Brian Johnson was forced to step away from AC/DC in 2016 due to issues related to hearing loss. He would rejoin the band in 2020 for their album Power Up, which served as a tribute to late guitarist Malcolm Young. Thanks to some new in-ear technology, Johnson was able to resume his singing duties with AC/DC. Johnson hasn’t really detailed how the in-ear technology works until now.
In a new interview with BBC Radio 6 Music, Johnson describes the in-ear monitors he uses, which were created by Stephen Ambrose. “It’s easy. It’s a tiny small little — a little sack. You put it in your ear. You don’t have to get it fitted,” says Johnson. “You put it in your ear, and there’s a little thing on the end, a little tube, and it’s a pump. And you press it, and it inflates, and it becomes an eardrum. And it uses the bones and the bones in the chin.”
He added, ” … But also, it can be fitted to Bluetooth, and you can hear. And you can hear 360 — globally, as they call it — and there’s no hissing. These regular hearing aids, they’re always hissing and dissing.”
Johnson mentioned the technology has already been deployed to other singers who have struggled with hearing loss, like k.d. Lang. He said, “She was gonna retire. We sent it out to her, and she started crying on the Zoom. And she’s back out on the road now.”
Johnson continued, “Huey Lewis needs it. A lot of people now, because it’s something new, it can be scary. But it isn’t. It’s just absolutely wonderful… We wanna get it out to the public to make it cheap enough so we can help people who are really deaf — in warzones and soldiers and guys who worked on aircraft and tank drivers.”