Publishers Weekly
08/29/2022
In his briskly told and forthright memoir, Johnson recounts his good fortune in becoming the voice on one of rock’s highest-selling albums, AC/DC’s Back in Black. Growing up in the working-class town of Dunston, England, Johnson recalls his early love of music, which leveled up from children’s songs when he heard Little Richard: “I wanted—no, needed—to hear those screamed lyrics and those unhinged ‘wooooos’ and that full-throttle rhythm section again.” He discovered that not only did he love singing, he was also good at it. His first band was called Section 5; he went on to front the glam rock band Geordie, which had a few hits but broke up in 1976, after which he started a business repairing car windshields. In 1980, Johnson received a call for an audition with AC/DC, whose lead singer Bon Scott had recently died. He secured the spot and the band went into the studio to make Back in Black. Johnson discovered that “singing in AC/DC is not like singing in any other band. There are no ballads. There’s no saving your voice for the next song. Every moment, you’re standing your ground. It’s attack. Like singing with a fixed bayonet.” Johnson’s animated prose captures the ups and downs of his life and music with one of the world’s most popular bands. Rock ’n’ roll aficionados will be thrilled. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
"A heart-wrenching and hilarious memoir." — Billboard
"His memoir, fittingly titled The Lives of Brian, also happens to be laugh-out-loud hilarious, written from the vantage point of someone who clearly still can’t believe these fantastical lives are, in fact, all part of the same story…. Like the greatest AC/DC songs, Johnson takes his own tragic circumstances and turns them into a song of grit and victory for our benefit — and maybe for his, too." — Spin
"A tale of fate, serendipity, and dogged determination." — Mojo
“Warm, starkly comic and uplifting ... The Lives of Brian is a literary twin of an AC/DC album—wild material woven together seamlessly, and always leaving you wanting more.” — Hot Press
Library Journal
09/16/2022
Of all the recurring themes in rock music history, the Cinderella story is the most vicariously thrilling. One moment, a person can be playing in a little bar band in obscurity, and next they're a member of one of the biggest marquee names in the business. Such is the story of Johnson, recruited from a working-class life in Newcastle, England, to become the lead singer of the legendary Australian rock band AC/DC. Johnson shares his incredible story in the same no-frills, straight-ahead rock style of his band. He relates the events of his life with an authentic directness. Johnson had accomplished much before AC/DC came calling for him, including becoming a husband and father, starting his own business, and training as a paratrooper. His writing style feels a lot like sitting next to him in a pub, as he regales readers with stories. Ending with his first album and tour with AC/DC, Johnson tantalizingly leaves the door open for a second memoir. VERDICT This will definitely be a popular book with any library's rock fan patrons. It's also an inspiring story for all readers.—Brett Rohlwing
Kirkus Reviews
2022-07-30
The formative years of a British rocker who hit the jackpot with an iconic band.
Though he has been the lead singer for AC/DC throughout the band’s peak popularity, Johnson (b. 1947) is also known as the replacement for Bon Scott, whose death in 1980 from alcohol poisoning imperiled the band’s future. Refreshingly, the author has no interest in challenging his predecessor’s legendary status. In fact, his account reinforces it, showing how difficult it was for the band to decide to continue as well as his appreciation for the opportunity to replace Scott. Just months after that tragedy, AC/DC released Back in Black, the first of a long streak with Johnson, an album dedicated to Scott that is the band’s bestselling album. It shot the band to a new level of commercial success, and there was no looking back. Yet only about one-quarter of the memoir is about AC/DC (Johnson explains that he’s saving those stories for another volume). Instead, the narrative is a series of rollicking, engaging coming-of-age stories. He chronicles his childhood in Newcastle living in an overcrowded flat with a father who had been a British soldier and the Italian woman he had married. His literary flair in writing about that childhood is borderline Dickensian, but otherwise, he never seems to put on airs. Johnson’s accounts of grinding poverty and postwar drabness recall other British rock memoirs, as does his description of the jolt he received when he first discovered rock music. What distinguishes his memoir is the way the author narrates such familiar tales, with a geniality and humor that make clear how much he enjoys the company of others. Before AC/DC, he was all but finished with rock, working on cars, winning a legal battle to prevent eviction from his house, on the wrong side of 30—then opportunity knocked. The rest is history, and fans will eagerly await the next volume.
A solid rock-’n’-roll tale with a to-be-continued ending.
