 Brian had, you know, in your head, you ticked all those kind of boxes. Wow. So that's really how it would come to be, you know. Yeah, that's great, because I haven't obviously heard that sailors starting out fascinating. All right everybody, thanks for joining me on what is going to be pretty much first in a series of flashback Let There Be Talks, the flashback episodes. A lot of people out there are just discovering the show over the last couple of years, but the show's been going on for over 12 years now, and there are tons of guests that people always recommend to me that have already been on, and I thought it would probably be best to maybe put out one every Thursday and, you know, either let you relive it or hear it the first time. So today is a very special one since AC DC is out there and about to tour again for the record power-up which came out back in 2020, you know, due to COVID they couldn't tour. So now here they are out, announced a tour, new bass player, new drummer, and going through Europe and I'm sure eventually be hitting the States. I saw them a few months ago at the Power Trip Festival out there in the Coachella desert, and, you know, it was something I didn't think I was ever going to see again, but AC DC is celebrating their 50-year anniversary right now in true AC DC fashion. They have kept the mystique, they have not said if this is a farewell tour, they're not even really calling it a 50-year anniversary tour, although they did drop some merch today that finally had the 50 logo. So, oh, by the way, this is my Bond Scott sweatshirt in honor of the great Bond Scott who we lost 44 years ago yesterday, so a lot of AC DC history around this episode. You can hear the way that Brian Johnson auditioned, you can hear how Brendan O'Brien produced the record back in 2020, how it was made secretly, how Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd joined back up to do the record. There's a lot of good, good stuff here and it was the only podcast that AC DC has ever done, so an absolute honor. You know, I could have ended the podcast after that and if you haven't heard my Phil Rudd interview or Cliff Williams, those are on there also. Today is Brian and Angus. I recorded this episode about 2.30 in the morning because they were in Australia and I had to stay up and that was a weird thing during that time coming out of COVID because I was kind of going to bed around 8 o'clock with nothing to do, so staying up till 2.30 was, it was pretty easy though because I was so jacked on adrenaline. Anyway, here's the episode. I hope you guys all enjoy it. In the meantime, I will be in Portland, Oregon tonight at the, where am I at? The Trailblazers Arena, whatever. I think it might be called the, I can't remember what it's called. I'm dumb. Anyway, tonight Portland, tomorrow night Vancouver and Saturday night Salt Lake City with my man Bill Burr. We're out there rocking and rolling, trying out the local cuisine and enjoying life. I love all you guys. Check it out. Here it is from back in 2020. My ACDC conversation with Brian and Angus. Thanks for tuning in. How are you guys? Thanks for joining me. This is a pretty monumental day for me. I nine years ago started a podcast. I wrote on the list of dream guests and you guys were at the top. And here we are nine years later. Good to be here, Dean. Good to be here, my son. It's funny because I, I'm a huge ACDC fan. I could see the headline ACDC does massive fans podcast. First podcast you guys have ever done, right? I think it is. Yeah. For me, yes. I've never seen a podcast. I think it was in that move. What was the night of the, what was the night of the, you know, the one where they all become P pods or something. What was that? The night of the visit as from Mars with two chicks or something like that. Another one, you mean either come with a P pods. Yeah. An ice cream. I got something to show you guys. A couple of things. Angus, can you see me? You got the, you got a screen there. You've got a great logo behind you. Okay. Here's something cool. I want to show you guys. I want to show you two things just to let you know where I'm coming from. And I took the logo off just for a minute. This is a 1978. And this is the first time I saw AC DC Oakland call a CM power age tour. Oh, wow. That's really, that's something that looks really good. Yeah. And the bill was cheap trick. AC DC journey boys to call Ted Nugent. Good. Sounds a good bill. That's a good bill. And as I said, those are the same fans I listened to this day. Now, Brian, you're going to love this one. Good. This is the three of us 1985 flying the wall Cal Palace backstage. Oh, that is great. Me son. Look at that. Now that is a Brian with the Heineken and he's wearing a Statue of Liberty shirt given the middle finger. And Angus looks super happy to take the photo. I got to tell you something about that. That day it was what I would say exact to skydive and they said, Hey, the guys will take a quick photo with you. Hurry up. And I went in there and it was like skydiving at skydive before and it was just a burst of adrenaline. And I don't even remember you guys are like, all right, mate, have a good one. And I was like, what happened? And I got home and I had the photo. I call the podcast, let there be talk. But I think in the honor of Brian being here, it's going to be for those about to talk today. There we go. Oh, thank you. It's an honor to have you guys on here. I want to dig in a little bit on a course, a long career that you've had and it's been incredible, the whole ride. I want to talk a little bit about when you guys first got together, the audition back, Brian, when you joined the band, I was wondering what was I read recently that you were going and you did a vacuum commercial, picked up a little money and then went to do the audition. You know, people keep remembering that bastard. Yes. Yes, it was on the way. I didn't have that much money, you see. And when I was asked to go down, I had to try to, this guy had formed and just, I've never done an advert before, just an old guy from the past. And he said, if you come down and pay you some money, I think it was 35 quid or something. And I said, oh, that should pay for the gas. You