AC/DC

• 1. Introduction

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  AC/DC is an Australian rock band, and its name began as a label on a household appliance. When Malcolm and Angus Young were hunting for a name, their sister Margaret pointed to a symbol printed on the AC adapter of her sewing machine. A.C./D.C. is shorthand for alternating current and direct current, the two kinds of electricity. The brothers felt it captured the raw energy and power-driven attack of their music. Fans pronounce it one letter at a time, though in Australia the band is colloquially known as Acca Dacca. So how does a group named after a power symbol become one of the best-selling acts in history? What happens to a band when its original singer dies just as success arrives? And how does a group built around two brothers keep going when one of them can no longer play?

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• 2. Pub Rock Beginnings

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  The Easybeats and the Masters Apprentices were two Australian groups of the 1960s that tried to win fans overseas and mostly failed. Several of them disbanded after returning home. By the early to mid 1970s, a new generation had developed a harder blues rock style known as pub rock, while Sherbet and Skyhooks played mainstream pop or glam.

  In November 1973, Malcolm and Angus formed the band in Sydney with drummer Colin Burgess of the Masters Apprentices, bass guitarist Larry Van Kriedt and vocalist Dave Evans. Evans had answered an advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald, and Angus joined after passing an audition. Malcolm and Evans had already spent two years together in a Newcastle band called Velvet Underground, no relation to the American group.

  The first official gig took place at Chequers nightclub in Sydney on the 31st of December 1973. For about eighteen months, most of the band wore glam or satin outfits. Angus tried costumes including Zorro, a gorilla and Superman. Their sets leaned on covers of the Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry and the Beatles, with a few original songs mixed in.

  Margaret had a second contribution. In April 1974, at Victoria Park in Sydney, Angus first wore the school uniform that became his trademark. It was her idea, and he played a boy "straight from school to play his guitar."

  In January 1974, the group recorded a session at EMI Studios in Sydney with the producers Vanda & Young. These were Harry Vanda and George Young, both formerly of the Easybeats, and George was the older brother of Malcolm and Angus. Songs from that session included "Can I Sit Next to You, Girl" and an early version of "Rock 'n' Roll Singer". A week later, Burgess was fired after he was found unconscious during a performance. Van Kriedt was replaced soon after, and George re-recorded his bass lines. The next pair, Neil Smith on bass and Noel Taylor on drums, lasted only six weeks before Rob Bailey and Peter Clack took over.

  The band signed with Albert Productions in June 1974. Its first single, "Can I Sit Next to You, Girl", came out on the 22nd of July 1974 and reached the top 50 on Australia's Kent Music Report chart. In August, a live reputation earned them a supporting slot on Lou Reed's national tour. During that tour, Malcolm moved to rhythm guitar and left Angus on lead, the roles they kept from then on.

  On Michael Chugg's recommendation, the Melbourne promoter Michael Browning booked them at his club, the Hard Rock Cafe. He disliked the glam look and thought Evans was the wrong singer, yet he admired the brothers' guitar playing. Weeks later, Malcolm phoned him with bad news. Their first manager, Denis Loughlin of Sherbet, had quit, leaving the group stranded in Adelaide without money. Loughlin had also clashed with Evans, and had sometimes sung in his place on stage. The band hired Browning as manager in November 1974, with the blessing of George and Vanda. They dropped glam, chose the pub rock sound, and agreed that Evans had to go.

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• 3. Bon Scott Years

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  On the 5th of October 1974, Bon Scott sang his first concert with AC/DC at the Masonic Hall in Brighton-Le-Sands, New South Wales. He had been in the Valentines and then Fraternity, and his former bandmate Vince Lovegrove introduced him to George Young during an Adelaide stopover that August. Scott first worked as the group's chauffeur, and an audition then promoted him to lead singer. Like the Young brothers, he was born in Scotland, emigrated to Australia as a child and loved the blues. He also had experience as a songwriter and drummer. The music journalist Ian McFarlane wrote that with Scott, the band's "working-class style, boogie-rock sound and earthy humour fell into place."

