(Editor’s note: WebIsJericho writer B.J. Lisko has been working on material for a Brian Johnson-era AC/DC book. This previously untold story comes from those interviews, and due to the more timely nature of the subject matter is being released in two parts as a Web Is Jericho exclusive.)
In part 1: Singer Brian Johnson had to step away from AC/DC on the “Rock or Bust” tour due to hearing issues. Noted audiologist Stephen Ambrose posted a video telling Johnson, “Please don’t stop performing. Help is on the way.”
A trip to Florida: Brian Johnson got wind of audiologist Stephen Ambrose’s video plea which went viral shortly after it was posted. The two met not long after at Johnson’s Sarasota home. “When I first flew down there, I showed up at the door, and I said, ‘Look. Three minutes and I’m out of your hair. You will know whether or not this works for you in three minutes. If it can’t help you, I really don’t want to take any of your time.’ They were very gracious letting me into their home. He said, ‘Well, come in me son. Let’s go out to lunch.’ We have a very nice lunch. Then he goes, ‘You wanna hear some new tracks?’ I’m like, “Do you want me to set this stuff up? Do you want to try it?’ ‘Ahh, let’s go to dinner.’ ‘Let’s stay up all night drinking.’ (Laughs)”
Johnson showed Ambrose his home stereo system, a tube setup that Ambrose called “gorgeous,” but would send Johnson’s wife, Brenda, searching for solitude somewhere else in the house. “Brenda has to leave every time he cranks it up, because he has hearing impairment,” Ambrose said. “By the time it’s loud enough for him to enjoy, she’s gotta leave. There’s no place in the house for refuge.”
“I swear Brenda (Johnson) shot me a glance, I thought she was gonna jump over the table and rip my head off if it didn’t work … (Brian) just went, ‘It f*cking works!’ He knew at that point. Hearing is believing. We’re just doing it right.”
Audiologist Stephen Ambrose on AC/DC’s Brian Johnson testing the Ambrose Diaphonic Ear Lens (ADEL).
It’s not until late the following afternoon that Johnson finally sits down and tries out Ambrose’s invention. “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.”
Back in Amsterdam: “I put (the ADEL) in Brian’s ears, and he walks out on stage, and he nails the hardest song there is, ‘Back in Black,’ ” Ambrose continued about the band’s rehearsals in Amsterdam. “You can see the rest of the band. They’re like, ‘Pinch me.’ I forgot who it was, but somebody in the crew came over and said, ‘Don’t do anything. Don’t say anything. Don’t change anything.’ I didn’t say this out loud, but I’m thinking, ‘Who the f*ck are you?’ Ambrose continued with a laugh. “But I kept it together.”
Johnson gets through “Back in Black.” Then another song, and another. The mood starts to lighten a bit. “But, I didn’t realize it, at the time, they didn’t have enough experience with this to know what was working,” Ambrose said. “But they knew it was working, because a normal rehearsal, they would’ve been halfway through a song, then rip out the in-ears. Come over to the board. Try to fix it. Go back. They hadn’t been able to get through a rehearsal. You can understand this, if you were under the conditions that Brian was. I mean, it’s amazing he was able to proceed as long as he did at all.”
Things are working, and AC/DC is back. But the band and crew are about as tight-knit and closed off to outsiders as they come, so it’s not all high fives and backslaps just yet. “So all of the sudden, things are just working, and it might be this technology, But we’re not sure,” Ambrose said of the crew’s reaction. “Whatever it is, we’re gonna look at this real close, so don’t do anything yet. Don’t move while we check this out.”
Rehearsals only got better — and longer. “The next day, they do 17 songs,” Ambrose said. “The day after they do even more. Pretty soon it’s like, ‘We got this.’ After two weeks, they said, ‘We’re gonna do another week here, and we want you guys to leave, so we can find out if it happens without you. Are you hypnotizing the whole place? Let’s see if we can pull this off.’” Johnson was confident in Ambrose, and his bringing him to Amsterdam was proof. “I have to tell you, that Brian was under that kind of scrutiny, and he had brought me in,” Ambrose said. “And you don’t come onto a set like that with a band a crew that has toured together for decades. He brought me in and backed me up and he made this work. The science is sound. But it’s never gonna get out there unless somebody gets out there and gives it a chance and understands it and applies it. And he did. He’s part of this dream and success.”
Ambrose further explained the challenges Johnson faced prior to the ADEL. “If you listened to his mix in Amsterdam with normal hearing, before this, because his one ear was so totally dead on him, the mix had to be balanced for someone who had no hearing on one side. So if you listened to the mix with normal hearing, it wouldn’t sound right to you. Now, anybody can listen to his mix, because it’s a normal, two ear, no hearing loss mix. The ADEL hasn’t regrown what’s wrong with his ears, but they operate so differently, it functions as though he’s got two good ears.”
Word on the ADEL is spreading fast among music circles, and at the time of this interview, Ambrose said Asius Technologies is in negotiations to bring the product to a mass audience. With a past clientele that includes everyone from Stevie Wonder, Simon & Garfunkel, Steve Miller, Diana Ross, Rush and Kiss, it won’t be long before the ADEL is helping a lot more big name musicians and the audiences who love them.
“Our aim is to not only have musicians on stage using these, but to make them for the audience so you can have hearing protection that doesn’t ruin the way the concert sounds,” he said. “It’s one thing to be able to do something that is scientifically sound. It’s another thing to be able to do it for somebody like Brian. He’s just been such a beacon of encouragement and tolerance as well. A lot of the success is largely due to the real humanitarian side to Brian. When it first helped him, he saw how it could help everybody else. He called Joe Walsh, he called Roger Daltrey, he called everybody. Ultimately he wants to see this help children in third world countries, and have it be something that is affordable that everybody could be included in.”
AC/DC’s “Power Up” was released on November 13, 2020. It reached No. 1 in 21 countries. Like everything in 2020, AC/DC’s live show plans were unfortunately put on hold, but Ambrose’s breakthrough invention has AC/DC fans hopeful they will see the band on stage again soon and with Brian Johnson back in his rightful place behind the mic.
- Vince Neil Talks About Mötley Crüe Record He Hates - April 30, 2024
- Bruce Dickinson Blasts Fan From Stage - April 29, 2024
- Sum 41 Frontman Reveals Why Band Is Ending - April 27, 2024
