World tour in September 2016, the band truly seemed to be done forever. Rhythm guitarist Malcolm Young was in the final throes of a battle with dementia that forced his retirement two years earlier, drummer Phil Rudd sat out the entire tour after being arrested by New Zealand authorities for “attempting to procure a murder, ” singer Brian Johnson missed the last 23 gigs due to hearing loss — with Axl Rose stepping in as a temporary replacement— and bassist Cliff Williams announced he’d simply had enough and decided to retire.
But during the past four years, guitarist Angus Young — the last member of the classic lineup still standing by the end of the tour — gradually put the shattered pieces of AC/DC back together, aided by a mysterious new hearing technology that restored Johnson’s singing voice and brought him back into the group.
Incarnation. (Malcolm Young died in 2017, and his nephew Stevie Young has been playing in his place since 2014) “It’s been a long, long road, ” says Angus on the phone from his home in Australia. “But it’s good that everyone came on board and we get to pump out a bit of new rock & roll for the world. At this time, with the pandemic, hopefully it gives people a few hours of toe-tapping enjoyment.”
Angus Young On Grief, Guitar And Getting Ac/dc Back Together For A 17th Album
The LP was recorded in late 2018 and early 2019, but Angus raided the AC/DC vault of unreleased songs before they began and every track is credited to Angus and Malcolm Young. “This record is pretty much a dedication to Malcolm, my brother, ” says Angus. “It’s a tribute for him like
, which was cut in the immediate aftermath of singer Bon Scott’s death 40 years ago. Brian Johnson was recruited shortly before
“It was pretty serious, ” he says by telephone from England. “I couldn’t hear the tone of the guitars at all. It was a horrible kind of deafness. I was literally getting by on muscle memory and mouth shapes. I was starting to really feel bad about the performances in front of the boys, in front of the audience. It was crippling. There’s nothing worse than standing there and not being sure.”
Guitarist Angus Young Of The Australian Band ?ac/dc? Performs During The Band?s First German Concert In Leipzig, Germany, 05 March 2009. All Concerts Of The Band?s German Tour Were Sold Out Within
Most fans had no clue what was happening, but it was painful for his band to watch up close. “He’d pull his in-ears out and just shake his head, ” says Williams via phone from his home in North Carolina. “He couldn’t pitch. He was having a real hard time.”
The band attempted to limp through the remaining dates on the tour, but Johnson’s doctors eventually interceded. “The docs said, ‘Deaf is deaf, son, '” he says. “Cliff and Angus didn’t want to be responsible for me damaging my ears any further. … Shit happens. At least it wasn’t terminal.”
With Brian unable to continue, the remaining members of the band faced a difficult choice. “Brian was running the risk of going deaf permanently, ” says Angus. “We had a few days to let everyone know the situation and get the message out. You don’t want people showing up and being disgruntled and finding out at the last minute.”
Ac/dc Reveal Band Lineup For Power Trip Fest: No Phil Rudd
Tour were postponed due to Johnson’s hearing issues. “Tomorrow’s show in Atlanta through Madison Square Garden in New York, NY in early April will be made up later in the year, ” it read, “likely with a guest vocalist.”
Those last five words sent shockwaves through the AC/DC fan community. The band hadn’t done a single gig without Johnson since the moment he joined in 1980, and the prospect of bringing in a new singer was almost unthinkable. And then a month later, they dropped an even bigger bomb.
“AC/DC band members would like to thank Brian Johnson for his contributions and dedication to the band throughout the years, ” read a press release. “We wish him all the best with his hearing issues and future ventures … Axl Rose has kindly offered his support to help us fulfill this commitment.”
Ac/dc's Guitarist Saves The Day During Dallas Show Marred By Missed Notes
Johnson wasn’t quoted in either of these press releases and rumors began to swirl that was unhappy with how the situation was handled. Three days later, he released his own statement. “I don’t believe the earlier press releases sufficiently set out what I wanted to say to our fans or the way in which I thought it should be presented, ” he wrote, before breaking down his health situation in great detail. “I am hoping that in time my hearing will improve and allow me to return to live concert performances. While the outcome is uncertain, my attitude is optimistic. Only time will tell.”
