Do you ever get interrupted when you’re in the middle of an important project? It happens to the best of us. But imagine if it happened to you while thousands of people were watching – and mentally analyzing you as a performer. It would be embarrassing, and downright annoying. Well, in the world of music, this recently happened to AC/DC, and he has a whole lot to say about it.
As per Ultimate Guitar, AC/DC’s Brian Johnson spoke about an “awkward” moment when Justin Hawkins appeared to be wrestling the microphone away from him during the first Taylor Hawkins tribute concert at London’s Wembley stadium. What a jabroni. As Johnson explains, he invited Hawkins to join him onstage, but The Darkness frontman and rock YouTuber forgot to bring a mic of his own. And he is supposed to be a professional?
The incident took place a minute after Johnson, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, and the Foo Fighters got on stage to play a rendition of the ACD/DC hit “Back in Black”. Hawkins, who also performed Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher” and “On Fire” with Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang, joined Johnson onstage and the two sang together – with one microphone. This caused fans on Twitter for Twits, owned by Mr. Aliens in my head Elon Musk, to accuse Hawkins of trying to steal the thunder from his older colleague, to which Hawkins replied Johnson had invited him for the second verse beforehand.
Brian Johnson corroborated Hawkins’ statements during a recent interview on SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk” (transcription via Blabbermouth):
“We were getting ready to go on. Justin came up, and he was going, ‘Brian, I cannot believe I’m here.’ He said, ”Back In Black’ is my favorite of all songs in the world, and I’d love to be able to sing [it].’ And I said, ‘Come on and sing the second verse. Can you do that?’ And he went, ‘Oh, do you mean it?’
“And he turned… Dave Grohl was there. He said, ‘Dave, Brian has just asked [me] to sing the second verse of ‘Back In Black’.’ And Dave Grohl said, ‘If Brian Johnson asks you to sing the second verse of ‘Back In Black’, you sing it.’ And he did. And then he got on. And I think he chickened out halfway through and I forgot the fucking words. But the worst thing was he got so excited, he came out and he forgot to bring a microphone with him. [Laughs]
“So that’s why it looked so awkward, trying to sing with one microphone. And he’s, like, six-foot-fuckin’-two or something.”
There you have it. Bickering at its best. Let’s get ready to rumble indeed.
