AC/DC “Likely” to Tour this Year

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AC/DC
According to a message posted to the auto racing website of eternally affable AC/DC vocalist Brian Johnson (PeekYou profile here), “it looks very likely” that the group will be “on the road again before the end of the year.”

You can see the original message as it was posted to Brian Johnson Racing here.

This is noteworthy news to fans of the band, as just a couple of months ago the group’s future seemed uncertain.

In April it was reported that AC/DC rhythm guitarist and co-founder, Malcolm Young (PeekYou profile here), was taking a break from the group due to poor health; which was also the reason the group’s previously announced 40th anniversary tour was put on hold back in February.

AC/DC was formed in 1973, in Sydney, Australia by Malcolm and kid brother Angus (PeekYou profile here), the group’s flamboyant and — to this day, even pushing 60 — schoolboy uniform clad lead guitarist. The Youngs emigrated to Australia in 1963 from Glasgow, Scotland.

AC/DC is one of the most successful rock and roll bands that has ever been, with each tour they do grossing in the hundreds of millions. Their 1980 release, Back in Black, is the second best-selling album of all-time, worldwide; behind (of course) Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

While songwriting credits are traditionally split between Malcolm, Angus, and the group’s lead vocalist — originally the late, great Bon Scott, who passed away in 1979, and then thereafter the throaty, Geordie falsetto shrieker, Johnson — Malcolm’s chunky, chugging riffs form the foundation for most of the band’s most classic songs.

A statement posted to the group’s Facebook back in April announced:

After forty years of life dedicated to AC/DC, guitarist and founding member Malcolm Young is taking a break from the band due to ill health. Malcolm would like to thank the group’s diehard legions of fans worldwide for their never-ending love and support.

In light of this news, AC/DC asks that Malcolm and his family’s privacy be respected during this time. The band will continue to make music.

While it’s difficult to conceive of the band creating new music without Malcolm, they have toured without him previously; enlisting Malcolm’s lookalike nephew, Stevie Young, to fill in for their 1988 tour; while Malcolm went off to rehab. It remains to be seen, of course, whether Stevie will be joining the group again this time around.