don't have a lot in the back. And so, you know, and we went down there and I'll never forget, you know, I did the advert and then I drove across London. Well, I wasn't very far to a place called Vanilla Studios. Is that right, Angus? Vanilla? Yes, it's probably right. It was something like, I think, Torek. Yeah. And anyway, I got there and I looked in and it looked the business, you know, guys with hair and beards and, you know, jeans and with holes in and everything. I said, this must be the place. And they were all playing pool downstairs. They were all playing pool. And the cut of my jib, you know, I wasn't dressed like anything except what I was at work and Joe from up north. I started playing pool with them. And it wasn't until the tour manager, a guy called here and Jeffries come down and said, has anybody seen that Jordy fella from Newcastle with it? And I said, oh, that's me. He said, they've been waiting for you for an hour upstairs. Angus, at what point in this audition, I always wondered this. How many guys had you looked at? And obviously you made the incredible perfect choice. But were there other guys that came in? Was it a long audition process? Did that guy from Crocus ever come in? People that were, you know, out there doing this? No. We never got that guy. There were just various people. A lot of people, you know, somebody might recommend somebody. And so basically, at the time, it was just Malcolm and myself, really. We were there with our guitars. And me and him had been writing songs and stuff. And so it was just me and Malcolm strumming away there with guitars. And they'd say, oh, we get somebody to come in and try. And then we would just play away with the two guitars and see how it would go. And there was quite a few different people. But I guess it was a case of who stood out. And the funny thing is, when he walked through the door, Brian stood out just the way he walked. And you sat up and you paid attention. You go, oh, yes. And then he said, hello, how are you? And one of the guys would get him a cup of whatever he wanted. He wanted coffee or something. And it was a case of, OK, do you know any songs by us? Yeah, I think he said, yeah, I know, he knew Rosie because he'd been digging with a band. And they did a couple of songs and they did Rosie. And I think it was a highway to hell he knew, too, I think. And then a few other ones. And Mao, I think, said, you want to try something to be comfortable with or something. And Brian said, oh, I'll try. Well, not push city limits. And off he went. Here he was. And we were banging away on that tune. And then we did Rosie. We tried Rosie with him. And then a highway to hell. And he did a great job. We asked if we just put it on a tape. And he says we had something. And he said that. And he talked a little bit. And I think he had a beer or two with Mao. Yeah, we did. He was going back up north. And Mao said, well, if you mind, we'd get you down again at some point. I think it was about a week later or so. And Brian came down again. And we got him. And I think the labs, we got the rest of the guys. And a couple of run-throughs. And then it was, again, me and Mao sat there. And I think we tried. We were jamming on one of our couple of ideas that we were going to put down an album. And again, you know, he's in tapes to see how it was. And we just said, you know, just scatter away. Just do whatever comes into your head, if you think. And so, you know, we were asking, you know, asking if he had a contract or an evidence. And he was given info what he knew at the time. And then, you know, and he was back. And Mao said, well, we'll definitely let you know as soon as we, you know, what we're going to do. We'll get in contact with him. Anyhow, after he left, me and Mao were playing away. And we had the idea, Mao's idea, doing the back and black song. And I had suggested to Mao, you know, at the time, I said, I had a piece, it was an older piece that me and him had worked on. And I said, what about if we, if we took that piece and we'd not used it before. And we, and we try and hook that into that song, you know, for a good, you know, for a good singing thing. And I'll give you the singing line for help with Mao. And he said, well, let's hear what you got, right? So we put that little chord idea together. And it was working Mao would seem happy. And then he says, right, do your little singing and what you hear. And I was doing the, you know, well, the back and black, you know. And I, and then after it, and as soon as I, it's kind of went, and then going up the scale. I said, you know, Mao, I said, Brian, you know, I said, he could hit those notes. I said, you know, he could really hit those notes. He talked to me and he went, I said, because that's, you know, you could hear it in his registers and what we had done. And I said, he's got that edge on his voice. And then he went, hey, hey, you know. And I said, and mutt, actually, mutt Lang had also heard what we had and mutt also knew another producer guy who had said about Brian's voice, you know. And he said, oh yeah, Brian's got that breezing thing down pat. He's got it very natural, you know. And mutt liked that, you know. We'd sing it, you know, in vocalist. And what we thought of, you know, it was like Brian, Brian had ticked, you know, in your head, he had ticked all those kind of boxes. And Malcolm went, yeah, yeah. And he said, leave it with me. And he said, yeah, you know, hey, you know. Well, how would you like to come in and join us then, you know? Talk to Brian. Wow. So that's really how it would come to be, you know. Yeah, that's great, because I haven't obviously heard that sadist story, you know, fascinating. It's fascinating because I remember the phone call Angus from Malcolm. And it was my dad's birthday up in the castle, you know. And I had bought my dad a bottle of whiskey for his birthday present. And I went home to my mom and dad's, and there wasn't anybody there. Yeah, and I went, oh, flip a neck. It was about 2 in the afternoon or something, 2.30. And I went, oh, well, I said, I'll just leave it here. And then the phone rang because Malcolm had my mom's dad's number. And that was the phone call. And I said to Mal, I remember, I