Highway to … Hello, Boys! Meet the gay AC/DC tribute you never knew you needed

In the 1980s, bass player Chris Freeman was taught to hide the fact he was gay.

He was told by a record label they’d shield him from the media, making it clear he was to keep his sexuality quiet.

For years, he didn’t meet another openly gay musician, and concluded he was alone. Then, one day in the early ’90s, he responded to a newspaper ad looking for a queer bassist.

It was, he says, a time when luring gay men to be bashed was “very popular”, so he made sure his friends knew where he was going.

That meeting was with guitarist-vocalist Jon Ginoli, with whom Freeman would form pioneering gay punk band Pansy Division.

Within a year, the San Francisco-based quartet had signed to highly credible independent label Lookout! Records and were touring with Green Day.

Freeman says some of those shows were “dangerous”, but that confronting homophobic Green Day fans was worth it, as he’d never felt so free as a musician.

The 64-year-old has made sure to celebrate his queerness in every project since.

Case in point is GayC/DC, the queer AC/DC tribute act he formed in 2013, touring here this month.

The band’s aesthetic is high-camp, with Freeman assuming frontman duties and revelling in adapting AC/DC’s song titles and lyrics – Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap becomes Dirty Dudes Done Dirt Cheap.

The one thing they’ve always taken seriously, however, is the music.

“We knew we had to get that right,” says Freeman, who fell in love with AC/DC when he heard Let There Be Rock as a 16-year-old. “Because if anybody came to see us, the biggest criticism would be that they can’t do the music right.”

‘The one thing we have in common is that we’re pro-sex’

Though acknowledging GayC/DC’s novelty factor, Freeman says they’re not so much a tribute to Angus Young and co as they are a refresh.

“The tribute aspect is only in the music,” he says. “There’s no way we’re going to look like AC/DC. So what can we bring that’s different? We thought, what if AC/DC were a gay band all along? That’s where we’re going with it.

“The one thing we have in common is that we’re pro-sex,” he adds, smiling.

Given AC/DC’s status as one of music’s most macho bands, it’s perhaps unsurprising GayC/DC have faced taunts and threats from their intensely parochial fanbase, including some in Australia.

Freeman admits he’s nervous about the reception they’ll receive in AC/DC’s home country, but backs the power of their live show to win people over.

Not only does he promise a faithful representation of the band’s sound – lyrical twists aside – he also guarantees a feast for the eyes.

“You’re going to have costume changes, props, all sorts of craziness going on,” he says. “We throw everything out there to make sure everyone walks away going, ‘That was the best time I’ve had at a show in a very long time’.”

GayC/DC play Stay Gold, Melbourne, on February 21 and Mary’s Underground, Sydney, on February 27