, went on to become the biggest-selling rock album of all time.

After a quarter century of platinum albums and record-breaking tours, he was forced to quit the band in 2016 after being diagnosed with hearing loss, but made a triumphant return in 2020 with the release of “Power Up”, which went to No.1 in 21 countries. A successful competitive vintage racing car driver, Johnson has more recently enjoyed acclaim as the charismatic presenter of television shows “Cars That Rock With Brian Johnson” and “Brian Johnson: A Life Of The Road”.

“I’ve had some long nights and some great nights, some bad days and a lot of good days, and during that time I’ve gone from choirboy to rock ‘n’ roll singer, and now I’ve gone and written a bloody book about it,” says Johnson.

Brian‘s memoir captures an unforgettable moment in rock history. Anyone who wants to understand Brian‘s roots as well as the moment of ignition when he joined AC/DC and helped create a monster album will be in for an unforgettable ride,” says Dey Street Books SVP and executive editor Mauro DiPreta.

Rowland White says: “From growing up in the north-east, the son of a former British army sergeant-major and an Italian mother, to fronting world’s biggest rock band, ‘The Lives Of Brian’ tells one of the best stories in music in Brian‘s own inimitable voice. His life has been a roller coaster of highs and lows during which success as a musician too often felt out of reach. But even when it seemed defeat had been snatched from the jaws of victory he never gave up. And throughout his feet have remained firmly planted on the ground. Warm, vivid, evocative, life-affirming and often laugh-out-loud funny, ‘The Lives Of Brian’ is a gold standard rock ‘n’ roll memoir from one of our most well-loved performers. Brian‘s one of a kind and I couldn’t be more proud to be publishing his book.”

Johnson was born to a steelworker and WWII veteran father and an Italian mother, growing up in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, a working-class town. He was musically inclined and sang with the church choir. By the early ’70s, he performed with the glam rock band GEORDIE, and they had a couple hits, but it was tough going. So tough that by 1976, they disbanded and Brian turned to a blue-collar life.

Then 1980 changed everything. Bon Scott, the lead singer and lyricist of the Australian rock band AC/DC died at 33. The band auditioned singers, among them Johnson, whom Scott himself had seen perform and raved about. Within days, Johnson was in a studio with the band, working with founding members Angus and Malcolm YoungCliff Williams and Phil Rudd, along with producer Mutt Lange.

When the album, “Back In Black”, was released in July — a mere three months after Johnson had joined the band — it exploded, going on to sell 50 million copies worldwide, and triggering a years-long worldwide tour. It has been declared “the biggest-selling hard rock album ever made” and “the best-selling heavy-metal album in history.”

The band toured the world for a full year to support the album, changing the face of rock music — and Johnson‘s life — forever.

Touching, personal, indomitable, but always laugh-out-loud funny, “The Lives Of Brian” is the story of one of the world’s best-loved performers, told in his own inimitable and unique voice.

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