DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP

AC/DC vocalist Brian Johnson has responded to the Bob Lefsetzs of the world’s complaints about the band making a deal to sell their new album, Black Ice, exclusively through Wal-Mart.

Unfortunately, Johnson’s response makes about as much sense as Sarah Palin’s response to the Troopergate report. After the jump, read Johnson’s comments, with our own thoughts in bold.

“Maybe I’m just being old-fashioned Yes you are, but go on, but this iTunes, God bless ’em, it’s going to kill music if they’re not careful. I mean, allowing the artists and labels to at least make a little money off of legal downloading in the digital age will most surely be the undoing of the entire industry. It’s a… monster, this thing. It just worries me. ‘The way Wal-Mart treats its employees and local, mom and pop owned businesses does not bother me.’ And I’m sure they’re just doing it all in the interest of making as much… cash as possible. ‘Not like Wal-Mart, our record label, or anyone else who just sells our music out of the goodness of their hearts.‘ Let’s put it this way, it’s certainly not for the… love, let’s get that out of the way, right away.

“A lot of people were saying ‘Ah man, you’re going to the big Wal-Mart, you’re selling out.’ Wal-Mart were the only big store to stock all of our albums, every single one of them, Even though no one has bought a copy of Stiff Upper Lip since the day it came out and they’ve never deviated. And they sold AC/DC shirts and pajamas for kids, which we thought was really cool. And has everything to do with the love of music and nothing to do with making cash.“

Sheesh. This is bullshit. Granted, it’s not the most offensive bullshit I’ve heard so far this week, but still… it is a fairly ridiculous crock of shit. I think I’d actually have more respect for Johnson if he just said “We thought there was more money to be made by going with Wal-Mart” rather than writing Wal-Mart’s hagiography.

-AR