Jet Singer Nic Cester Recalls Auditioning To Replace AC/DC Legend Brian Johnson

While enjoying a promising career thanks to his time with the Australian band Jet, Nic Cester helped the group release hit songs like “Are You Gonna Be My Girl.” Besides being a member of Jet, Cester once auditioned for the legendary rock band AC/DC. Given the struggles Brian Johnson went through at the time due to hearing issues, the band needed a singer. And it just so happened, they ended up calling Cester. And according to the singer, the interview process was anything but normal. 

Speaking with the Australian radio station Triple J, Cester recalled discussing AC/DC the day he received the phone call. “I was staying with my in-laws and I got up in the morning and read the paper and it said that Brian Johnson was not in the band anymore. I remember saying to my father-in-law, ‘Holy shit, you would not want to step into those shoes,’ and literally 20 minutes later my phone rang and they’re saying, ‘Would you be interested in going to Atlanta, Georgia to audition and potentially fill in for this next round of dates that we’ve got?’”

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Given the fame that surrounded the group at the time, Cester wasn’t about to let the opportunity slip through his fingers. So, he eventually found himself in front of AC/DC. “They were in the Black Crowes’ rehearsal studio and it was a tiny place but they were set up there with the enormous backline and I remember watching AC/DC and thinking, ‘There’s no way all of those amps are on.’ Let me tell you, they were all fucking on! It was the loudest thing I’d ever heard in my entire life.”  

Angus Young Tested Nic Cester To The Limit

As for the audition process, Cester recalled his interaction with Angus Young. “Angus [Young] put me through my paces. Everything was a test to see how I’d handle it – the volume and him going, ‘OK, let’s do this song’, and I didn’t know [some of them] off the top of my head so he’d just go, ‘Go over there and learn it’ and the whole band would be waiting there for ten minutes and I’m just going, ‘Oh fuck’. It was pretty intense, but I realize now Angus was a super professional guy and he wanted to push me to my absolute limit to see how I would react.”

While not believing he would end up in AC/DC, Cester enjoyed the audition process, insisting, “I was like, ‘I think I’ll say yes just for the life experience.’ I wasn’t really expecting to get the gig to be honest but I thought, ‘How could I turn this opportunity down?’”

Outside of AC/DC, it appears that Jet is currently working on its first album since 2009. “We’re so excited to tell you that after 15 years, we’ve started work on a new album due for release in 2025!”

(Photo by Jamie McCarthy/WireImage)