A recent interview with The Telegraph in the United Kingdom has AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson revealing the touching drive behind the past months of several exciting events for the band, including opening the 2015 Grammy Awards and headlining Coachella for the first time, releasing Rock or Bust and scheduling their first world tour in five years; Malcolm Young is their inspiration.
It has since been confirmed Young has battled lung cancer since 2008 and an unspecified heart condition for which he had a pacemaker inserted to help regulate the condition. However, in 2014, Young suffered a stroke leading to growing dementia and his leave from AC/DC.
Brother and fellow AC/DC guitarist Angus Young spoke to GMI Rock earlier in the year, assuring that timely and effective treatment has not brought him down physically, but mentally, the dementia has taken a hold. ‘I won’t be able to do it anymore,’ Angus remembers Malcolm telling him.
Most recently with The Telegraph, Johnson said; “[We have that impetus]to just do [the new music and tour] for [Malcolm] because you know before the dementia really took a hold of him he said ‘just get out and make music lads, just for me one more time.'”
Johnson continues, “I don’t want to be sentimental about this because, boy oh boy, I’m not a sentimental kind of guy. But that’s what we’re doing.”
Watch an exclusive interview below with Loudwire back in January for more on the absence of their band member. AC/DC headline Coachella again this weekend, then continue onto an immense tour– for Young- May 5th.
