Have a Drink (of Wine) On Me

We don’t think we’re going out on a limb here when we say that AC/DC vocalist Brian Johnson wasn’t thinking about buying a nice fruity glass of Sauvignon Blanc for his mates when he wrote “Have a Drink On Me.” That just wouldn’t suit the AC/DC m.o. A pint of lager, or maybe a shot of whiskey? Definitely. Thus we’re left to wonder, why in hell’s bells has AC/DC put its name on a line of Australian wines.

Sure, we know now that record sales are in the shitter that certain bands (Warrant, Ratt, Whitesnake, KISS, etc) have slapped their name on some bulk plonk to squeeze a few bucks outta their fans. That’s fine for bands that have no shame or decent back catalog sales or self-respect. But when Motörhead and now AC/DC go down that path, we gotta wonder what the hell is up.

Though we have yet to taste either the Motörhead Shiraz (also from Australia) or any of the AC/DC wines—Back In Black Shiraz, You Shook Me All Night Long Moscato, Thunderstruck Chardonnay, Highway To Hell Cabernet Sauvignon, Hells Bells Sauvignon Blanc—we can bet that these have not been brought forth to cater to the fine-wine market. These are for fans, we suppose, who like to sip a Cab Sauv while banging to “Shoot to Thrill.” Uh yeah.

And Motörhead Shiraz and, even worse, a pink Shiraz Rosé? Maybe they couldn’t get Maker’s Mark Bourbon to let them have a signature line. Motörhead Vodka we get. Wine, not so much.

What we’d really like to see, of course, are more metal bands following Mastodon’s lead—beer!—with their newly released The Hunter Unfiltered Lager made by Mahr’s Bräu in Germany.

To sum up, let’s just say that Motörhead were on the right track when they covered this ZZ Top song back in ’75. ‘Cause, I mean, “Shiraz Rosé drinkers and hell raisers” just doesn’t have the same impact.