said, hang on, are you sure this is not a hoax? He says, no. I said, well, could you ring us back in 10 minutes just to make sure that I'm not dreaming this, you know. And he did, God bless him. And he went, no. He says, you fancy coming to the Bahamas, we're making a record and all of this. And I said, oh, yeah, yes. He said, I'll get your people to get in touch with you. Okay. He said, I'm off to watch the Grand National on the telly, which is a horse race, you know. And I put the phone down and I looked and I was going, there's nobody here. So I opened my father's, Chris, my father's birthday present and I had a glass of whiskey to celebrate. There wasn't anybody there to tell it was strange, you know. I got a question for you, Brian. When you go in to work on this stuff, of course your style's a little different in Geordi. How did you try a different, a few different styles while you guys were working on the stuff in Bahamas? Were you stepping up to the mic going, how's this kind of character? Is this voice, because it is a little more radical and more violent than, say, a Geordi record? Well, I think that was down a lot longer and Malinang, recognizing that I could do a bit more than I thought I could do. You know, I was always constrained by the songs I'd sung before. You know, it was just what you did. And it was, I could get up there, but maybe it sounded a little too sweet, maybe. You may be. And I think Mot Langer, whose brilliant vocal thing, you know, but he doesn't take any prisoners when it comes to that. You know, he wants what he knows the boys want. And so he'd ask us, he'd say, could you get up there full voice? And I'd go, well, jeez, I'll give it a try. It's awful high, isn't it? And he'd say, just try it. Of course, I did, and it even shocked me that I could do that without pulling any tricks on the desk to make it, because I knew one day you got to sing it. Oh, my God. You know, you can't fiddle with it, you know. And so, yes, I think through that album, it taught me that, it taught me a lot. It really taught me just about everything I know now about how to get the best out yourself or listen to instruction, you know. But at the same time, you know, just enjoying the whole process, you know, because it's not better than hearing, and I didn't know I could do that, you know. I mean, it's crazy, but it's true. You've got to be pushed sometimes. You've got to be pushed to show what you can do. You know, you can just lie back, you know. Plus, we did a couple of weeks, you know. I remember when Muck said, we'll get all the guys in the band, and we'll get, you know, get there with the song ideas. And, you know, about even before we went to the Bahamas, and he said, and we'll get the, you know, we'll get Brian there and get the whole band, and, you know, we'll make sure we've got, you know, like he might always like to do a bit of pre-production, you know. So as when we got to the Bahamas, we could get straight in, get the sounds and start work. So we, you know, we got a lot, you know, we got a lot of the ideas with the songs, and, you know, just do arrangements and see, and see, try Brian out with how he was going to go. And so it was a case of that, you know. So, you know, we were pretty, we were, we were kind of like we had that pretty much together, and then it was a case of, you know, getting the rest, you know, getting lyric and stuff, making sure that when we got to the Bahamas, it was a case of, you know, the band could get upset, get set up, not upset, but get set up. And meanwhile, when that's going on, you know, we could get together, get Brian and, you know, get the lyric things all going. And so that, you know, we could get the, you know, the whole thing started. So, and then when we got there, you know, we had a lightning storm and all the power went out for three days. Yeah. Yeah. Welcome to the Bahamas. Yeah. You know, I had to say this one as well, you know, some fantastic stuff happened. I remember, I guess you and Mal weren't happy with the guitar sounds, you know, the amps and all that, the speakers. And I remember saying something amazing because they were trying to figure it. And somehow you and Malcolm said, hang on, why don't we turn the speaker up against the wall? Now, I don't know what exactly you're doing, but I remember saying it and I remember working this great sound, you know, it was, I cannot remember exact technical details, but it was little things like that, that stick in my mind about that album. And Malanga being real pleased that they got this fantastic sound. And it was you guys just saying, well, you know, let's try this. Yeah. Can you remember that, Ang? That's right. Because when he first set up and we got the sound roll and we were doing the song back and forth. Yeah. Yeah. When we heard it back, it sounded a little bit too, too collide, you know, the sound. It sounded a little bit too collide. That was it. And Mal, and Mal had said, you know, and he listened, he said, it just doesn't have our, you know, we want that, you know, a little bit of grit in there. And so, you know, it was a case of, okay, let's get what we, you know, get at the AC-DC sound. And Muck was always cool like that. He goes, well, use no sound, you know, use the guys, you know, that's what he ever heard as on stage. He goes, I, you know, I hear it. I know it. He goes, and Muck was always good, you know. So Mal said, maybe if we try the, they blocked off one of his like the stacks. And he did the same with mine. He put them in a different spot. And then he got us in, you know, with the guitars, make sure that, you know, it was getting the sound we knew. And then after that, it was a case of, you know, like we were ready to go. Everyone get the drums. Everyone all tuned in and get, you know, get started and lay that track down. So that was the first track we laid down. Wow. Back in black, the first song. Yeah. Unreal. Unreal. It was the track that set the pace to the album. Yeah. And once we knew that, because we knew that was, you know, even before we went, when Mal got that idea, you know, it was one of those things that you hear it and you go. And I said to Mal, that's first track that we get. Yeah. Because I've set the