In a new interview with On the Road to Rock podcast, former AC/DC drummer Chris Slade recalled the ultimatum Angus Young gave to Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose. While complimenting Rose about his one time tour with AC/DC, Slade mentioned that the band had to pull him aside to explain the band’s rules.
“If you screw up, Axl, you’ll get the boot,” they told Rose.
And it apparently worked out, since Slade also said in the same interview that Rose did a great job. “Axl, I think, honestly, he did a great job – tremendous job. He’s not Brian [Johnson], and he wasn’t trying to be Brian – and he also was not trying to be Bon. He’s got a lot of respect for Bon Scott. I know he has – and AC/DC.”
Axl Rose filled in for Brian Johnson back in 2016 for 22 dates of their tour. Johnson had to step away because of serious hearing problems but was able to come back in 2020.
Slade recalled the tour in another interview. He said Axl had a few setlist requests and asked Angus Young if they could include some less common songs that don’t usually make it into AC/DC’s live shows.
“He asked Angus to learn a few songs, like five or six songs that he would love to do ’cause he’d been a fan,” the drummer said. “And we learned them. Well, we knew ’em before, but he wanted to do — I think we did things like ‘Riff Raff’ and things like that. I can’t remember properly, to be very honest. But it was great.”
“And I didn’t know he had that voice, honestly. I’d only ever heard him in Guns N’ Roses with that Guns N’ Roses voice,” he said of Rose’s voice. “It wasn’t that at all. It was a fantastic voice, as far as I’m concerned, with full range.”
It might have been a one-time thing, but fans seemed to love it. You can watch a fan-recorded footage from one of the shows down below.