AC/DC singer Brian Johnson appeared to be humiliated at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert when The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins stole his microphone in the middle of “Back in Black.” Justin Hawkins has released a statement about performing with Johnson and Lars Ulrich.

“10 minutes before the AC/DC segment of the tribute, Brian Johnson asked me to come up and sing the second verse of Back In Black. I initially refused, I’ve never sung it before and I didn’t want it to seem like I was gatecrashing. However, Brian really was insistent and Dave Grohl told me that ‘if Brian tells you to do something, you fucking do it’.

“I had Rufus [Taylor, THE DARKNESS drummer] pull up the lyrics on his phone and I gave it a go, but in all honesty I think Brian just wanted to create a memorable spontaneous moment and have a laugh so he could really push on and smash the rest of his set. The stage manager scrambled to prepare a microphone for me, but I didn’t know which one I was supposed to take and I ended up having to steal Brian’s, which looked a bit awkward.

“Brian Johnson is an absolute legend and Dave was right, I couldn’t turn it down.”

Back In Black -Foo Figthers feat Brian Johnson, (AC/DC) Lars Ulrich (Metallica)#taylorhawkinstribute #taylorhawkins

🥁🎵🎼🎸🎶🎧🤘🏻🔊

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— Andres E. Florez M. 🎸🎶 (@andrumayorga) September 3, 2022