Malcolm Young’s tragic final tour with AC/DC: “He was relearning a lot of those songs that he knew backwards”
A roar goes up as the lights of Wembley dim. The hustle of London is left at the door, the crammed journey home is a problem for the future, and all that matters is the band about to take to the stage, rock legends for decades and still going: AC/DC. Their recent set at a sold-out Wembley Arena was a lot of fun as the hits were rolled out, fans had a great time, and great memories were made. That being said, it’s hard to miss the fact that something was missing.
On November 18th, 2017, AC/DC’s rhythm guitarist, Malcolm Young, passed away. He is often overlooked in the band, as it’s hard to stand out when your guitar-playing counterpart is the duck-walking hard-rocking Angus Young, but the fact of the matter is that AC/DC wouldn’t exist were it not for the musical genius of Malcolm.
He was arguably the greatest rhythm guitarist of all time. He had so much knowledge over melody that using few chords and simple structures, he could create rock music that was easy for people to dance to and get on board with. AC/DC was completely uncompromising in their approach to music; they were a hard rock band through and through, and yet their sound remains incredibly accessible to a wide audience because of how well Malcolm was able to incorporate rhythm and melody into everything he did.
It was a great tragedy when he died, and what was even more sad was the means by which he passed away. He suffered from dementia, an incredibly cruel disease, but especially so when your life has been dedicated to making music and forming special memories for people all around the world. It hardly seems fair that one of the men responsible for such positive memories should have his taken away.
Music never left him, though. Young wanted to perform up until the very end, regardless of how difficult that was, both for him and the people around him. “He was not well when we went to do [the 2008 album] Black Ice: his symptoms of dementia were starting then, and he got through it,” recalled Angus, “I had said to him, even before we did the album: ‘Are you sure you want to do this? I have to know that you really want to do it’. He was the one who said: ‘Yes! We’ve really got to do it’.”
This carried on into touring as well, “I said: ‘Are you going to be fit for this? Because it’s going to be a hefty tour’,” said Young, “And he said: ‘We’ll do it. We’ll do it’. That was how he was. It was hard work for him. He was relearning a lot of those songs that he knew backwards; the ones we were playing that night he’d be relearning.”
A combination of a love for music and a drive to deliver meant Malcolm kept going even when his symptoms were worsening. Even when they got to the point that performing was no longer an option and he was clearly in his final days, a love for music kept Malcolm and Angus interlinked, even if the memory of them being brothers had left Malcolm at that point.
“One of the last records I ever played him was The Rolling Stones when they were doing a lot of blues tracks,” said Angus, reflecting on some of their last moments together, “[2016’s Blue and Lonesome], he just thought it was great.”