pace. Anything that we did after those songs, like shoot the thrill and all that, had to stand up to that track for me and him. Any song we put together, you know, that was the, what was the thing? And that's as we went along. And then that did set the pattern of that whole album. It set the pace. Yeah. Guys, when you guys were in the studio and you're working on Back in Black, is it a lyrical collaboration or all you guys writing the lyrics or how was that working, Brian? Well, at the time it was, you know, Malcolm and Angus always had title and basic idea about what the song should be about and, you know, and how it should go and all of that. And so, you know, Malcolm, I know, I think it was, Malcolm used to come down with a cassette in the afternoon to me and just gonna, yeah, John, I listen to this one's called Shook Me All Night Long. You know, you know, just, you know, see what you can come up with, you know, and basically, and if we went up there, the boys would say, well, you know, we're gonna change this. You know, that's a bit soft. You know, you know, keep it hard and all of that. And it worked great. I remember once, I was about the fifth song in, I think it was Hell's Bells, I'm not sure. But I remember, you know, because it had been a frenzy of writing and all that. It was real work, work, work, you know. And I was sitting in me little cubicle thing and it was a horrible day. It was getting horrible outside and mud come down and he says, you all right? I said, I think my brains turned to mush. I said, I can't think of a thing. I said, no. And the lads have got this song called Hell's Bells, you know, and I went, oh, God. I said, and just then, honestly, for the first time, the first four lines of that is basically a weather report. I guess, you know, Weston and that big storm came through. And I was looking, I'm going Hell's Bells. And mud came down and he said, oh, it's all right. Just relax. It'll come. And he said, and anywhere, you know, he said, you know, listen to that. And there was this, you know, like early in the Bahamas, it was big black clouds coming in. And he says, I just did much. And that's Roland Funda that is. And then the rain came down and then the lightning and all of this. And that just all made sense, you know, and that turned out to be a crack at that one, you know. Oh my God. To say the least, it's one of the most incredible AC-DC songs of all time and an album opening smasher. I mean, just to see, I was at the back and black tour at the Cal Palace. And, you know, this is pre-internet. This is pre-cell phones. This is pre-YouTube. Well, here we are. We're in the room. The lights go out. Nantucket's done playing. Here comes AC-DC. The bell comes down. The riff comes in. And the vocal comes out of the speakers. And it is insane. I never forgot it to this day. Like one of the most incredible performance, vocal performances I've ever heard. Who was it? Here's something amazing about back in black is this, this record is so unbelievable. And everything that happened, the songwriting, the production, Muck Lang, the vocals, all of that. But then the record company seemed to really step it up for you guys. And this is like really next level stuff that they were doing because who knew, I mean, here's a new singer that's never been done before. And now they're promoting the hell out of this record. They're going for it, man. They must have known this is a smasher. Yeah, well, we were pretty lucky at that time. At first it is a hard thing to do because as you say, I mean, record companies are, they've also got a business side to them. So a lot of them kind of go, well, is this really going to happen? How many bands can do that? But I think it's when they heard the quality of the album and they heard the song and everything, I think that really put the seal on it. And they said, listen to the vocal and everything and what they've done. And I guess their feedback from people within their going, it's a cracking album. And so I think they got excited about it. And that's, I think, half the thing that helped push it along. So it was good in that sense. And we got everything what we had said, because at least even quite tough, we wanted an album cover. We wanted it all in black because of the death of Bonn. So it was our tribute to Bonn. So that was because they also, people go, why did they want to have a morning? Because black being the morning, what you do for funeral or something. Why do they want that? But that was our way. And we just wanted a plain cover back in black. And as Malcolm said, it was also a thing of, what does the cover really mean? It's what's inside really matters. So the whole project, it was really good when they got it and they said, okay, we're going to give it a good shove. And we were lucky also too, because a lot of radio guys out there, they would hear it and a lot of syndicated radio were going. When I put these guys on radio, all the phones light up. That's how much a lot of people were plugged into that album. So it was just that initial strong feedback. I think they said, well, we've got to push this. It's unreal. It's unreal. I mean, you guys go and do like five videos. Ryan can also tell you too, we were touring on that album. We had to tour this. And we were playing all over the U.S. doing a lot of dates. And for us as a band, really after we had finished touring, and then we had stopped touring. And I remember being at home and it was really the next year. We were getting ready. We were going to actually be performing in Australia here. And I remember our tour manager, he was there early and I remember talking to him. And he said to us at the time, he said, do you know him? He goes, you guys have, you know, you've just sold a million and a half albums, right? And I said, well, that's a lot of albums. I thought, hey, we've sold, you know, a million and a half album. I really thought, great. And he said, no, he said, what you don't understand? He said, that's just in LA alone. That's in LA alone. He said, that's not the rest of the country. He said, imagine what's coming in the rest of the country. That's insane. I couldn't believe it, you know? No. I mean, this thing is, it's an animal. I mean, I