Watch the story of AC/DC's Back in Black in 5 minutes

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By ( Classic Rock ) published

How a failed rock star helped AC/DC bounce back after Bon Scott’s death to make their Back In Black masterpiece

Angus Young and Brian Johnson onstage
(Image credit: Michael Putland / Getty Images)

We all know the story: Bon Scott was dead, and AC/DC were done. But that isn't quite what happened. 

Instead, AC/DC reached out to Brian Johnson, a washed-up singer whose band Geordie briefly troubled the charts seven years earlier. Announced to the world as Bon Scott's replacement less than a month after the funeral, he joined AC/DC as they travelled to Compass Point Studios in The Bahamas, where they got to work on Back In Black.

The rest is history. And it's history retold in the first of a series of short films from Louder: The making of AC/DC's Back In Black, narrated by bluesman Big Boy Bloater.

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Fraser Lewry
Fraser Lewry
Online Editor, Classic Rock

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.