It was going to be impossible to find a replacement for Bon Scott in AC/DC after his death.

Before he passed on, Bon actually had the perfect guy for the job when he took the band to see Brian Johnson play with a band called Geordie during a break from touring.

As the rest of the band was listening to music in the bar, Bon loved the sound of Brian’s voice and the harsh screams that he could do towards the end of their set.

Angus Young remembers Bon being jazzed about Brian back then saying,

“There’s this guy up there screaming at the top of his lungs and then the next thing you know he hits the deck. He’s on the floor, rolling around and screaming. I thought it was great, and then to top it off — you couldn’t get a better encore — they came in and wheeled the guy off!”

It might look like the greatest rock and roll show, but Brian was actually in need of medical attention onstage saying later, “I had a terrible case of appendicitis and I went down on my side, kicking and going, ‘Ooh!’ But I kept on singing. Apparently, he told the boys when he joined AC/DC, ‘I saw this guy Brian Johnson sing, and he was great. He was on the floor, kicking and screaming — what an act!’ Of course, it wasn’t an act. I was really ill.”

When Bon died during the songwriting sessions for Back in Black, it was a no-brainer for the band to get Brian on board, having indirectly auditioned for the band without even knowing it.

Brian wasn’t confident in his singing style at the time though, with Eddie Trunk mentioning that Brian was scared when they started saying, “He told me after he recorded vocals for Back in Black at a studio in the Bahamas, he walked out onto a pier, lit a cigarette, and thought about what he was going to do for a living. He was convinced that once the label heard the album, they would wipe all his vocals and the band would be forced to find a new singer.”

Brian got the gig of a lifetime and all it cost was his appendix.