After multiple setbacks — including the loss of co-founder Malcolm Young — AC/DC prepares to release its 17th studio album.
AC/DC’s 2015-2016 Rock or Bust tour was a bumpy one. Rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young had left the group to get treatment for dementia (he died in 2017) and was replaced by his nephew, Stevie Young, while drummer Phil Rudd was serving a home-detention sentence for methamphetamine possession and threatening to kill a former staff member. Before the trek finished, vocalist Brian Johnson left because of hearing problems (he was replaced for the last 22 shows by Axl Rose), and bassist Cliff Williams had announced his retirement.
That left lead guitarist (and Malcolm’s younger brother) Angus Young alone with “a lot of demos and ideas” he had recorded over the years with Malcolm in the latter’s home studio. “The two of us would get together and work so when one project was done, we were ready for the next one,” says Angus. Once he had sorted through enough material, he reached out to his former bandmates, and by August 2018 they were all together at The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver. Angus believes the reunion was inevitable: “I suppose [you] think, ‘Yes, we’re all going to hook up again at some point.’ ”