Joe Elliott Clarifies Comments About AC/DC Abandoning Brian Johnson

Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott says he didn't mean to chide AC/DC for moving on so quickly from frontman Brian Johnson as Johnson dealt with severe hearing damage; he was merely pointing out differences in the way two bands go about their business. 

Elliott says the comments he made this winter about AC/DC ditching Johnson for Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose were "more of an observation," not a criticism. 

"I got asked about the Brian Johnson situation, and I just said, 'Look, you know, we would have managed it differently. Angus has got to do whatever Angus has got to do.' I think Axl Rose did a very good job with AC/DC," Elliott told the Rolling Stone: Music Now podcast with Brian Hiatt. "Brian [Johnson's] my friend, so of course I'm gonna go to bat for him. But the fact that he had a bit of hearing problem and they just decided like, 'Well, okay, we're just going to carry on without you then.' And we stuck around for Rick Allen (laughs); it's not the way we would have done things."

This winter Elliott told the Life in the Stocks podcast that Def Leppard handles circumstances among its members differently than AC/DC.

"I can’t speak for [Angus Young] and his team as to what their reasons were for doing what they did, but considering that we had a drummer lose an arm and we waited for him, the way that they dealt with it was not the way I would have done it," Elliot said at the time. "Put it that way.”

Elliott added that "it's not really AC/DC anymore, is it?"

The singer tells Rolling Stone that band's like U2 that maintain the same membership over multiple decades are the exception, not the rule. He pointed out some of Def Leppard's lineup shifts, adding "The Rolling Stones have even lost people along the way."

"I try not to pass judgement because it's not necessarily the fault of the organization if somebody decides to leave or they get fired or whatever," he elaborated. "Just because one person leaves, should an entire band have to shut down?"

The singer offered Def Leppard's summer tour mates Journey as an example.

"I've seen Journey with the new guy, with [Arnel Pineda], and he's a fantastic singer — there's no doubt about it," Elliott said. "And the fact is that if Steve Perry doesn't want to do it anymore then somebody else has got to. It's like a football team to a point; if the quarterback quits or you get rid of him, you have to get a new one."

Elliott then joked that if he notices his Def Leppard bandmates looking up Joe Elliott sound-a-likes on YouTube (referring to how Journey found Pineda), he "might be a little concerned about that." 

Def Leppard is on tour with Journey until October. Get all the tour dates here. 

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