After making its live comeback at the Power Trip festival last October in Indio, Calif., AC/DC has announced an extensive European tour — its first in eight years — slated to begin during May in Germany. The trek will feature 21 performances in 10 countries, running into mid-August and featuring mostly stadium dates. It's being billed as the Power Up Tour, in reference to AC/DC's 2020 album of that title, which the band could not tour due to the pandemic. Brian Johnson will be back fronting the band after dropping out of the Rock or Bust World Tour in 2016 due to hearing issues (replaced by Guns N' Roses' Axl Rose. Johnson will be joined this year by co-founder Angus Young on guitar, his nephew Stevie Young on rhythm guitar and new drummer Matt Laug. Chris Chaney will join on bass to replace the retired Cliff Williams.
Johnson, who's been fitted with new ear monitors to allow him to perform again, tells us that he's stoked about the prospect of putting AC/DC back on the road gain:
“It's just a brilliant feeling. There's not much, not many things that can make you as excited as you were when you were young, but this did. This is right up there with any of the great things I've done in life. It's right up there, one of the top, getting back and just feeling part of, being back with your family kind of thing. It's just brilliant.” :34
American-born Chaney has an extensive resume that includes Jane's Addiction. Alanis Morissette, Eddie Vedder and the Earthlings, Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders and others. Laug, who's also American and replaces Chris Slade from the Rock or Bust World Tour, made his debut with AC/DC at Power Trip after tenures with Morissette, Alice Cooper, Slash's Snakepit and Mike Campbell's Dirty Knobs.
There's no word yet about AC/DC dates in North America, where the group last toured during the fall of 2016.
