AC/DC‘s Angus Young has opened up on how he played music to his brother Malcolm, while visiting him in the later stages of his battle with dementia.
Malcolm, who founded the Australian band with Angus in 1973, died in November 2017, some three years after he was diagnosed with the neurological condition.
Speaking to NME, Angus described how music proved to be one of Malcolm’s greatest comforts as he lived out his final days in a Sydney care home.
“I’d play him a bit of guitar, andhe was happy whenever we were doing that,” Angus recalled of later visits to his older brother.
“One of the last records I ever played him was The Rolling Stones when they were doing a lot of old blues tracks (2016’s ‘Blue And Lonesome’) and he just thought it was great.”
Angus was speaking to NME to discuss the release of the band’s seventeenth album, ‘Power Up’ – which has been widely described as a tribute to Malcolm’s legacy.
“His death was a huge blow to us,” Angus said.
“But I still think he’s there when I’m playing. It sounds funny, but I can still feel him communicating to me when I’m playing guitar.”
Frontman Brian Johnson added: “With Malcolm, you’ve got to go back to the beginning when he turned to Angus and said, ‘’C’mon, we’ve got to start a band – there’s too much soft music around. I wanna play some rock’n’roll!’
“He was uncompromising in his ethic. If it wasn’t rock’n’roll, Malcolm didn’t care for it. He’s left us – but he’s still there! In the studio and in everything he did. We’re all very aware of that. When your target is to pay tribute to Malcolm, you just really want to do well and you don’t want to let anyone down.”
In the same interview, Brian also recalled a drunken trip with Malcolm to find the Loch Ness monster.
AC/DC’s next album, ‘Power Up’, arrives on November 13.