How Angus Young Coped After Malcolm Young’s Death
Guitarist Angus Young during a concert of the Australian hard rock band AC/DC and Axl Rose, leader of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, at Letnany airport. Prague, Czech Republic. 22nd May 2016 (Photo by Francesco Castaldo/Archivio Francesco Castaldo/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)
When a band member passes away, the band doesn’t only lose a musician, or a friend, but it can also lead to an overall change of their musical direction and sometimes when the missing position doesn’t get filled, it often leads to disbandment.
Though, that wasn’t the case for AC/DC. When Malcolm Young died, the band lost the man that is responsible for their sound. His Brother Angus Young admitted to Guitar Player in 1983, that Malcolm inspired him with his high standards and musical ideas.
Even if Angus found it unnecessary to spend so many hours coming up with a guitar solo, the guitarist revealed that Malcolm would ask him to redo his solos if he is not satisfied with them.
In a 1983 interview with Guitar Player, Angus revealed whether being brothers has an impact on how he and Malcolm play, he said:
“I don’t know about that. I think as brothers, you can shout each other down. You can go, ‘Hey, cut that out!’ So you’ve just got a good rapport. Malcolm does inspire me. He has very high standards in his way of playing and everything. He’s very musical-minded, but he can go to extremes, overindulgence.
“If we are in a studio and I have to do these things like solos, he’ll say, ‘I want this to rock like thunder,’ and you’ve got to make it rock. He says something like that, and you know exactly what he means.”
In many other statements, Angus praised his brother for his contributions to their sound as the band’s rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist, lyricist, and mastermind. Malcolm retired in 2014 due to dementia and three years after, the musician passed away from the effects of the disorder.
Following his death, Angus continued to share that his late brother made the sound of AC/DC and helped him be the face of the band. The challenge they were left with was to keep the AC/DC’s sound the way it was when Malcolm was still rocking with them.
AC/DC released their first record after Malcolm’s passing, Power Up, in 2020. It was their seventeenth album and their tribute to Malcolm. That year, Angus was the last member of the original line-up keeping the band’s legacy alive up until the present time.
