Why Malcolm Young said Guns N’ Roses “wasted” their potential
The fact that AC/DC are still going to this day, and that it took a death to separate brothers Angus and Malcolm Young from operating within the band without ever requiring a hiatus, is frankly a miracle.
Even though I can’t relate to ever having gone through the difficulty of growing up with another child in the same household, it surely can’t be easy being in a band with your sibling, given how much people continually state how much they squabble and bicker. You only need to look at how the Gallagher brothers took 15 years and a massive paycheck to get over their differences and reform Oasis to know that when siblings fall out, it’s going to take a lot to persuade them to get back together.
However, the Youngs in AC/DC appeared to be different, and the closeness with which they had been able to function was better than some bands without siblings in the lineup could manage. So many of the Australian rock band’s contemporaries have fallen apart due to rifts within the band, and these haven’t necessarily even been as a result of family members barneying with one another.
In 2003, while Malcolm was still alive and active within the band, he and Angus were interviewed by Guitar Player to break down the secrets of staying so close for decades on end. While many may have expected him to reveal that there were tense moments, it turns out that the relationship that they shared was perfect for the working environment that the band needed to create.
“We do have our ‘had enough’ days,” he revealed. “Particularly when the pressure is on, or if we’ve been working in the studio for a long time—you know, not sleeping and eating take-out food around the clock. But we’re not ones to stew for long.”
This may seem obvious to some, with this level of tension happening in all relationships, but for it to happen to a pair of brothers constantly in the limelight, it’s astounding.
However, despite the fact that he was confident that the band could go through any amount of friction and survive, he then declared that he thought it was an immense shame that several other bands weren’t able to see beyond their differences, naming one in particular that wasted their potential. “When we hear stories of what some bands go through, like Guns N’ Roses, for example, we think, ‘wow, what a waste.’ Those guys should just grow up, get back together, and get back out there.”
While Guns N’ Roses were a band filled with ego, AC/DC seemingly survived by never taking themselves too seriously, and it would presumably have survived based upon the fact that they were constantly trying to enjoy themselves rather than live up to a particular expectation. The Young brothers may not have fallen out much compared to members of other bands, or barely at all when compared to other siblings, and this is ultimately why the chemistry of the band managed to work for so long.
