THE LIVES OF BRIAN

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.