AC/DC: This One’s For Malcolm Young
Angus Young, AC/DC’s lead guitarist, has spoken about how the band’s new album is a tribute to his brother, former rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young.
Malcolm Young was forced to leave the band due to ongoing dementia and other health issues back in 2014, but sadly passed away in 2017 at the age of 64. Young’s nephew Stevie replaced Malcolm as rhythm guitarist in the band.
In a video posted to the bands YouTube Angus said “I know Mal’s not with us anymore, but he’s there with us in spirit. This band was his baby, his life. He was always one [to say], ‘You keep going.’”
Brian Johnson adding “He would have been proud of this [album]”
Angus went on to say “His big line always, every now and again, he’d go, ‘If you’re a musician, it’s a bit like being on the Titanic. The band goes down with the ship.’ That’s how he viewed it.”
Malcolm will be credited as a writer of every track of the new album.
In a recent interview with Rock 100.5 Atlanta radio, Brian Johnson mentioned that although Malcolm won’t directly be on the album, some of his riff ideas probably made it in, saying “There’s a lot of rumours about Malcolm’s guitar playing being on the album, well, of course, that’s not true. But what is true is the fact that Angus and Malcolm had done riffs together all their life and really had a big box of them. And Angus said he basically just went through them all and he went, ‘Oh, that’s a good one. This is a good one.’ And he brought them out. So, it really is true that Malcolm is on there, basically, in spirit and all of that. And he’s such a strong character in life. And I think everybody in the band still felt, especially Angus, his brother, [that Malcolm] is in everything. We’re always conscious of that, that he’s watching over, ‘You’d better do it right. You’d better do it AC/DC style or just not do it at all.’ And the songs came in — Angus came in with ‘em and all, and worked with Brendan O’Brien, the producer, and I went into just a regular little control room, and we just went for it.”
You can check out the short clip here:
In a clip that was posted last week the band also showed off the deluxe edition of the album that lights up.