know you have a new record out, but I cannot ignore the second biggest record of all time. This thing is, it's unreal. It is incredible what you guys have created. I've got to remember too, it's a rock album. It's a hard rock album. So, you know, you're getting across to a big audience. You know, you're crossing a lot of what would normally not. I mean, people who were managing us, I remember David Krebs, you know, he was part of this management, Libra and Krebs. And David Krebs had always said to me, any rock band will only sell X amount of, you know, a couple of million records tops. That's all they do. He goes, whether it be this or this band or that, you know, nobody gets faster, you know. And he was shocked, you know, that we went above those numbers. Well, yeah, at the time, you'd think there's probably only like two million rock fans or something. And for a record to be really huge, let's say like the Eagles greatest hits or the Michael Jackson thriller, that's kind of like all kinds of people listen to that type of music where rock is a category. This is the group of people. But this thing, it grabbed everyone. Yeah. So, you know, I think that that was what, you know, it was really a big, you know, a big turn around for a lot of people. Let me ask you this, Brian. Now you're out on tour. ACDC, of course, was used to nonstop touring all the way up to highway to hell. They've just worked their asses off. And now you're out there and you've got to sing, have a drink on me and hell's bells and shoot the thrill that are at the complete highest ever. At what point you're doing a ton of dates. Do you just go like, wow, man, I am trashed. I mean, it's got to be brutal on you. You know, it was, you know, it was very doble. It certainly took it out here because there's not much breathing space in there. But you know what, when you're rocking with a band and all of that and, you know, and the great thing is with a record, I'd always, you know, as a matter of habit before I did gig, I'd play the album to make sure that I wasn't wondering, you know, you get lazy and you wonder from the original things and that I was putting on and make sure that I was on the money with the things. And once you, you can hear yourself doing it. You're just going, it's strange. You know, you go on and do yourself, if you know what I mean. You know, you want to do yourself, so it's bang on. And you know, it's like Angus was saying, you know, with the radio guys and all that. And one of the things that, one of the most exciting nights of my life, I was sitting with, I think, Marlon Clifford. I think we were playing cards. I can't remember in a hotel room and we just heard, Hi, this is Wolfman Jack and I'm going to play something now that's going to change your life. AC DC back in black coming from Wolfman Jack. I never forget it. And it came on and we went, fuck. And it was those kind of people that just put this mystery and fucking sparkly shit on this record. And it was, but you've got to remember, I think it was the record itself that was the magic, not all the shit that went on around it. It was this missile of a record. I came out and just, you know, just inexplicable really apart from the great songs. I mean, that's easy to figure that one out. But why those particular 10 songs at that particular time? Yeah, that's the big, you know. And the sequence. I can't figure it out. I mean, those are things you don't try to figure out. You just go, oh, the magic was here and it was 100% chemistry and lightning in a bottle. Let's get into a little bit about the next record here, which I think is another masterpiece. And I think for those about to rock is it's an unbelievable record. It's a totally different record. And I could say it was probably my favorite out of the Brian era. I know that I read quite a bit that you guys went and did it, I guess in Paris in a warehouse or something. And Malcolm wasn't very happy with Mutt taking a long, long time. Mutt had started to change his production style of really going long. Am I correct? It was a case of, you know, we had started originally. We were written up in Paris, in France. And, you know, there was a studio there that, you know, we had gone there. But then, you know, it was, you know, a big studio, well-known studio. But when Mutt, when we got there, there was a lot of things. Mutt really was searching. He wanted to, you know, really, you know, especially a drum sound. He really wanted this, you know, something that brought life to the drums naturally. That gave a good ambience. So we were there in one studio and we tried, you know, and it wasn't really coming, the sound that he wanted, you know. He tried various setups, different setups. And he still, and he tried different approaches. And then he said, and he was finding out, you know, where did other people try their, you know, they're set up with drums and that. And somebody said, oh, you know, somebody, you know, they actually went out and even into the reception area and took those people out and put drums and whatnot. And he thought, well, you know, I'm going to go check out a few other studios. And so he went around various other ones and he would try different setups with the drums. And then he would get Malcolm and myself and go, you know, come and have a listen. And then, you know, we'd be in one by then. We still, he goes, yeah, this is better, but it's not what I'm hearing. And he said, you know what, because we had been in this big rehearsal room where we'd been doing pre-production with him. And he said, you know, we were getting this really great live drum sound, natural sound. And he said, why don't we, you know, what about if we do this? We get, you know, we get that Stone's mobile, you know, the mobile bus thing that they had, which was a recording studio on wheels. We'll get that here. And then we'll just set up in that big warehouse. So that was where we ended up setting up. And he thought, great, because he could put the drums, you know, where he thought the drums were happening the best. He could, you know, with the guitars, he could do ended. And because it was that much space, you know, he could put the guitars anywhere, you know, where it was going to come to