Rockers And Rollers – An Automotive Autobiography

BRIAN JOHNSON

Every interview I have ever seen with AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson has been near impossible to fathom due to his famously thick Scottish brogue, so who knew he was such an entertaining and riveting raconteur?

“Rockers and Rollers” is an AUTOMOTIVE AUTObiography (see what he did there?), so don’t expect this to be a standard kind of chronological narrative about his time with the biggest hard rock band on Planet Rock - oh no!

Instead, what you get is a cleverly assembled collection of vignettes – recollections about cars, memories of driving in them, repairing them, racing them, crashing them, buying them, problems with them, and so on: and what shines through most of all is Johnson’s passionate love for them.

I’m no car man myself, but I found this book a fascinating read for many reasons – mostly Johnson’s charismatic rendering of his tales. He never talks down to his readers, and he never loses himself in technical revhead jargon.

Several of the mini chapters involve his Accadacca or Geordie cohorts, and although precious few salacious backstage secrets are let slip, still “Rockers And Rollers” never lets its grip loosen.

This is, perhaps, refreshingly the opposite of some other rock autobiographies – no sensationalism to speak of, but a fantastic look inside the man himself and what makes him tick.

Shane