“Nice shirt!”
Andy Taylor greets Classic Rock with a cheery grin and a nod at this writer’s AC/DC t-shirt. He’s not just an avid AC/DC fan, he’s been friends with Brian Johnson for more than 40 years. Taylor might have aCV that reads like a Hollywood A-lister, but as a young kid from the windswept North Eastern coastal town of Cullercoats, playing the Working Men’s Clubs of Newcastle, their paths crossed frequently. Not only was Taylor in the room when Johnson broke the news to Geordie, the band he fronted, that he was leaving to join AC/DC, but it seems Johnson was also indirectly responsible for Taylor joining Duran Duran.
“He and I left Newcastle around the same time,” Taylor recalls. “Within weeks. And one of the last gigs he did in Newcastle, the band I was playing with was on the bill with him, and he had to borrow my PA because Geordie’s PA broke down. Whenever I see him he’s like: “Oh, bloody hell, remember leaving?” And I’m like: “Yeah, I remember you leaving”. And maybe that played a big part in me going and looking in the Melody Maker [musician ads]. It was only a few weeks after that I went to Birmingham to audition for Duran. I’m sure that had a lot to do with it.”
It’s a summer’s day, and we’re sitting in the blazing sunshine in the garden of Taylor’s rented accommodation deep in the heart of the Cotswolds countryside. The engaging Taylor is wearing ever-present shades, shorts and bucket hat. He’s 62 and terrific company, full of stories and bonhomie. In fact the only downside is the fact that he was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer in 2019, made public at Duran Duran’s Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction in 2022. Taylor is currently in the UK (home is in Ibiza) while he undergoes a new radiation