life, you know. He even had his even set up, you know, how we would live, you know, like with the amps and that just to see if that was even going to be something unique. So he tried different setups. Then once he was happy with what, you know, with what he was hearing, it was a case of, okay, you know, get bound to the fact of start recording the songs. But it was, that took a little while, you know, moving back and round and trying to find. And so that was really what was kind of delaying it a bit. And as you, and probably because it's, you know, it not being a fully recording studio, as you would normally know, you know, you could be taking a lot longer trying to get certain things the way sound and as how it should. So, you know, it would take a lot longer in that part. So that was becoming a little bit, you know, with us, I guess, you know, what we didn't want was the band getting burned out, where we keep playing the same song until it becomes sort of too tired. You didn't want to lose the energy of it. And that was what, and you didn't want fatigues to set in. You want to, you know, when you're playing it, you want to sound fresh and excited. So that was what Malcolm, we really was, you know, he didn't want the band to sound like it, you know, like, you know, you're getting into a kind of burnout. Okay, I got it. Brian, I think that this record, you really shine again on it. The amazing thing about AC DC, I've always said, is a lot like the Rolling Stones. You have so many songs that have never been played live. And it's crazy to think about, you have albums and albums and albums of these songs that have never, ever been played live. And then a couple of them, boy, like Spellbound, I think is one of the great, great, great AC DC songs. I love that song. It's one of the most fabulous problems you can have, you know, having too many songs, you know. It's usually that we're around for a lot of bands, you know, it's unanswerable. You know, you'd like to play them, you'd like to do that. You know, you've got to remember that people want to hear, you know, the songs, the stand, you know, the big standout ones and the hits or whatever. And there's just no room to fit them in, unless you did a week and you had five different sets. Yeah, yeah. Pretty tough. I get it. I do an AC DC tribute once a year with a lot of rock stars in L.A. and Spell Burr and Mark Marin and we do this big AC DC tribute. And we, you know, this year I was like, well, we got to do Soul Stripper. And let's sit next to you and, you know, you whip them out and the crowd's like, and they're like, hey, man, these are some of the great ones. Listen up, you know. I get it. I get it. I understand it. Yeah. If you think of it, I remember, look, even when we were back in black, I think one of the, I remember we were going to Detroit and we were in Detroit. Were they even on that back? Oh, no, no, sorry. When we were coming to do, after we were coming to do, when we were touring for those about the rock. I remember the opening night, we were on stage playing for nearly three, three and three quarter hour. Look, Brian's up there on vocal. He's strained for anyone going what he was doing. And we're going for all the hard ones, you know. We come off of stage, we think, oh, we've only been on three and a half minutes. People are going, you've been on three hours, 45, you know, 45 minutes to that. When you put together the set list, was there any songs that you wouldn't touch, Brian, or Angus, that you didn't want to do? That was like a bond era. Like I noticed that Live Wire went away, of course. That was always a great opener. Brian will tell you, every song we ever done, back in black included, for those about the rock in there. We went through, in rehearsals, we did all those tracks. We were prepared for any of those tracks to come up and play. We would have to go on and go, we know we have to play this one. We know we have to play that one. We know we have to play this one. We know we have to play those tracks. And you were saying before, like, stones, you know. Well, if I went to see the stone, I've got a wish here. And I go, I want to hear the stones do. I want to hit them to jump in jackpot. I want to hear Street Fighter Man. I want them to play all my favorites. You see what I mean? And that's what happens with us. We have all those tracks. And we go out, then we go. We know these are big songs that we've got to play. And then on that, we've got to go, OK, maybe we can color it up a bit and bring in something a little bit different. This is where it ends up. How long can we sustain it on stage? We never wanted to get on and go, you know, these guys are, you know, you know, getting up there and we're not peaking. For us, it's a band. That was always our thing. We always went, we always went, we wanted to go on it. These strands, we wanted to go like that. I know that Phil is back. And you had Simon Wright. You had Chris Slade. It's funny because Phil is the secret weapon of AC DC. When he gets in, when he gets behind that kit, it's on. You can talk to the greatest drummers on the planet. I've interviewed most of them on this show. And all of them will be like, oh, yeah, Phil Rudd. You think he's doing nothing. And then you go to play an AC DC tune at a jam or something. And they go, I don't know what I'm doing. And these are giant top pro guys. He has a unique gift. It's a natural thing that he put it this way. When I first time ever Phil got behind the drums and play, I said to him now, when that guy starts driving, you know, when he starts driving and you're doing a guitar solo, man, I've got to play harder. I have to lift the game. I have to really build into it. Because I ain't going to be hurt once he starts cracking that. He's got a unique drive. And he just seems to have a natural thing. He says he looks at my little legs going and he goes, I know what you're going to do. He is unreal. He's the secret sauce. Yeah. You know, he said to me, young Dean, once he said, ah, John, ah, ah, ah, ah. He said, you've got to watch out for them dental drummers. And I said, what's a dental drummer? He said, ah, you know, the kind to see how they'll fill it. Because his whole thing is just keeping