There are some things you don’t know you need until you get it. For rock fans, that might just be Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler fronting AC/DC at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame! The Aerosmith frontman took to the stage with the Aussie icons and sang their classic “You Shook Me All Night Long,” taking turns on the mic with Brian Johnson. This rock dream team hooked up in 2003, so the second classic lineup of AC/DC was all there, including the now late great Malcolm Young tearing it up on rhythm guitar.
Johnson took the opening verse, then Tyler sang the iconic chorus together with Johnson before taking the second verse. The Music Man can confirm that watching Tyler do the second verse and then rock together with Johnson on the chorus is guaranteed to put a smile on your face! Apart from how great he sounds, Tyler is just having so much fun that it’s infectious.
Steven Tyler and AC/DC teamed up for the collab in 2003, which was the year that the Aussie five-piece were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Fittingly, Tyler also inducted the band into the Hall of Fame with a speech that night. The Hall of Fame didn’t get around to uploading the video until 2023, although their HD upload of “You Shook Me All Night Long” subsequently gained 4.2 million views.
Fans were loving the surprise collab and added comments such as “You can tell they’re having a lot of fun! What a great duo. Their voices complement each other” and “There you have it. Arguably the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band of all time. Period.” Johnson also finds time to make some memorable guest appearances himself, such as when he fronted the Foo Fighters on the AC/DC hit “Back in Black”.
AC/DC released “You Shook Me All Night Long” on August 15, 1980, as the lead single of their seventh studio album Back in Black. The Music Man readers may recall that the release of the album found the band at a crossroads, having just hired Johnson to step in as vocalist after the tragic passing of the legendary Bon Scott on February 19, 1980. The release of “You Shook Me All Night Long” therefore marked Johnson’s debut single with AC/DC. The new lineup proved to be a hit, with the song going six times Platinum in the US and a whopping 10 times Platinum in Australia.
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