AC/DC: Brian Johnson addresses 'conspiracy theory' about Back in Black

AC/DC singer Brian Johnson has settled a long-standing rumour about the Aussie rock band's most well-known album, Back in Black.

Johnson, 75, from north-east England, became the group's frontman in April 1980, just two months after the death of original singer Bon Scott.

In his memoir The Lives of Brian, the musician addresses a 'conspiracy' theory that he didn't write the lyrics to the songs on Back in Black, and instead used 'scribbles' left behind from 'one of [Scott's] notebooks before he died'.

AC/DC singer Brian Johnson (pictured in Kansas City, Missouri, on February 28, 2016) has settled a long-standing rumour about the rock band's most well-known album, Back in Black 

Johnson and guitarist brothers Angus and Malcolm Young composed the album over seven weeks in the Bahamas in 1980.

While Angus has previously said the group didn't use any of Scott's writing because they didn't want to appear to profit from his death, rumours circulated for decades that some of his lyrics made it onto the record.

Johnson shut down this false theory in his book, insisting he wrote the lyrics.

'I know there's an individual who was a conspiracy theorist and that just kept saying, well, Bon wrote these lyrics,' he writes in his memoir.

Johnson, 75, from north-east England, became the group's frontman in April 1980, just two months after the death of original singer Bon Scott (pictured in 1976)

In his memoir The Lives of Brian, the musician addresses a 'conspiracy' theory that he didn't write the lyrics to the songs on Back in Black, and instead used 'scribbles' left behind from 'one of [Scott's] notebooks before he died'. (Pictured: AC/DC in in Inglewood, California, in 1985)

'What band would let somebody else claim somebody else's lyrics? I mean, it's just absolute nonsense. 

'And that's why I put it in the book, to say for once and for all, those lyrics came from the end of my hand with a pen in it.'

He continues: 'There’s people out there, they just won’t believe what’s true. And I felt awful after putting it down, but it had just got on my nerves for so long.

'I still love listening to Bon’s fantastic lyrics, his double entendres, his funny little quips… I couldn't do that.'

'What band would let somebody else claim somebody else's lyrics? I mean, it's just absolute nonsense,' said Johnson (pictured in London in November 1980)

Johnson is promoting an autobiography of his early years called The Lives of Brian.

The new book tells the story of how he made a living fixing vinyl car roofs in the north-east of England before he got the call-up to AC/DC.

'I don't know what it is, I just never, ever sort of gave in,' he said recently from his home in Florida.

'I was always willing to give something a shot when more pessimistic people wouldn't have. I always thought the glass was half-full.' 

Johnson (pictured on stage with Angus Young in Los Angeles, California, on September 28, 2015) is promoting an autobiography of his early years called The Lives of Brian 

The new book tells the story of how Johnson (pictured in Inglewood, California, in 1985) made a living fixing vinyl car roofs in the north-east of England before he got the call-up to AC/DC 

In The Lives of Brian, Johnson goes chronologically through his ups and downs growing up near Newcastle, ending with him joining AC/DC and recording the band's seminal Back in Black album.

'It wasn't so much to validate my life,' he said of the book. 'It was to validate the lives of all the wonderful people that I met that helped shape my life - friends from school, friends at the factories, friends in the music.'

Johnson's memoir The Lives of Brian is out now.

The Lives of Brian is out now