the beat my ass. He, you know, I don't know what it is he hits the beat. You think he's going to fall off the stool before it just hits it right where it's supposed to swing. You know, a roll, whatever you want to call it. It's just natural. And it gets you every time, you know. He's great. And we love him. He's fit, he's healthy. You know, when I've known him, you know, going way back from, you know, the early years and all the way through. And I mean, it is that. It's just that he's so natural. Let's talk a little bit about, of course, you guys, you've been doing this all your life. And I've had a lot of guys on. I had Paul Stanley on. Recently, he was talking about two hip replacements and stuff like that. I watched you Angus my entire life since 1978, jumping from three stacks of marshals, landing on your knees, full tilt head bobbing the entire time. I mean, doing, doing the circle on it. What, what is your body like right now at your age? Have you had any surgeries or anything? None, none whatsoever. You know, I mean, I've been on stage. I might do the odd bruise and ankle, you know, you know, do the damage to my, I used to use, lose a lot of my, my, my, my nails on my, my feet. They used to go first, you know, because I don't know the way I was in tears. They would, I was guaranteed every tour I would, you know, at least three or four times during the tour, I would, you know, lose a toenail or two, you know. So that was always expect, but I've been pretty, pretty lucky. You know, I've even gone through stages when in my early years, you know, because some of them, you know, like you had to use what the stage wasn't a building. And sometimes, you know, you know, some buildings used to give you eight, they had an A stage and a B stage, you know. They go, I can always tell when we got the B stage, because, you know, I guarantee my feet were going to go through them. Yeah, I'm lucky, I've been pretty lucky, you know. I might get the odd, I think the worst I ever got was a, you know, a thing with my finger one time, I had a splint. That lasted, I got on stage, that lasted all of a second, that came off in the first thing, and I still had to play with the fraction finger, so I was pretty, I got through that, you know. How about you, Brian? How are you doing? Well, you know, I've been lucky, I've never spent a night in hospital, any life, touch wood. And, you know, it's, apart from, you know, the obvious was when my ears went and all that, but that's invisible, so thank God for that. But other than that, honestly, I've been lucky as Angus, you know, we should have been hurt, me and Angus, many times, you know, with wandering cameraman and booms and, you know, and big black holes in front of you and stuff like that, but we're always very lucky. I know you don't want to get really into the, the hearing thing and stuff like that, but I'm so happy that you're back singing in this band and it gives me goosebumps. I'll tell you guys a funny story. I heard the record back in March. I was called down to Sony. They said, Ah, yeah, who do you know then? Nobody had heard the record. And they said, we want to get ACDC on the podcast. We know you're a monster fan and we know you've been doing this nine years and it's your dream guest. We want to do this. Come down. So I signed an NDA, a secret clause. It's just me in a room, no one in there, a bottle of water. They turned it on and I was losing my mind. And then for the next seven months, I had to walk around like I didn't know anything. Listen to the club. I know, right? I saw in the club. It was awful. They give me a non-disclosure all the time. Here you go. Oh, dear me. We'd be walking around for months and going, So man, what's happening, man? I hear the, you know, there's photographs on the thin man and like, you know, come on, you can tell me. I don't know what you're talking about. Oh, come on, man. I don't know what you're talking about. It's just another kind of foot. You lie, you bastard. Well, you know, it was funny. It was like about a month ago. I was like, well, you know, COVID, maybe it's not coming out now. Maybe I'll just fuck it. I'll just go on and do a whole episode about how I heard this. And I said, eh, better wait a little while. I don't want to blow this. And a week later they called me and said, all right, it's on. And so don't talk about it. It's going to happen. And I was like, oh my God, and I was just losing my mind. But funny to listen to it. I felt like a kid when I went and bought back in black. I remember I rode the bus for an hour, went to Tower Records, got that back in black and got home. This was the same. I drove across the LA in traffic, parked, went upstairs, sat down, and they go, are you ready? And I go, oh, absolutely. And they go, do you just want to hear a couple of songs? They go, what are you out of your mind? You know, so they kicked it on. And, uh, and realize came on. And I was like, wow, this is killer. But by the time we get to the crown jewel of this record, Demon Fire, I'm like, Demon Fire and Witch's Spell. I'm like, oh, oh, here, here is some serious rockin' going on right here. Well, I mean, what, what a couple tunes back to back right there. When I first heard it, just like you did. I think I sent off a communicator to Angus. And I said, hey, mate. I said, I got to tell you, I mean, this album, I'm going to listen to it straight away again. He said, but I got to say is that I'm happy. I'm not the guy that's got to pick a single from this because I am, I'm confused. They're all, you know, they're all eligible, you know. Let's talk about through the mist of time. That's got to be the most, the most different song AC DC has ever done. Is this, did Brendan have a hand in this? Because it does kind of have a, it's almost kind of an Americana Springsteen kind of vibe. This is totally different for AC DC. Yeah. Well, somebody, somebody also commented. It's like a stax or something, you know, like from that. The ideas, you know, the song ideas were like with Mal and myself and it was just at the time, you know, when you're doing something, you know, we would play a track and then you would do something. And when you would play back a few tracks in a row and you would