AC/DC taking Axl Rose on tour: Is this really a good idea?

AC/DC singer Brian Johnson – having been warned that touring with the Australian hard-rock veterans risked his suffering permanent hearing loss – is sitting out their tour, and the band has instead recruited the mercurial Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses.

Many wonder if that's such a great idea, including disappointed UK fans of the group who've bought tickets. They put up a petition asking for refunds.

It worked. The ticket seller sent out emails to ticket holders informing them that they could request refunds until May 6.

There are other reasons fans – and promoters – should perhaps be wary of having Rose on the month-long tour of Europe. Axl is currently touring with Guns, who conveniently have a break in May and June. The AC/DC tour starts May 7 in Lisbon.

Let's look back at some of Axl's capricious antics over the years.

Axl – and the rest of the band as well – were known for living up to the motto "sex, drugs and rock and roll." They lived with an early manager, Vicky Hamilton, for six months in 1986, she told the Daily Mail last year, because Axl was hiding out from the police after a woman had filed a rape charge against him. The case was later dropped, Axl told the Los Angeles Times in 1986.

Violence and manipulation were used in equal doses. Axl convinced a woman – the Guns' drummer Steven Adler's girlfriend – into having sex with him in the studio and recording it for the song "Rocket Queen."


The hard rock Ozzie band shouldn't count too much on Axl being where he's supposed to be when he's supposed to be. He doesn't run by anyone's else timetable. Who else would take 13 years and spend more than $13 million to make a record? At least Rolling Stone liked it.

An early example: Opening for Alice Cooper in a 1986 concert, the band had to start without Axl because he was late and couldn't get past security into the theatre. Guitarists Slash and Izzy Stradlin did the singing.

Such antics have continued throughout the singer's career. And when concerts start late, they finish late.
Here's a look at Axl refusing to leave the stage at the Reading and Leeds festival in 2010 after having been cut off because of curfew, leading the crowd in a singalong for the usual concert closer, "Paradise City."

What's more, for the moment he's still in a cast for a broken foot – "for a couple of weeks," he said in late April.