Brian Johnson

He married Carol, in 1968 with whom he has two daughters, Joanne born in 1968 and Kala born in 1973. His first marriage ended in divorce. He is presently married to Brenda and resides in Sarasota, Florida.

He received an honorary degree of Doctor of Music from Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne on July 9, 2014.

He backs the Topcliffe based Yorkshire Dementia Charity since October 2014.

He was born on October 5, 1947, in Dunston, Gateshead, County Durham, England, as the oldest of four children of Alan and Esther (née De Luca). *His father served the British Army's Durham Light Infantry as a sergeant major and was also a coal miner. Johnson lost his father while he was on AC/DC’s Ballbreaker World Tour in 1996. His mother was from Frascati, Italy.

He performed with the Scouts in different shows in his younger days. He was also part of a local church choir and featured in a play that was broadcast on TV.

Early career of Johnson saw him performing with the Gobi Desert Canoe Club band and the Fresh Band. He started performing for ‘The Jasper Hart Band’, a cabaret/club band from 1970 and moving on joined hands with other members of the band to form the British glam rock band ‘Geordie’ in 1972.

Geordie’s first single ‘Don't Do That’ found place among UK Top 40 in December 1972. The band furthered its fame with hit singles including UK Top 10 ‘All Because of You’ (April 1973) and UK Top 20 ‘Can You Do It’ (July 1973). In January 1976 Johnson as a member of ‘Geordie’ spawned his only solo single ‘I Can't Forget You Now’.

He left ‘Geordie’ after the band released their 1976 album ‘Save the World’. In 1978 ‘Geordie’ disbanded. It was eventually re-formed by Johnson in 1980 with a new line-up with him as the only original member. Also referred as ‘Geordie II’, the band signed a recording contract in early 1980. However in March 1980 Johnson received a phone call enquiring if he would be interested in auditioning for lead vocalist position of AC/DC that became vacant following demise of singer Bon Scott in February that year.

It so happened that Scott once praised Johnson’s performance to his band members after he saw Johnson singing for Geordie. After considering several candidates Johnson was zeroed in as the band’s lead vocalist marking the beginning of a new thriving era for AC/DC. On April 1, 1980, the band officially announced his joining.

He was sent to the Bahamas where he worked with Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Cliff Williams and Phil Rudd in the Compass Point Studios in coming up with the band’s first album with him titled ‘Back in Black’. The album that released on July 25, 1980, became a huge critical and commercial success selling an estimated 50 million copies worldwide and emerging among the best-selling albums of all time.