Brian Johnson Reveals How Hoover Vacuum Ad Led to His Joining AC/DC
As it turned out, singer Brian Johnson was the perfect choice to join AC/DC after the death of Bon Scott, but the singer needed an extra push to eventually join the group - one that came in the form of a vacuum ad.
Johnson recounts the story for his Brian Johnson TV YouTube account (as seen below), revealing that his initial response to being asked to audition was a pass. The singer revealed that he was initially contacted by a woman with German accent with a mysterious phone call asking him to come to London to audition for an unnamed band.
The singer initially balked, stating, "I've already been bitten by the music bug in Geordie and three years in Geordie and I came away with not a penny in me pocket. I'm not gonna do it again." But the woman was insistent eventually giving Johnson a clue that it was AC/DC, but he still declined. "I said, 'They're a great band, but I'm 32 and I'm past my sell-by date. They'll not be interested. It'll be a waste of a trip,'" recalled the singer.
But shortly after that phone call, Johnson was contacted by Andre Jacquemin, who had worked on the Monty Python films, with a significant financial offer to sing on a Hoover vacuum cleaner advertisement and his studio happened to be in London. With the newfound financial incentive, Johnson called the woman back and arranged to meet with AC/DC's band members while in town recording the advertisement.
A meet-up at a pie shop turned into an instant connection and Johnson's life-changing decision yielded one of the biggest albums in rock history. Johnson has gone on to sing on 10 more studio album after Back in Black, with the latest being 2020's Power Up record.
Watch Johnson share the story in full, complete with a couple of German and Cockney accents to reflect those involved, in the video below.