  The debut album, High Voltage, was recorded in November 1974 at Albert Studios in Sydney, with Vanda & Young producing. Sessions took ten days and built on instrumentals by the brothers, with Scott adding lyrics. The session drummer Tony Currenti played on most tracks, and George handled some of the bass. Bailey and Clack were fired in January 1975, after a string of short-lived replacements. That same month, Phil Rudd of Buster Brown joined on drums. Mark Evans took the bass in March, and that lineup held for two years.

  They had been booked to play the 1975 Sunbury Pop music festival in January. They went home without performing after a physical altercation with the management and crew of the headliners, Deep Purple. High Voltage came out on the 17th of February 1975, in Australasia only, and reached the top 20 in Australia. A second album, T.N.T., peaked at number two there. Its single "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" reached the top ten, helped by a promotional video for the television show Countdown. The band mimed the song on the back of a flatbed truck. The title track's lyric "so lock up your daughter" later gave its name to their first United Kingdom tour.

  Browning had sent promotional material to London, and it reached Phil Carson of Atlantic Records. AC/DC signed an international deal with Atlantic in 1976. On arrival in London that April, their planned tour with Back Street Crawler collapsed because that group's guitarist, Paul Kossoff, had died. The band played small venues until the label organised the Lock Up Your Daughters tour, sponsored by Sounds magazine, from June 1976. Punk was taking over the British music weeklies, and the press sometimes lumped AC/DC in with it. The band despised punk and thought it a passing fad. Browning said the subject could not even be raised without angering them.

  An international album also titled High Voltage came out in May 1976, mixing tracks from the first two Australian records. It eventually sold over three million copies in the United States by 2005. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap followed in late 1976 in separate Australian and European versions, and it did not reach North America until the 2nd of April 1981. After a short Swedish tour, the band set new attendance records during a residency at London's Marquee.

  In early 1977, AC/DC toured Europe with Black Sabbath. Scott and Ozzy Osbourne quickly became friends, but relations between the other members were cooler. In Sweden in April, Geezer Butler allegedly pulled a switchblade on Malcolm. Accounts differ, but AC/DC were removed from the rest of the tour. In May 1977, Mark Evans was fired over musical differences and clashes with Angus. Cliff Williams, formerly of the British bands Home and Bandit, replaced him. Scott explained that Williams was more experienced, and Malcolm wanted a bassist who could also sing backing vocals.

  American radio first played the band in 1975, through Bill Bartlett at a Jacksonville station. They played their first American concert on the 27th of July 1977 in Austin, Texas, supporting the Canadian group Moxy. Through the booking agent Doug Thaler and the management firm Leber-Krebs, they reached the American stadium circuit, opening for Ted Nugent, Aerosmith, Kiss, Styx, UFO and Blue Oyster Cult. They co-headlined with Cheap Trick. Powerage appeared on the 5th of May 1978, and a Glasgow show from that tour became the live album If You Want Blood You've Got It.

  Then came Highway to Hell, produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange and issued on the 27th of July 1979. Its lyrics moved away from the flippant and comical toward core rock themes, with more emphasis on backing vocals. It peaked at number 17 on the Billboard 200 and carried AC/DC into the top ranks of hard rock acts.

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• 4. Back in Black

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  On the 18th of February 1980, Bon Scott passed out in a car driven by his friend Alistair Kinnear, after a night of drinking at The Music Machine in Camden Town, London. The band had just begun work on its seventh album, with Scott at the drums rather than at the microphone. According to police, Kinnear left Scott in the car overnight to sleep it off. By the early evening of the 19th of February, Kinnear could not wake him. He rushed Scott to King's College Hospital in Camberwell, where Scott was pronounced dead on arrival. The official cause was acute alcohol poisoning. His family buried him in Fremantle, Western Australia, where they had settled after emigrating when he was a boy.

