On Tuesday, teasers went out for the 2023 edition of the Power Trip festival in Indio, California. According to The Scenestar, the Goldenvoice-produced three-day event will take place Friday, October 6 to Sunday, October 8 at the Empire Polo Club and will “feature legendary rock heavy performers from the 1970s and 1980s.”
AC/DC last performed live in 2016 with Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose standing in for singer Brian Johnson, who had been forced to leave the “Rock or Bust” tour due to hearing issues. Johnson did however return to the band to front their 2020 effort, “Power Up,” and the band was gearing up for live shows to support the album when the world shut down.
Johnson also would later appear live with Muse and as part of the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert in London.
The full Power Trip festival lineup is set to drop on Thursday at 7 a.m., however hard rock and metal legends AC/DC, Metallica, Iron Maiden and Ozzy Osbourne all shared a similar teaser video for this week’s announcement, with the logos of the four bands featured in each respective clip.
As part of a Web Is Jericho exclusive, audiologist Stephen Ambrose shared the story of how his breakthrough hearing technology helped Johnson rejoin AC/DC.
“The first time he came down he brought this thing that looked like a car battery,” Johnson later told Rolling Stone while promoting “Power Up.” “I went, ‘What in the hell is that?’ He said, ‘We’re going to miniaturize it.’ It took two-and-a-half years. He came down once a month. We’d sit there, and it was boring as shit with all these wires and computer screens and noises. But it was well worth it.”
Ambrose explained their initial testing. “The car battery he was referring to, I brought a lot of electronics with me, and I used this prototype that you see in the videos on our website,” Ambrose said. “It still exists after a decade. It’s just kind of a historic tool that has restored hope to so many different people. It was hooked up to a lot of different electronics.”
Ambrose laid out his gear on the table in the Johnsons’ breakfast room. “He and Brenda just sat there listening,” Ambrose said. “They don’t know me. Who knows if this is a scam or smoking mirrors? We’re sitting at the table, and Brian’s got these things in his head.”
Johnson started to tremble. “I swear Brenda shot me a glance, I thought she was gonna jump over the table and rip my head off if it didn’t work,” Ambrose said. That wasn’t the case.
“He just went, ‘It f*cking works!’ He knew at that point. Hearing is believing. We’re just doing it right.”
The similarly named Desert Trip festival was held in 2016 and featured legends like The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters and The Who. That event was reported as the most lucrative festival in American history, grossing $160 million.
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