AC/DC’s new album announced earlier this week came with a footnote.
Part of the ‘Rock or Bust’ album announcement came the statement, “Earlier this year AC/DC released a statement explaining that due to illness, Malcolm would be taking a break from the band. Unfortunately due to the nature of Malcolm’s illness, he will not be re-joining the band.”
AAP reports that 61-year old Malcolm has moved full-time into an aged care home in Sydney and is suffering from dementia.
The home in the exclusive Sydney suburb of Elizabeth Bay is also where former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam is living out his years.
Malcolm Young started AC/DC with his brother Angus in Sydney in 1973. He was 20, Angus was 18. Malcolm Young has been permanently replaced by his nephew Stevie Young, who is only four years his junior. Stevie is the son of Malcolm and Angus’ oldest brother Stephen who migrated to Australia with their parents William and Margaret in 1963 but returned to Scotland in 1970.
Stevie had his own band Starfighters in Scotland in the early 80s. The band supported AC/DC on the Back In Black tour in the UK in 1980. In April 2014 Stevie reformed with his Starfighters bandmate Pat Hambly and performed as a blues trio with Martin Wood called Blue Murda.
Stevie has a son, Angus Young, named after his famous great-uncle. Like great-uncle Angus, the younger Angus Young is also a guitarist and has played in his dad’s band.
The AC/DC album ‘Rock Or Bust’ will be released late November. The first single is titled ‘Play Ball’. It will premiere on the Major League Baseball playoff on TBS.
AC/DC have confirmed a world tour for 2015.
