You’d swear the world split apart, but the seemingly impossible happened this week: Axl Rose will be singing for AC/DC and Brian Johnson was out of the band. You’d have sworn a meteor was heading straight for Earth, because everyone reacted that way: someone else fronting AC/DC, even as a touring member, let alone someone as notorious as Axl? Right after the announcement that Guns N Roses was touring with Slash and Duff, it just seemed so overkill for Axl to be doing that. Granted, since Axl isn’t young anymore, he runs the chance of exhaustion since he’ll be going from GNR to AC/DC and probably to GNR right after.

But maybe Axl would have been better back in the day, maybe ten years ago or so, but now Axl is just older. He’s not vocally at the point anymore where he can deliver that consistent range anymore with strength. Granted Brian Johnson wasn’t able to hit notes he used to be able to, let alone the ones Bon Scott hit, but Axl was once at that point. Judging by the latest Coachella performance with Angus Young of “Whole Lotta Rose,” he doesn’t have much punch to his voice.
So who would have been better? That’s almost an easy question.

Mark Tornello (Accept/ TT Quick) Honestly, Mark would have been my first choice. I have the privilege of interning at a local radio station, in which one of the employees I spend most of my time with is friends with Mark. It turns out, Mark was in an AC/DC cover band, and if you’ve heard his voice, it just makes so much sense at the end of the day. Not only does the guy have touring experience as well, but is still able to perform. Accept is, essentially, the heavy metal version of AC/DC. (Don’t tell me AC/DC is heavy metal, you’re lying to yourself and you know it) Mark ended up replacing the massive position in the band left by Udo, and has since then done three generally well received albums by both critics and fans. Wouldn’t it have been great to see this guy perform? I would have loved it, honestly.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WKQEAzqS04[/youtube]

Darren Caperna (Back in Black) Common sense would say that AC/DC should look towards AC/DC tribute bands for a replacement vocalist. Dream Theater did a similar approach when trying to replace Mike Portnoy and auditioned Virgil Donati, who had at one time played in a Dream Theater cover band. He didn’t ultimately get the gig, but that seems to be the same deal with Darren Caperna, unfortunately. Putting it mildly, this guy’s good. He’s young, he has the energy, and he sounds like Brian Johnson. Clearly the only reason Caperna missed out on the gig is because he’s not famous like Axl Rose. Certainly, he’s not Brian Johnson, but he emulates that style perfectly fine. Put him in front of AC/DC and he could do. What’s that, he already did? Haha, wow.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wsj7bpnJ70[/youtube]

Literally any female singer in one of the countless AC/DC tribute bands Here’s the sad truth about AC/DC: everyone sings the songs better than them. Sure, the countless women who sing AC/DC don’t usually have the gruff and rasp that Brian Johnson or the shriek that Bon Scott had, but have you heard them sing? They are actually singing and doing an amazing job of it, too. It’s stupidly refreshing. Pick and choose, AC/DC. Imagine it: AC/DC performing with a woman? Sure you’d get so much backlash because the majority of rock music is still backwards in its thought process and thinks that women are just groupies and incapable of performing music, but then there’s Halestorm, actually performing aggressive rock music and being famous and whatnot. Speaking of which…

Lzzy Hale (Halestorm) Look, she can sing and hit those notes that like it’s nothing, night after night. This cover over “Shoot to Thrill” should be all that needs to be said.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOai94e3MhE[/youtube]

Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge/Slash) I was hesitant on Myles, because the guy is absolutely everywhere because he’s just so good. I’d heard him perform GNR covers (And actually prefer them to the originals) but I could not imagine him performing AC/DC. Luck befalleth me and just last month Myles jumped on stage with Steel Panther and performed “Highway to Hell” with them. And he crushed it. It essentially goes the same way of what I said about the numerous female AC/DC tributes, as Myles is actually singing and not rasping or squealing his way through songs. His range is tremendous and he has the power to back him, too, especially since he has performed GNR songs so well with Slash. If he weren’t busy with Alter Bridge, I believe he’d have actually gotten it over Axl.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5H_YWidM_c[/youtube]

AC/DC goes with Axl but packs their money bags at the end of the tour We’re in the day and age where Black Sabbath is getting ready to close up shop and Judas Priest has already gone back on saying they’re retiring. How long until they’re not able to tour, though? The Scorpions already flaked on retiring, but how much longer do they got? Lemmy died and with him Motorhead, so we’re losing legendary acts in this day and age. AC/DC’s music may be immortal, but the band members? Not so much.

I pulled up a video of the band performing and was sorely disappointed by the performance the band was giving. Brian Johnson could barely raise his voice anymore to hit the higher notes on their standard set songs, Angus Young flubbed one of the simpler parts of “Back in Black,” which was just outright embarrassing. But now Johnson is out of the band, Malcom Young has dementia, and Paul Rudd is out of the band for being an idiot. You guys got Chris Slade back and Stevie Young is now playing guitar in place of Malcom, but how much longer can this keep going? Surely you’ll replace Cliff Williams when he gets sick. Are you suggesting the band will die when Angus does?

Maybe it really is time to just end AC/DC at this point. The band hasn’t released anything of noteworthy recognition since The Razor’s Edge in 1990, and the last album Rock or Bust was just AC/DC with nothing added to it. It didn’t even need to take 6 years after Black Ice, because we just honestly knew what it was going to sound like anyways.
Even if AC/DC does call it a day, you can walk into any bar with a cover band performing and chances are you’re going to hear an AC/DC song. On the Jersey shore, there are countless bands that will perform AC/DC songs. There are bands performing the songs better than the actual band has in years at this point. AC/DC is already immortalized, but perhaps they just need to be respectful to themselves and know when enough is enough, just so they don’t fall apart in the end.

I’m bound to have frustrated people who have read this. Be reasonable, though, and consider if AC/DC really did make a smart decision instead of the cheap, money making routine. Honestly, just because it’s AC/DC, you know they’ll sell out their entire tour no matter what because of their name.