AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson says Bono's a cheap bastard

For a man who is barely coherent when he sings, Brian Johnson of AC/DC is making himself perfectly clear when it comes to outspoken do-gooders like Bono and Bob Geldof.

“When I was a working man I didn’t want to go to a concert for some bastard to talk down to me that I should be thinking of some kid in Africa,” he bluntly told the Herald Sun in Australia.
To be fair, Johnson is not railing against helping the less fortunate, it’s the grand gestures like worldwide benefit concerts and glittery telethons that grate on him.

“I’m sorry mate, do it yourself, spend some of your own money and get it done,” he added. “It just makes me angry. I become all tyrannical.”

Johnson insisted he gives on occasion but there’s one big difference between him and Bono: “I don’t tell everybody I’m doing it,” and better yet, “I don’t tell everybody they should give money — they can’t afford it.

AC/DC famously turned down a slot at 1985′s Live Aid, which he squarely calls a failure.

“Bob Geldof is a canny lad. He did what he thought was right at the time but it didn’t work,” he said, referring to the man behind Live Aid. “The money didn’t go to poor people. It makes me mad when people try to use politics or charity for publicity.”

Johnson’s comments comes as AC/DC prepares to set off next week on its first Australian tour in nine years after already travelling across many parts of the globe on its Black Ice world tour.

Its album of the same name, its first release in seven years, has sold about 6.7 million copies worldwide.

Johnson, 62, who took over as singer of the group in 1980 after Bon Scott died of alcohol poisoning, said he had no plans to retire.

“Of course I don’t want to retire,” he said. “But I’m telling you if the body or the voice packs in there’s nothing I can do. Pride is what it is. You don’t want to let yourself, the band or the fans down. I’ll go on as long as I can. “