Rock
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As AC/DC’s frontman since 1980, Brian Johnson is used to shaking people all night. But writing his new memoir, The Lives of Brian, affected him in a different way.
“I had to be careful, because sometimes it can get a little emotional, and it all comes out,” Johnson tells Billboard from his home in Sarasota, Fla., which he had to vacate briefly during Hurricane Ian. “It goes from your brain into your heart, through the soul and then the hand and you’re writing and you gotta stop and, ‘Whoo, this might be a bit much now, come on.’ And there were tears. There were times I actually started crying.”
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One of those times, Johnson says, came as he wrote about being treated for debilitating hearing issues during October 2015 at the same medical facility where AC/DC co-founder and guitarist Malcolm Young was being for dementia. “When I was writing about being next to Malcolm, just over the way, it was horrible,” Johnson recalls. “The tears were falling when I was writing it. It was a very touching moment.” The two bandmates did not connect, however; he writes that Young’s wife limited visitors to immediate family only. Young passed away during November 2017 at the age of 64.
Johnson says he had other Kleenex-dampening moments throughout his writing, which he did primarily by longhand. The 373-page The Lives of Brian, which publishes Oct. 25, is his second book and the follow-up to the car-centric Rockers and Rollers: A Full-Throttle Memoir in 2011. And it may surprise fans how little is in the book about AC/DC; he limits the discourse to his joining the group (including the first audition when he was late because he was playing pool downstairs with crew members), recording the 25-times platinum Back in Black album, the hearing issues that took him out of the band, temporarily, during the 2015-2016 Rock Or Bust World Tour and the making of 2020’s Billboard 200-topping album Power Up.
Why not more?
“I didn’t want to write an AC/DC book, ’cause that’s not my book. It never will be. It’s not my story to tell,” Johnson explains. “That book is for the boys, or whoever was there from the start. That’s what I want to read. I want to read what it was like when Malcolm and Angus just had a meeting and said, ‘Right, let’s do this’ and got the drummer and the singer. I think it would be fantastic if it came out, if somebody wanted to do it. But that’s not my book. And I think a book about the present day or, say, when I joined to the present day would be nothing more than a catalog, a diary of what happened.”
“The Lives of Brian”
Courtesy Photo
Johnson does tease at the end of The Lives of Brian that “I will save all those stories for another time, another book,” but he now considers that an “unfortunate” and unintended promise. “I should have said that’s another book, but it’s not mine,” he says. “I wouldn’t write another book about the band, absolutely not. If there’s something else to write about I would, but there isn’t. It’s somebody else’s story. If I can think of something like the great f-ck-ups on stage, maybe, THAT would be a f-ckin’ book!”
Johnson had no problem filling The Lives of Brian with other compelling stories, however, both humorous and heart-wrenching. Writing in a conversational style that conveys the energy of his soul-banshee vocal delivery, Johnson digs into his family history — an Italian mother who came back to England with Johnson’s father after World War II (“He must’ve had a silver tongue, ’cause my ma was from a better place”) — and growing up poor working class in industrial northern England. Music seemed a way out, and Johnson chronicles early days of “having to go on stage and sing, not a clue what the f-ck I was doing but enjoying it and, ‘Hey, this is good when people clap at the end. That makes me feel good, that does.’”
The Lives of Brian details his early bands, most notably Geordie, which had some British and European hits and toured around the continent. It was with Geordie that Johnson met his AC/DC predecessor, Bon Scott, who at the time was in a lighter-weight band called Fang. “They opened for us,” says Johnson, who writes in the book about Scott and Fang sneaking into Geordie’s hotel room one night after the band’s tour bus broke down. “I think at the time Bon was learning his trade,” Johnson recalls. “He was playing flute and (Fang) was a bit Jethro Tull-y. It was very different than what he would do with (AC/DC).” Johnson’s kindness was repaid down the road, however.
“It’s so great to think that I met him and did two gigs with him, and the wonderful part is that he actually mentioned me to Angus and Malcolm when they were talking about rock singers. (Scott) said, ‘Well, I met a f-ckin’ one that was worth his weight.’ I never saw him after that, but it was amazing that we did meet.”
