Shock: rocker's hearing loss attributed to race car — not deafening, ear-shredding music?
It’s an unlikely story isn’t it, that Brian Johnson, an artist renowned for turning his voice into some kind of oral weapon on the senses while performing some of the loudest and most insane songs to audiences deeply in the thousands, has attributed his loss of hearing to … a race car?
But, that’s what’s Johnson admitted, with AC/DC delaying their latest tour of America amid fears from Johnson's doctor of total hearing loss.
“I didn’t get it from music. I got it from sitting in a race car too long without ear plugs,” Johnson told Howard Stern in an interview for Ultimate Classic Rock.
“I’ve obviously had some hearing loss. I’ve got hearing loss in me left ear. […] I heard my ear drum burst, because I forgot to put me plugs in under my helmet. That’s how it happened. Music had nothing to do with it.”
Johnson of course is a passionate petrol head, having both owned and raced a variety of classic motors, including a Lola T70 Mark 1, a Bentley 4.5-litre Vandenplas, and a Fezza 458 Italia. He’s also made a couple of appearances on Top Gear, before eventually hosting his own car show; Cars That Rock.
While Johnson hasn’t said if his eardrum’s Baptism by Fire was caused by any particular one of his War Machine racers, you can rest assured that the Love Hungry Man won’t Meltdown in the face of the potential Danger to his hearing. He is after all a man with Damned Big Balls who’s in too Deep in the Hole of motoring’s metaphorical Landslide, regardless of whether his Thunderstruck hearing is operating on Borrowed Time.