It’s been 42 years since the release of one of the greatest rock albums of all time, AC/DC’s Back in Black.
And in the four decades since, English singer Brian Johnson has been dogged by a “conspiracy theory” about who put pen to paper on the 80s hit.
There have been persistent rumors that the late Bon Scott, who fronted the Australian band before his death in February 1980, had “scribbled most of the lyrics to the album in one of his notebooks before he died”.
However, Johnson, now 75, who took over as leader after Scott’s death aged 33, has addressed the myth in his new book: Brian’s life.
Although the song came about from Scott telling a story to his bandmates about his owner’s complaints about the volume of his music, AC/DC co-founder and guitarist Angus Young has previously said that they didn’t end up using none of his letters to avoid looking. as if they were taking advantage of his untimely death.
“I know there’s one individual who was a conspiracy theorist and kept saying, well, Bon wrote those lyrics,” Johnson says, per The Daily Telegraph.
“What band would allow someone to claim someone else’s lyrics? I mean, it’s absolute nonsense. And that’s why I put it in the book, to say once and for all, that letter came from the tip of the hand with a pen.
“There are people out there, they just won’t believe what’s true. And I felt terrible after I left it (in the book), but I’d been nervous for so long. I still love hearing the great lyrics of Well, his double entendres, his funny little jokes… I couldn’t do it.”
Brothers Angus and the late Malcolm Young, as well as Johnson, are credited with writing all the songs on AC/DC’s seventh studio album. Back In Black
The legendary album was released just five months after Scott’s death, and three months after Johnson officially joined the band, which didn’t help defuse the conspiracy theory.
It was a complete work of musical art, which became one of the best-selling albums of all time and was recorded in just seven weeks in the Bahamas from April to May 1980.
AC/DC was first formed in 1973 in Sydney by the Young brothers, who along with drummer Phil Rudd and bassist Mark Evans released their debut album. high voltage in 1975.
The current members are Johnson, Rudd, Angus Young, Cliff Williams and Stevie Young, who took over as guitarist after his uncle Malcolm Young left the band in 2014 due to health reasons. Malcolm died from the effects of dementia in 2017.