The Lives of Brian’s telling of Johnson joining AC/DC is also highlight, documenting the band’s hospitality — they had his native Newcastle Brown Ale waiting for him — and the singer guiding them through an unexpected rendition of Ike & Tina Turner’s “Nutbush City Limits.” “I was me,” Johnson recalls. “I don’t give a f-ck. I was like, ‘That was brilliant! Wasn’t that great?!’ And these guys were just not used to that kind of thing, and they were looking at each other going, ‘Yeah, well, do you know one of our songs?’ and I go, ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’? And they all went, ‘Yeah!’”
Johnson — who had a business replacing auto roofs at the time — left convinced that he wouldn’t get the job. “I finished me Brown Ale and I said, ‘Y’know what, lads, thank you so much. I’ll never forget this. Wait’ll I get home and tell the boys I’ve had a sing with AC/DC — they’ll never f-ckin’ believe it. Anyway, I’ve gotta get shootin’. Got to open the shop tomorrow, and I’ve got a gig tomorrow night.’
“Then one of the managers (Peter Mensch) comes out and says, ‘Where are you going?’ ‘I’m f-ckin’ going home.’ ‘You can’t’ go home!’ I said, ‘Why not?’ He’s going, ‘Well, well, well, the lads haven’t finished yet.’ But it was true — I had to open up the shop in the morning and we did have a gig that night. But it was a joyful ride back.”
Mensch prevailed upon Johnson to return and the rest, of course, is history. He reveals in the book that he made Malcolm Young call him twice to make sure the job offer was real, and Johnson also recalls playing Back in Black for the first time at one of his Geordie II bandmate’s house because Johnson didn’t have a turntable of his own. “He was like, ‘Come on, the quicker we get this over with the quicker we can get the band started again,” Johnson remembers. “So I drive to his house and I get (the album) out and he’s going, ‘F-ckin’ black?! Is that it?’ Then we put it on and it starts with ‘Hells Bells’ and he’s going, ‘Ooh, it’s taking its time isn’t it?’ Then I start singing and he went, ‘Oh, no, that’s way too high!’ It wasn’t anything bad or nasty, just, ‘That’s way too high, son’ and he took it off and said, ‘Come on, let’s go get some beer.’ And that was my introduction to the f-ckin’ album.”
Johnson has recorded an audiobook version of The Lives of Brian but laughs off the idea of a movie based on it. “If they do, I’ll shoot the balls off anybody. I hate movies about bands,” says Johnson, adding that his management has received multiple offers for the film rights. “One of theme even sent a full script. I read about 30 pages in and it was awful. That was just one and I knew the others were going to be the same, so…nah.”
As The Lives of Brian rolls out, Johnson is looking at other endeavors. He’s been active in helping Asius Technologies develop the hearing aids that allow him to perform live again — most recently at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert on Sept. 3 in London. He also has a hankering to “jump into my race car, put the helmet on, qualify as high as I can and just go racing.”
He’s more circumspect about AC/DC, however. He refers to the band as “still a working entity of sorts” but stops short of revealing any future touring or recording plans.
“I would love to do music again,” Johnson says, “whether it’ll be guesting with somebody, whether it be actually playing live with the boys. I’ve heard that term ‘hell freezes over’ a million times before with people saying, ‘I’m not doing that again.’ But I’d be up for it. I think everybody hopes to make more music.”
Motionless in White tops Billboard‘s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart for the first time, as “Masterpiece” crowns the Oct. 22-dated list.
The band formed in Pennsylvania in 2004 and first appeared on the ranking with “America” in 2013.
“Masterpiece” previously became the band’s first top 10 on the tally. Previously, the group hit a No. 14 best with “Another Life” in 2020.
The track completes a 26-week ascent to No. 1, the fourth-steadiest accumulation of format support on the way to the summit in the Mainstream Rock Airplay chart’s 41-year history.
