The AC/DC frontman, originally from Dunston, Gateshead, has been
given his own BBC Radio 2 show – Brian Johnson’s Rockers and Rollers –
and he admits putting it together was tough.
“Everyone thinks doing radio is just sitting down, you put a mic in front of you and just waffle, but it’s not that easy,” said Brian.
“I sat in this studio with a big black mic in front of us and not an idea. Thankfully Ben Jones and Dan Cocker helped me out. I have to thank those two.”
The show, which runs for six weeks from this Thursday, will provide a soundtrack to Brian’s life featuring music from ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin and The Sensational Alex Harvey Band – and there’ll be plenty of car talk too.
“Basically, I wrote a book called Rockers and Rollers, not about me, there’s enough of them,” he explained.
“My memory is terrible, but cars always help me remember things. If someone asked ‘What’s the name of the girl you went out with when you were 19?’ you couldn’t remember, but you’d remember having a Mini Cooper. Cars started to get cool and groovy when rock and roll started – when Ike Turner brought out Rocket 88 it was about his car, the thing he loved.
“The thing you wanted when you were a young man was a car because it was freedom!”
He added: “Cars and music, the two of them sort of went together, so I start to marry the two.”
Brian has maintained his broad Geordie accent despite living in Florida in the United States for the last 35 years – but he’s come a cropper on a few trips back North with his American jargon.
“I’ve got a grandson, little Edwin, he’s two and a bit so I’ve just got to get back to see him as much as I can,” he said.
“The trouble is I’ve been back to Newcastle and with living in America, I’ll go to a garage and I’ll ask for gas.
“Oh my god, the hell I’ve got up there – ‘Ooh, you’ve changed son!’ – so I’ve got to be real careful not to call a car bonnet or boot a hood or a trunk. I walk on eggshells!”
“Everyone thinks doing radio is just sitting down, you put a mic in front of you and just waffle, but it’s not that easy,” said Brian.
“I sat in this studio with a big black mic in front of us and not an idea. Thankfully Ben Jones and Dan Cocker helped me out. I have to thank those two.”
The show, which runs for six weeks from this Thursday, will provide a soundtrack to Brian’s life featuring music from ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin and The Sensational Alex Harvey Band – and there’ll be plenty of car talk too.
“Basically, I wrote a book called Rockers and Rollers, not about me, there’s enough of them,” he explained.
“My memory is terrible, but cars always help me remember things. If someone asked ‘What’s the name of the girl you went out with when you were 19?’ you couldn’t remember, but you’d remember having a Mini Cooper. Cars started to get cool and groovy when rock and roll started – when Ike Turner brought out Rocket 88 it was about his car, the thing he loved.
“The thing you wanted when you were a young man was a car because it was freedom!”
Brian has maintained his broad Geordie accent despite living in Florida in the United States for the last 35 years – but he’s come a cropper on a few trips back North with his American jargon.
“I’ve got a grandson, little Edwin, he’s two and a bit so I’ve just got to get back to see him as much as I can,” he said.
“The trouble is I’ve been back to Newcastle and with living in America, I’ll go to a garage and I’ll ask for gas.
“Oh my god, the hell I’ve got up there – ‘Ooh, you’ve changed son!’ – so I’ve got to be real careful not to call a car bonnet or boot a hood or a trunk. I walk on eggshells!”
