AC/DC are “absolutely going to tour” again with Brian Johnson

Brian Johnson (Image credit: Brill/ullstein bild - Getty)

Brian Johnson will tour with AC/DC (opens in new tab) again, according to reports.

The vocalist was forced to stop touring with AC/DC in 2016 under the threat of permanent deafness, with the Aussie giants famously bringing in Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose to complete their Rock Or Bust world tour.

Johnson has since worked with audio experts Asius on a solution to his hearing problems, with Beano appearing to confirm his return to the band back in January after being spotted outside a Vancouver studio with drummer Phil Rudd in August last year.

And, after AC/DC’s longterm engineer and mixer Mike Fraser said last week that they had been in the studio “doing something,” it appears the band could be back on the road in the future with Johnson.

Trunk said (via NME): “I have sources that have told me that they are absolutely going to tour with Brian back again. That’s all unconfirmed from their camp, but I had it from some reliable sources.”

Trunk added: “I think it’s pretty much a done deal that AC/DC, at the very least, are going to release some sort of record and it’ll be some sort of tribute to Malcolm Young (opens in new tab), just like Back In Black was a tribute to Bon Scott.

“So I have no doubt about that, and I’m pretty confident they’re probably going to do shows as well, but I think at this point it’s pretty much just when they announce it.”

Since his departure from AC/DC Johnson has played live with MusePaul Rodgers and Mick Fleetwood.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers and magazines as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. After initially joining our news desk in the summer of 2014, he moved to the e-commerce team full-time in 2020. He maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott grew up listening to rock and prog, cutting his teeth on bands such as Marillion and Magnum before his focus shifted to alternative and post-punk in the late 80s. His favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Drab Majesty, but he also still has a deep love of Rush.