Axl ‘Proved Everyone Wrong’ With AC/DC Performances
Alice in Chains singer William DuVall has stated that critics of Axl Rose joining AC/DC were forced to “eat their words” after footage from his shows with the band appeared online. When it was announced that Axl was joining the band, fan reaction was largely negative. The fan site AC/DC Italia announced it was shutting down in protest, while AC/DC biographer Jesse Fink called it “the worst decision AC/DC has ever made. Fans are pretty disgusted… AC/DC is all about the money now.”
However, DuVall, who released the late Layne Staley as frontman of Alice in Chains, notes that the haters were proved wrong when they actually heard Axl singing for the group. “Before anybody had even heard anything, the court of public opinion was very loud and resounding in their judgments… pre-judgments,” he said. “And then [Axl] actually did his first shows [with AC/DC] and people started seeing things on YouTube or whatever, on videos, and most of them had to eat their words. And I was happy to see that a lot of the people were willing to say so in public, like, ‘I was wrong.’ You know what I mean? And [Axl] and I were joking about it. I was, like, ‘Yeah, man, it was really cool to see you shut all these people up. It was really nice.’ And I know a tiny bit about that.”
“But it’s cool, man. I mean, look… At the end of the day, bands are just these fragile organisms, and I can understand… to some degree, I understand both sides of a position on it. But when you get something that just works, it works. And you look at somebody like Axl, it works; I mean, it just does, to me. I get it – it’s not Brian Johnson, and neither one of them are Bon Scott, but in terms of vocal range and stuff and in terms of attitude, there are not many more people who can conjure the pissed-off quality that Axl Rose can, man. You know what I mean? He’s working some stuff out in those songs that we all know in GN’R, and so it’s only natural that when he’s gonna get to be in his favorite band, AC/DC, he’s not gonna mess around. He knows what the chatter’s gonna be, and he’s gonna do everything in his power to shut everybody up. So I just dug it from that perspective.
“Again, from my own personal experience, it’s very much a similar thing. It’s, like, well, you can say what you want, man, but I’m coming at you – period, end of story. And I’ll do it every night. And there’s gonna be no stopping me. Period. So it’s, like, I get it. And I liked seeing him walk that gauntlet and do it so well; it was awesome.”
DuVall isn’t the only one in Axl’s corner of late. Earlier this week, Beta Lebeis from Guns N’ Roses’ management company Team Brazil lashed out at Axl/DC haters, calling them a “disease.”