Most Weeks to No. 1, Mainstream Rock Airplay40, “Headstrong,” Trapt (2003)31, “Bones,” Young Guns (2013)28, “Paralyzer,” Finger Eleven (2007)26, “Masterpiece,” Motionless in White (2022)25, “S.O.S. (Sawed Off Shotgun), The Glorious Sons (2019)25, “Tired,” Stone Sour (2014)
Concurrently, “Masterpiece” rises 15-13 on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, up 18% to 2.4 million audience impressions, according to Luminate.
“Masterpiece” also lifts 10-7 on the multi-metric Hot Hard Rock Songs chart. In addition to its radio airplay, the song earned 753,000 official U.S. streams in the tracking week ending Oct. 13. It originally debuted at No. 5 on the April 30-dated survey, marking the band’s top-charting song to date.
The track is the lead single from Scoring the End of the World, Motionless in White’s sixth studio album. The set debuted at No. 1 on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart dated June 25 and has earned 90,000 equivalent album units since release.
Weezer is truly a band for all seasons. But this year especially Halloween. Or, as they would put it: Weezerween. The pun-loving band announced a challenge on Thursday (Oct. 20) for superfans who are also crafty with a carving kit. The prize is seeing your handiwork in big, bold letters.
“We’re giving away a billboard for the best Weezer pumpkin,” the band tweeted along with a series of pumpkin and knife emoji. The rules for this unusual contest are super simple. “Time to whip out those pumpkin carving skills (painting or decorating encouraged too),” they explained. “Enter the contest for your chance to win your very own billboard somewhere in America!”
The project makes perfect sense for several reasons. For one, they just released the third in their planned quartet of SZNZ cycle albums, Autumn. But also they seem to be having some sort of billboard moment. It all started earlier this summer when Utah native Cory Winn blew up for renting a Salt Lake City-area billboard on which he wrote the band’s name in the universally recognized worst font possible: comic sans.
The band found out about the roadside attraction and so they rented their own billboard in Murray, Utah to say thank you, which reads, “Thanks to whoever bought the billboard down the road — Weezer.” The band will hit the stage at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday (Oct. 22) for Audacy’s We Can Survive show featuring Alanis Morissette, Garbage, Halsey, Tate McRae and OneRepublic in support of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and I’m Listening.
Check out the contest announcement and the billboard call-and-response below.
We’re giving away a billboard for the best Weezer pumpkin! 🔪🎃 🔪🎃 🔪Time to whip out those pumpkin carving skills (painting or decorating encouraged too). Enter the contest for your chance to win your very own billboard somewhere in America! https://t.co/9ku6hd7Zzi pic.twitter.com/WRlBquQdWa— weezer (@Weezer) October 20, 2022
Arctic Monkeys have new wheels.
With The Car (via Domino Recordings), the British indie-rockers’ seventh studio album, which left the garage at the stroke of midnight, the band will hope to keep a hot streak intact.
Every studio album from Arctic Monkeys has gone to No. 1 in the U.K., from their record-setting debut Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (2006), to Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007), Humbug (2009), Suck It and See (2011), AM (2013) and Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino (2018), a best-seller on vinyl. Also, frontman Alex Turner has led the national tally with his side project The Last Shadow Puppets.
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Only Taylor Swift’s Midnights could spoil the chart party.
Produced by James Ford, The Car features ten new songs written by Turner, and includes the previously-released numbers “There’d Better Be A Mirrorball,” “I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am” and “Body Paint.”
“The way the project was put together this time was not unlike, what in my mind I imagine, making a movie might be like,” Turner tells Alternative Press. “Obviously, I have no idea what that’s actually like, but there was a longer post-production period in this, trying to take a lot more care of how everything fits together, the space and the dynamics within it… making it a thing that works from start to finish,” he added. “It isn’t like I haven’t been trying to do all along.”
Fully assembled it’s a lush, complex affair, and mature as a nightcap with a cigar.
South American tour dates in support of The Car run from Nov. 4 at Jeunesse Arena, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, through to Nov. 19 at Corona Capital Festival in Mexico City. Live shows follow for Australia, then the U.K. and Europe, and another lap of North America is booked from next August.
