What has been implied over the last week has now been confirmed. Founding AC/DC member and guitarist Malcolm Young is suffering from dementia.
Young’s family has issued the following statement:
Malcolm is suffering from dementia and the family thanks you for respecting their privacy.
Last Wednesday, the band said that Young had retired from the band and, two days later, we heard that the cause was dementia and that Malcolm was now a resident of a nursing home. A source close to the situation said that he “has complete loss of short term memory.”
Malcolm’s family moved from their home in Scotland to Sydney, Australia when he was ten. He watched his older brother, George, reach stardom first as a member of the Easybeats and Malcolm followed in his musical footsteps playing in a local band called the Velvet Underground and, in November 1973, founded AC/DC with his brother Angus, singer Dave Evans, bassist Larry Von Kriedt and drummer Colin Burgess.
Less than a year later, Evans was let go and Bon Scott became a member of the band. They recorded their debut album, High Voltage, in 1974 and it was released in Australia in 1975 and internationally in 1976. The rest is history as AC/DC became one of the great rock and roll bands of the last fifty years.
Malcolm previously missed the band’s Blow Up Your Video World Tour during 1988 due to a drinking problem. His cousin Stevie filled in as he will now that Malcom has retired.
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