During a recent appearance on Sky TV, Brian Johnson said one Black Sabbath album helped his AC/DC journey.
When asked what music made him want to be an artist, the singer replied:
“‘Paranoid’ came out. Black Sabbath… And I never heard anything like that and I think that was the first thing I said, ‘I want to do that.’”
Mark Knopfler was also present in the same interview with Johnson. He also shared his early influences, explaining:
“I went to blues club every night, every week, and I used to see bands like Free. I was so impressionable, which is so up for all of it. And at the universities, I’d see bands like Arthur Lee and Love, things just from America. Just stuff like that. That would be the most amazing musical education.”
Johnson’s Further Thoughts On Black Sabbath
When Black Sabbath released their first two albums, ‘Black Sabbath’ and ‘Paranoid,’ Johnson was 22, working as an apprentice, and playing in a rock band with friends. In a 2022 interview on BBC Radio 2’s ‘Tracks of My Years,’ he further talked about how important ‘Paranoid’ was to him. He said:
“I just said, I was an apprentice in Parsons and every lunchtime the qualified guys would get the young apprentices and say: ‘Ok, get me two pies and one sausage sandwich.’ You would get the exact money and the bosses would let you out so you could stand in a line. The coffee was called The Paddock. There would be a line and there would be a jukebox in. I remember once I was standing there and this song came on. It was ‘Paranoid’ Black Sabbath.”
He continued:
“We were all [like] ‘Who’s that?’. It just took over and everybody started scratching in their pockets [for money]. I mean, we kept put in it on. As soon as I got back from work, I [talked] to the whole of the band and said ‘We’ve gotta learn this song.’ I keep thinking, me and Ozzy, I think we are about the same age. He must have been 13 when he made that one [laughs]. But I think it was a great thing because it started this whole thing.”
Brian also named other tracks like Little Richard’s ‘Tutti Frutti,’ Led Zeppelin’s ‘Rock And Roll,’ Elvis Presley’s ‘Jailhouse Rock,’ Dire Straits’ ‘Sultans of Swing’ and Steppenwolf’s ‘Born To Be Wild.’
You can watch the entire chat below.