Of all the devastating career lows that threatened to disband AC/DC forever, the loss of vocalist Bon Scott was certainly the largest and most ubiquitous. However, the Australian rock ‘n’ rollers almost called it quits years earlier after the commercial failure of their third album, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. Faced with the very real potential of their record label dropping them, AC/DC were backed into a corner.
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On top of this mounting pressure, AC/DC was in the middle of a largely underwhelming tour through their native Australia. Their fans down under had begun to resent the band for focusing their efforts on entertaining their American and British crowds. When they finally did return home, Australia effectively gave AC/DC the cold shoulder. “I copped a lot of s*** for making them do it,” band manager Michael Browning told Classic Rock in 2022.
But Browning knew that the band was in desperate need of money, and the Australian tour was going to help provide that—regardless of whether the boys wanted to do it. Amidst catching flak from his clients, Browning was also fielding phone calls that made the band’s situation even more dire.
AC/DC’s Record Label Rejection Seemed to Refuel the Band
If Michael Browning was worried about how his band was going to make money during the Australian tour, then he must have been downright terrified following a phone call with Atlantic Records in the States. Atlantic wanted Browning to know they didn’t like Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, and they were considering dropping AC/DC from their roster. “That’s when things got really bad,” Browning said. Jerry Greenberg, the head of Atlantic’s New York division, actually did drop the band. But Phil Carson, head of the London branch, was able to convince Greenberg to change his mind. “I managed to claw it back in,” Carson recalled.
To a certain extent, AC/DC never cared about what their critics had to say. That contributed to their unique style and their defiant rock ‘n’ roll persona. But the threat of Atlantic dropping them over Dirty Deeds elicited a different response in the band. Rather than ignoring these complaints, they decided to lean into them. They weren’t just going to listen to the naysayers. They were going to prove them wrong.
“There was always a siege mentality about that band,” bassist Mark Evans told Classic Rock. “But once we all found out that Atlantic had knocked us back, the attitude was, ‘F*** them! Who the f*** do they think they are?’” The entire experience riled up the band so much that they had no choice but to put their absolute all into making their fourth album, Let There Be Rock.
Unfortunately, this passion didn’t exactly translate, at least in a chart-specific sense. Let There Be Rock peaked at a rather modest No. 154 on the Billboard 200. Still, AC/DC wasn’t going anywhere. And in the wake of Scott’s passing three years later, Atlantic’s criticism was nothing but a blip.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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