Stream The Car below.
Halsey premiered her new Amp radio show Halsey: For the Record this week, and during the debut episode, they opened up about looking up to Gwen Stefani.
“Gwen is definitely one of those artists,” the “I Am Not a Woman, I Am a God” singer said. “When people ask me who inspires my music…Gwen has always been a huge inspiration for me from like wearing white tank tops onstage and low-rise pants to wearing my hair in space buns, to doing my own makeup, because Gwen used to and still does. I think she has a cosmetic company as well. Shout-out Gwen.
“Every night before I go onstage, I watch Tragic Kingdom Live at the Forum,” Halsey continued. “That’s another way that she inspired me – let’s be honest here. [No Doubt‘s] record is called Tragic Kingdom, mine was called Hopeless Fountain Kingdom … those little breadcrumb trails are kind of all over the place.”
No Doubt’s “Spiderwebs” (from Tragic Kingdom) was on the playlist for the first episode, as were PJ Harvey’s “Down by the Water,” BOA’s “Duvet” and Halsey’s own “You Asked for This.”
Stefani and her bandmates dropped their smash third album in October 1995, while Halsey’s sophomore LP was released in November 2017 — though both studio sets served as each artist’s very first (and so far only) No. 1 on the Billboard 200 of their respective careers. (Stefani would go on to score another chart-topper as a solo artist thanks to 2016’s This Is What the Truth Feels Like.)
Back in August, Halsey took part in the viral “Teenage Dirtbag” trend that swept through TikTok. Meanwhile, Stefani is currently battling it out on her sixth season as a coach on The Voice.
Listen to Halsey’s radio show on Amazon’s live radio app here.
TikTok standout and Eurovision entry “Snap” becomes Rosa Linn‘s first No. 1 on a Billboard chart, ascending to the top of the Adult Alternative Airplay tally dated Oct. 22.
The song was initially released as the Armenian entry for the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest and subsequently went viral on TikTok.
“Snap” is one of a trio of songs in the Adult Alternative Airplay top 10 to score significant buzz on TikTok, alongside Steve Lacy‘s “Bad Habit” at No. 7 and Noah Kahan‘s “Stick Season” at No. 10.
Meanwhile, Linn is the first act to reign with a first charted song on Adult Alternative Airplay since Mitski, whose “The Only Heartbreaker” led in March.
“I grew up listening to good music,” Linn told SiriusXM’s Billboard Live on Oct. 18. “My mom loves jazz and my dad is a Beatles fan … Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, everything. That kind of made me different than kids my age. Growing up with that music made me realize that I love what I listen to, and I want to be a part of it.”
Concurrently, “Snap” bullets at No. 29 on the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, after reaching No. 25 earlier in October, with 1.3 million audience impressions, up 3%, according to Luminate. The song also ranks at No. 35, after hitting No. 31, on Alternative Airplay.
On the multimetric, all-genre Billboard Hot 100, “Snap” jumps to a new No. 82 high. In addition to its radio airplay, the song earned 4.5 million official U.S. streams and sold 1,000 downloads in the tracking week ending Oct. 13. It also places at Nos. 24 and 25, respectively, on Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay.
“Snap” continues to score worldwide support, ranking at Nos. 16 and 20 on the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts, respectively.
“If you had asked me 50 years ago what I would be doing in a year, I wouldn’t have had an answer,” says Michael Rother over Zoom from his partner’s house in Pisa, Italy. Although he would never have imagined it when he recorded the first Neu! album, Rother will soon begin a short tour to mark the 50th anniversary of the band, which he formed with drummer Klaus Dinger. There’s also a box set of the band’s three albums and a collection of remixes. All of which, Rother says, would have been almost impossible to imagine back in 1972.
