Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Malcolm Young, founding member of AC/DC, dies
Guiding force behind hard rock band had been suffering from dementia for several years.
NEW YORK — Malcolm Young, the rhythm guitarist and guiding force behind the bawdy hard rock band AC/DC who helped create such head-banging anthems as “Highway to Hell,” “Hells Bells” and “Back in Black,” has died. He was 64.
AC/DC announced the death Saturday on their official Facebook page and website. The posts did not say when or where Young died, but said the performer had been suffering from dementia. He was diagnosed in 2014.
“It is with deepest sorrow that we inform you of the death of Malcolm Young, beloved husband, father, grandfather and brother. Malcolm had been suffering from Dementia for several years and passed away peacefully with his family by his bedside,” one of the posts read.
The family posted a statement on the band’s website calling Young a “visionary who inspired many.”
While Young’s younger brother, Angus, the group’s school-uniform-wearing lead guitarist, was the public face of the band, Malcolm Young was its key writer and leader, the member the rest of the band watched for onstage changes and cutoffs.
AC/DC was remarkably consistent for over 40 years with its mix of driving hard rock, lusty lyrics and bluesy shuffles, selling over 200 million albums, surviving the loss of its first singer and creating one of the greatest rock records ever in “Back in Black,” the world’s second best-selling album behind Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
The Glasgow-born Young brothers — who moved to Sydney, Australia, with their parents, sister and five older brothers in 1963 — formed the band in 1973. They chose the name AC/DC from the back of a sewing machine owned by their sister, Margaret. They added Phil Rudd on drums in 1974 and Englishman Cliff Williams on bass three years later.
By 1980, the band, with singer Bon Scott out front, was on a roll. Their album “Highway To Hell” was certified gold in America and made it into the top 25 Billboard album charts, and the single “Touch Too Much” became their first UK Top 30 hit. But on Feb. 18, 1980, Scott died after an all-night drinking binge.
English vocalist Brian Johnson was brought on. The newly reconfigured group put out 1980’s “Back In Black,” with the songs “You Shook Me All Night Long,” “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution” and “Hells Bells.” The cover of the album was black, in honor of Scott’s death.
The band continued with a studio or live album every few years, blending their huge guitar riffs with rebellious and often sophomoric lyrics — song titles include “Big Balls,” “Beating Around the Bush,” “Let Me Put My Love Into You” and “Stiff Upper Lip.” AC/ DC won only a single Grammy Award, for best hard rock performance in 2009 for “War Machine.”
Rolling Stone said in 1980 that “the AC/DC sound is nothing more and nothing less than aggressively catchy song hooks brutalized by a revved-up boogie rhythm, Malcolm’s jackhammer riffing, Angus’ guitar histrionics and Johnson’s bloodcurdling bawl.”
In the book “The Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC” by Jesse Fink, Angus Young said the formula worked. “We’ve got the basic thing kids want,” he said. “They want to rock and that’s it. They want to be part of the band as a mass . ... If you can get the mass to react as a whole, then that’s the ideal thing. That’s what a lot of bands lack, and why the critics are wrong.”
In 2014, the band released “Rock or Bust,” the first AC/DC album without Malcolm. Even so, the 11 songs are credited to the Young brothers (Angus said he built the album from guitar hooks the two had accumulated over the years).
Around the time of the album’s release, Angus told The Associated Press that Malcolm was doing fine, but that he couldn’t perform anymore.
“It was progressing further, but he knew he couldn’t do it,” Angus Young said of his brother’s dementia. “He had continued as long as he could, still writing. But he said to me, “‘Keep it going.’ ”
“It is a sad day in rock and roll. Malcolm Young was my friend and the heart and soul of AC/DC,” Eddie Van Halen tweeted on Saturday. I had some of the best times of my life with him on our 1984 European tour.”