Foo Fighters covered “Back in Black” alongside AC/DC’s Brian Johnson as part of Global Citizen’s Vax Live: The Concert to Reunite the World.
“So considering that this is the first show [in front of an audience] that we’ve done in a year and a half — a long time — we thought that we would make this a special occasion for all of us,” Grohl told the audience at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium.
“So say you want to do something special, what do you do? Call a friend to come play with you, right? Why not call one of your good friends who happens to be a rock legend to come jam with you.”
The “Back in Black” performance also marked a return to the stage of sorts for Johnson, who has only intermittently appeared onstage over the past years after ear issues forced him to take leave from AC/DC in early 2016; Axl Rose filled in for the band’s remaining tour dates. While Johnson has since rejoined AC/DC for 2020’s Power Up, but he hasn’t performed live alongside his band mates since February 2016.
Johnson is among the musicians who appear in Grohl’s new documentary What Drives Us, an ode to van touring and an exploration into what motivates people pursue their rock dreams.
Foo Fighters also played their “All My Life,” “Everlong,” “Times Like These,” “My Hero” and “Best of You” at Vax Live, a concert that both encouraged Covid-19 vaccinations around the world as well as called for philanthropists to donate enough “dollars-for-doses” to vaccinate more than 27 million international healthcare workers. The concert also marked the first full-scale, Covid-complaint concert in the United States since the pandemic.