When Neu! went into the studio to record its self-titled debut album with Conny Plank, who worked on many of the era’s iconic Krautrock albums, “we were very ambitious with the intention to create a new music,” Rother says. At the time, traditional German pop sounded backward, sometimes even tainted by the country’s history, and the Anglo-American rock that was popular globally seemed obviously imported. Along with other Krautrock pioneers, Rother, who had already played in Kraftwerk, wanted to develop a new kind of pop that would be formally innovative but also accessible – think rock with Mitteleuropean characteristics.
“It was the result of very clear thinking about moving away from Anglo-American rock and pop,” Rother says. “But whether it could become influential didn’t even cross my mind. The first objective was to be happy with the result.”
He was. When Rother returned home to Düsseldorf, he played it for his mother, brother and girlfriend and realized “it sounds really good,” he remembers. “That was my memory.”
It was more than “good” — Neu! sounded revolutionary. From the first track, “Hallogallo,” the music was driven by Dinger’s propulsive drumming, which came to be called the motorik beat. Rother and Dinger, who died in 2008, freed the musical vocabulary of rock from the verse-chorus-verse form and let it soar – sometimes, as on “Hallogallo,” in a way that could also be catchy.
Neu! sold decently in what was then West Germany, and Rother and Dinger followed up with Neu! 2 in 1973 and Neu! ‘75 in, yes, 1975. The albums won a small but dedicated following in the U.K. and then the U.S. as well. Along with some other German Krautrock bands – Can and Faust, most prominently – they brought an inventive, experimental approach to psychedelic rock at a time when it was starting to feel stale.
All three Neu! albums are collected on the 50th anniversary box set, along with an album of remixes, which Rother is celebrating with a series of concerts – Oct. 26 in Berlin, Nov. 3 in London, followed by shows in Barcelona and Paris, and maybe more – with different guests in each city. Neu!, once considered somewhat obscure, is arguably as influential and important as ever.
More than other Krautrock bands, Neu! became something of a myth, partly because their albums fell out of print in the ‘80s and ‘90s as Rother and Dinger had a falling out. Dinger, who started the band La Düsseldorf after Neu!, became known as a genius who was eccentric, sometimes hard to get along with.
One day, Rother remembers, he received a fax that a new Neu! album was coming out in Japan – which he hadn’t approved. Meanwhile, the rights to the group’s original three albums were stuck in legal limbo. They were reissued in 2001 thanks to the efforts of Herbert Grönemeyer, a mainstream German rock star who runs the Grönland label. “He was told, this band is these two German guys, they fight about everything, they will never release the music,” Rother says. “But I think this spurred his determination.”
He first got Dinger and Rother to agree to include solo songs from each, plus a Neu! track, on a compilation of German rock he produced, then started asking them about reissues. “I think it took him one and a half years of meetings, talking like a psych therapist to us,” Rother says.
Rother has always been active – he joined Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius from Cluster in the band Harmonia, which released two iconic albums in the mid-1970s, then started a solo career. From 1977 to 1987, he steadily released solo albums – which sold well in the German-speaking world but barely at all outside it.
“Neu! was more popular outside Germany and my music was more popular in Germany,” Rother says. “Harmonia was ignored but my music took off like a rocket.” He pauses. “Well, the comparison with a rocket is a bit misleading. A slow-burning rocket. A tractor-rocket.”
Rother’s last two albums – the 2020 solo set Dreaming and the 2021 duet with his partner, Vittoria Maccabruni, As Long as the Light, came out on Grönland, which has also released two box sets of his solo albums. But he’s also looking forward to revisiting his history. “I feel fortunate that I met all of these musicians,” he says, “and I feel fortunate to have that history.” He pauses. “It’s 50 years,” he says. “Sounds a bit strange.”
Death Cab for Cutie tops Billboard‘s Alternative Airplay chart for the first time in a decade with “Here to Forever,” which rises to No. 1 on the tally dated Oct. 22.
The song is the Ben Gibbard-led band’s second Alternative Airplay leader, after “You Are a Tourist” notched a week on top in July 2011. The break between No. 1s marks the longest since Beck went 12 years, eight months and two weeks between the reigns of “E-Pro” in April 2005 and “Up All Night” in December 2017.