The decision to carry on without Johnson seemed a little callous to some fans, but Young insists that he had nothing but terrible options. “When you run through the different scenarios, none of them were the best options, ” he says. “You think, ‘Should we cancel?’ Then we’d have the other pieces, the legal stuff and whatnot. We got suggestions from management. ‘Maybe if you try put something together that you might get …’ There was a list of people that might fill in. Out of the blue, Axl Rose contacted and said he could help out, which was very good.
“I suppose we could have canceled, ” he continues. “But either way … when you look at all the options … it’s a tough decision all around.”
Ac/dc's Founder Member Malcolm Young Has Left The Band To Be Replaced By Nephew
Johnson avoided discussing the matter publicly in the immediate aftermath, but in 2019 he did briefly talk about it with Dan Rather. “It’s like being shot on the battlefield; it’s just your turn, ” he said. “I’ll be quite honest with you, I went in my office and buried my head in a bottle of whiskey, good whiskey.”
Johnson phrases it slightly differently today. “I didn’t feel too good myself about the whole thing, ” he says. “But that was then. With all bands and things, there are little bumps in the road.”
Tour. But Williams made it clear that that was his final stand. “To be quite frank, it was not an easy tour to finish, ” the bassist says. “I had some health issues that I won’t bore you with the details of. But I had stuff going on while I was on the road, terrible vertigo. For me, I just thought that it was my time.”
Why Ac/dc Should Hang It Up
They wrapped up with one last “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)” at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center on September 20th, 2016. As the final shots of the cannon died down, the band walked off into a very uncertain future. Stevie Young had done a stellar job throughout the whole run, and
Era drummer Chris Slade slid back into his old role with great ease once it became clear that Rudd couldn’t tour. But Axl Rose wasn’t a long-term solution to the lead-singer problem, and now they had no bass player.
Angus returned to Australia, took a long break and then began poring through an extensive backlog of unreleased songs he’d written over the years with Malcolm. The majority of them come from the period around
Ac/dc's Malcolm Young 'taking Break' Due To Illness; Band Vows To Continue
In 2008. “There was a lot of great song ideas from that time, ” he says. “At that time he said to me, ‘We’ll leave these songs for now. If we keep going, we’ll be overboard. We’ll get them on the next one.’ That always stuck with me. When I went through and listened to them, I said, ‘If I do anything in my life, I have to get these tracks down and get these tracks out.'”
The work paused in October 2017 when Angus and Malcolm’s older brother George Young, guitarist in legendary Australian rock band the Easybeats and producer of seven AC/DC records, died. Malcolm followed just three weeks later. “My brother George was a very big part of AC/DC, especially in our early years, ” says Angus. “George and Malcolm were always the two guys I relied on. It didn’t matter if we were in a studio or wherever, I always asked for their advice on whatever I was doing.”
The back-to-back losses were a devastating blow to Angus, but they also paved the way for his fractured band to begin coming back together when Brian Johnson, Cliff Williams, and Phil Rudd all traveled to Australia for Malcolm’s funeral. It was the first time that Angus had seen Rudd face-to-face since the
Ac/dc Thunderstruck Sheet Music For Snare Drum, Guitar, Drum Group, Bass Drum & More Instruments (mixed Ensemble)
“He just looked so good, ” says Angus. “He was there and in good shape. He was keeping himself well-together. He was getting therapy and sorting himself out. It was really good.”
The initial charges against the drummer seemed quite serious, but many of them were ultimately dropped and his sentence was a rather lenient eight-month period of home confinement. “I speak for all the boys with Phil, ” says Johnson. “We defend Phil to the hilt. What happened up there, that’s not the Phil we know. That was just something else. He’s really looking brilliant now and doing everything great.”
Johnson’s own situation was more complicated. Smoothing things over with Angus wasn’t going to mean much if his hearing problems remained an issue. But he
0 Response to "Acdc Guitar Band"
Posting Komentar