go, something stands out. And when you got a few ideas and you run them fast and that one jumped out at you. So for some reason you go, it jumps out and you go, it's a little bit different, but it's still, you know, and as Malcolm always said, you know, for the time we finish with it, it is AC DC. So that's how we, you know, it always was the way we work. We always, you would listen to them, but the ones that jumped out, you go, there's a bit of magic there. That's got AC DC written all over it. So a lot of the ideas and a lot of these songs, they came from when we were going to do the album Black Eyes, Malcolm and me had a lot of years where the two of us had just been in a little studio just working away all the time, just writing songs. And in that period with so much stuff, when we, even when we went to do Black Eyes, it was a case of, you know, you've got a few boxes of your ideas and it was a case of, we only got even the box one and we were just pulling out the first season stuff that we had of tracks, you know, and we were putting a lot. And it was a case of we, you know, when we were sitting down with Brendan and Brendan's going, I like that, I like that. And that was just the first CD, I like that. And we never, you know, by the time you got that, you got like 20 ideas, you know, that he's already got. And then we go, you know, even when we were doing it, I think we got to, we were putting down tracks for Black Eyes, you know. And it's like it comes to some point, you know, Brendan goes, well, you know, you're more than covered. You've got enough for a great album here. And I was even saying to Mal, hey, you know, we were all in here, should we just continue and do some more? And you know, when Mal said, no, we, you know, we'll get them later, don't worry. We'll get, you know, nothing, because he's always said, nothing goes to waste with us, you know. We, you know, if we got a good idea, we're going to use it. Basically, that's really what, what, what I had when I, you know, I had to go through all of this material. And, you know, and for me, it, it, I mean, going through, it's a lot easier tasks, as I said, because of that time, you know, we had marked out all what were the ACDC, the ones that really stood out. So, you know, and I've still got a lot of those ideas. You know, so I'm, I'm, I'm still not done with all of it, what I have. Yeah. Well, there might be another one that you're saying. Huh? Yeah, I'm good. And maybe I don't know how many that I would have. Wow. All right. I know you got to get out of here. I cannot thank you enough for doing this. It's, it's pretty monumental to me. I mean, you don't understand what your band has done. To my life is, it is, I have bonded over some of the greatest friends over your music. I have had some of the greatest memories at your concerts, hands down, some of the greatest live rock I've ever seen. I've seen over 2000 shows and I'm telling you, you guys are lifers in my blood and everything about you guys I love. And I can't thank you enough for doing this show. It means so much to me. Oh, thank you. It's an absolute pleasure and honor. Thank you. Brian real quick. Thank you, Dean. I'm a big watch guy. Brian, what are you wearing today? Oh, this is a Graham. Graham? I know Graham out of England, London. Yeah. Well, this is, this is for the 1944 day-day landings on the American from the Second World War. So that's, that's, that's, it's a, it's a, you know, it's a celebrate. Well, it's not a celebration. It just, it is for that. It's called the overload special. You know, after the overload operation a day. So anyway, it's fine. Angus. I'm a bit of a history buff. Oh yeah. Yeah. Angus, I got one question for you. I know you've got an army of SG's. My favorite one is the back in black one with the white pick guard. What SG, if they were all gone, which one would you have to have? It would it be vintage or is it a newer one? It's a vintage one. The one that I've always had and been on nearly every album, every album I've ever done is a guitar that now I, you know, because it's been on so many, you know, AC DC's. I just save it for the studio now. And I keep it like, you know, I keep it away. You know, I don't want to be because it over the years when I used to use it live, you know, it got so many bumps and cracks and I got to the point where I just thought I don't want to damage it anymore. I want to make sure preserve it that, you know, that it's there for when I'm doing, you know, studio stuff, you know. And when I've got that guitar, you know, it's so reliable, you know, I just have to put it in and plug it in. And I can get all my guitars lined them up and I can go through them all and go in and you put them in. Everyone will go, yeah, that's a great sound. That's a good sound. But that wasn't a good sound. That's the one, you know. It's just got its own thing to it. And I don't know, I don't know why another. And it's funny, you know, because Malcolm, my brother was the one that said to me when I was younger, he said to me, hang, there's this little shop not far. And he said that, you know, they got a, you know, they got quite a few good guitars. They got a few Les Pauls and whatnot. He said that they got this great SG in there. And he knew I was looking for one, you know. And so, you know, I went down the shop. I picked, you know, I tried and went through the other ones. When I got to that SG and I played it, went through the other ones, I came back, I played it and it was like, I just went this one. It, you know, it just, it played so well. I didn't even have to think about it or, you know, and nowadays it almost does play itself. I can put it, when I put it on, it makes, if I'm playing, it makes my, you know, it just does its own, it's got its own thing, you know. I love you guys, man. Thank you so much. Thanks Dean, me son. I could talk to you guys for 20 hours, man. And hopefully one day I'll get to backstage, chew your ear off to where you go, get this fucking guy away from me. Never. Thank you guys. Thanks Dean. It's a pleasure, me son. Congrats on that new record, man. I cannot wait to see you guys out on the stage again. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Bye bye. See ya.