Often, people, we work with become a part of our life and become really good friends, however, when you are working together in a band some might not work out and break up but others truly love each other and become family. And losing a friend or family is really heartbreaking.
This is what happened to the popular Australian rock band AC/DC. Back in 2017 the founding member, back vocalist, and rhythm guitarist of the band, Malcolm Young passed away because of the effects of dementia. And certainly, it broke other members’ hearts however, Malcolm’s death was more than heartbreaking for Angus who not only was Malcolm’s bandmate but his younger brother.
It seems that Angus was deeply affected by Malcolm’s death and in his new book “The Lives Of Brian,” the lead singer of the band Brian Johnson has written about it.
How Angus struggled with grief
As mentioned above, Malcolm was the founding member of AC/DC and often he is regarded as the main creative force of the band. Even the former drummer of the band, Simon Wright stated that Malcolm was the silent leader of their band. Furthermore, he was a really talented musician who contributed a lot to the music world as well as to his band.
Even though he was really talented musician, he was forced to leave the band in 2014 because of his health issues and got replaced by his nephew Stevie Young. Malcolm was supposed to get treatment for dementia but obviously, even after getting the treatment he could not recover and was eventually killed by the side effect of dementia on November 18, 2017, at the age of 64 years old.
Brian Johnson revealed after Malcolm’s death that the late guitarist was battling dementia for several years. Johnson said that the day Malcolm died was an awful day for them. He also wrote in his book how important of a role Malcolm played in the band to the point that he wrote the band’s heart stopped beating.
He also said that Malcolm was not only a really good musician but he was a great human as well. Johnson wrote that Malcolm would always pay attention to his crew and their performance, he would always make sure everything and everyone is okay.
Now just for a moment, let’s imagine how deeply Angus might have been hurt by his brother’s death. Brian was their bandmate who is like their family but Angus was with Malcolm since birth, they grew up together, struggled really hard, and they finally formed the band and rose to fame. They were together in each and every situation they were in from thick to thin. Even though they were not twins they had a very strong bond that could not be broken.
Brian knows about their struggle and how Angus struggled with the grief of losing his brother. Brian writes in his book, “He was just sixty-four when dementia that he’d been battling for years finally got the better of him. A truly awful day. When Malcolm left AC/DC in 2014, the heart of the band stopped beating.
To this day, I miss him more than I could ever put into words. He never missed a trick, from a band member’s performance to a crew member’s well-being. I don’t know how he did it. He had his demons, but he beat them, and he beat them good. His guitar playing was masterful. And behind that powerful sound, there was a subtlety that music critics could never understand.
Standing to his right onstage, I could only ever marvel at the man. But I kept my admiration to myself for the most part because he wasn’t the kind of guy who enjoyed taking a compliment. It was hard to see Angus struggle with such grief. He and Malcolm weren’t twins, but they could have been.”