In between “Tourist” and “Forever,” Death Cab for Cutie reached Alternative Airplay six times, with three top 10s in that span, paced by the No. 2-peaking “Black Sun” in 2015.
“This kind of amazing news is something we never expect but are beyond happy to receive,” the band shared in a statement to Billboard. “A huge thank you to our stellar team at Atlantic Records for this accomplishment.”
Alternative Airplay is the second airplay chart that “Forever” has conquered in 2022. It ruled Adult Alternative Airplay for eight weeks beginning in August (and currently ranks at No. 3), having become the group’s seventh No. 1 on the survey.
On the all-rock-format, audience-based Rock & Alternative Airplay chart, “Forever” bullets at No. 3, after reaching No. 2, with 3.7 million audience impressions, up 2%, according to Luminate.
“Forever” is the lead single from Asphalt Meadows, Death Cab for Cutie’s 10th studio album. The set debuted at No. 4 on the Top Alternative Albums chart dated Oct. 1 and has earned 27,000 equivalent album units to date.
Blink-182‘s “Edging” marks the highest debut on Billboard‘s Rock & Alternative Airplay chart in over eight years, as the band’s reunion single with Tom DeLonge starts at No. 2 on the Oct. 22-dated survey.
“Edging” earned 3.9 million audience impressions in the tracking week ending Oct. 16, according to Luminate, a sum achieved in just three days, as the song was released Oct. 14.
Just eight songs have debuted in the top two of Rock & Alternative Airplay in the chart’s 13-year history. The last was The Black Keys‘ “Fever,” which bowed at No. 2 on the tally dated April 12, 2014.
“Edging” already ties Blink-182’s top-ranking song on the list, “Bored to Death,” which peaked at No. 2 in 2016.
The new track’s strong start is sparked by its No. 12 debut on Alternative Airplay, the band’s best bow, topping “Death” and its No. 18 arrival. “Edging” logs the chart’s highest entrance since Twenty One Pilots‘ “Shy Away” started at No. 11 in April 2021.
“Edging” also begins at No. 33 on Mainstream Rock Airplay.
More chart action for “Edging” will be reflected on Oct. 29-dated rankings, reflecting the song’s first week of streams and sales and its first full week of airplay (Oct. 14-20).
“Edging” marks DeLonge’s return to Blink-182 as its guitarist and co-lead singer after departing in 2015. Alkaline Trio‘s Matt Skiba had filled in on the band’s last two albums, 2016’s California and 2019’s Nine.
Car Seat Headrest singer Will Toledo told fans on Tuesday (Oct. 18) that he is unable to embark on the band’s planned West Coast U.S. tour and an appearance at this weekend’s When We Were Young festival due to what he described as ongoing serious health issues.
“After another month of struggling to regain my health, I am currently forced to face the fact that my body lacks the basic levels of functionality necessary to leave the house most days, let along embark on a tour,” Toledo wrote in a note to fans.
Though the 30-year-old singer did not specify what is ailing him, he said as a result of his illness they’ve been forced to pull out of the all-star When We Were Young event at the Las Vegas Festival Ground (Oct. 22, 23, 29) slated to feature sets from Paramore, My Chemical Romance, AFI, Hawthorne Heights, Jimmy Eat World, Bright Eyes, The Linda Lindas, Manchester Orchestra, The Used and many more.
“We are unfortunately forced to pull out of the When We Were Young festival dates and cancel our upcoming California tour,” Toledo noted of scheduled October dates in Pioneertown, CA (Oct. 20), Los Angeles (Oct. 25), San Diego (Oct. 26) and Santa Ana (Oct. 27). Refunds for the headlining dates will be available at point of purchase.
The band also pulled out of the Frantic City Fest in New Jersey on Sept. 24 citing unspecified “continued health issues as well as a planned Sept. 2 slot at Out of Space in Evanston, Illinois due to a rebound case of the post-COVID condition “histamine intolerance,” which Toledo said involves “heavy nausea, fatigue, dizziness and a ‘buzzing’ nervous system.”
Check out Toledo’s note below.