  The surviving members briefly considered quitting. Scott's parents told them he would have wanted them to carry on, so they began looking for a new singer. The press floated Allan Fryer of Fat Lip, Gary Pickford-Hopkins, and Stevie Wright of the Easybeats. The band itself considered Buzz Shearman, who could not join because of voice problems, as well as Noddy Holder of Slade and Terry Slesser.

  Brian Johnson, formerly of Geordie, impressed the group at his audition. He sang Ike & Tina Turner's "Nutbush City Limits" and then "Whole Lotta Rosie" from Let There Be Rock. After the remaining applicants had been heard over the following days, he was called back for a second audition. Angus later recalled that Scott himself had praised Johnson's singing.

  On the 29th of March 1980, Malcolm offered Johnson a place in the band, to the singer's great surprise. The group wanted someone who would not imitate Scott. Besides his voice, they liked Johnson's demeanour, his love of classic soul and blues, and his engaging personality. He was officially announced as lead singer on the 1st of April.

  With Johnson, the band finished the songs that Scott had started for Back in Black. They recorded at Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas a few months after Scott's death, with Lange producing and Tony Platt recording. The singles were "Hells Bells", "You Shook Me All Night Long", "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" and the title track. The album reached number one in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and France. In the United States it peaked at number four and spent 612 weeks on the Billboard 200.

  The theatrical concert film AC/DC: Let There Be Rock, shot in Paris on the 9th of December 1979, was released on the 1st of September 1980. Eric Dionysius and Eric Mistler produced and directed it. A year later, on the 23rd of November 1981, For Those About to Rock We Salute You arrived. Reviews were mixed, but it became the band's first number-one album on the Billboard 200.

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• 5. Lean Years and Comeback

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  Flick of the Switch, released in 1983, was the first album the band produced themselves rather than with Lange. It aimed for the rawness of their early records, but critics found it underdeveloped. One said they "had made the same album nine times." It still reached number four in the United Kingdom, and "Guns for Hire" climbed to number 84 on the Billboard Hot 100.

  Phil Rudd, who had long struggled with drugs and alcohol, saw his friendship with Malcolm decay until it ended in a physical confrontation. He was fired partway through the sessions in mid-1983. Simon Wright, formerly of A II Z, replaced him in July after more than 700 auditions in the United States and Britain. Simon Kirke and Paul Thompson were among the drummers who tried out.

  Fly on the Wall, produced by the Young brothers in 1985, was also judged uninspired. Its concept video put the band in a bar, playing five of the album's ten songs. In 1986, the radio-ready "Who Made Who" reached number nine in Australia and number 16 in the United Kingdom. It came from a soundtrack to Stephen King's film Maximum Overdrive, which mixed older hits with a few new songs and two instrumentals, "D.T." and "Chase the Ace".

  Blow Up Your Video came out in 1988, recorded at Studio Miraval in Le Val, France, with Vanda & Young producing. The group recorded nineteen songs and chose ten. Critics later complained of filler, yet the record reached number two in the United Kingdom and Australia, the band's best showing since Back in Black. "Heatseeker" was its top-five Australian single. That year, Malcolm stepped away from the North American tour dates to deal with his alcoholism, and Stevie Young, his nephew, filled in. In 1989, Wright left to join Dio, and Chris Slade, who had played with Gary Moore, took the drum stool. Johnson was tied up finalising his divorce, so the brothers wrote every song for the next album. They kept that practice through Power Up in 2020.

  The Razors Edge, recorded in Vancouver with the producer Bruce Fairbairn, appeared on the 24th of September 1990. Fairbairn had previously worked with Aerosmith and Bon Jovi, and Mike Fraser mixed and engineered. The album reached the top three in Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Switzerland and the United States. "Thunderstruck" was the lead single, and "Moneytalks" peaked at number 23 on the Billboard Hot 100. By 2006, it was certified 5x Platinum in the United States.

  Tragedy struck on the Razors Edge World Tour. On the 18th of January 1991 at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, three fans were crushed and killed as the show began. It took 26 minutes for venue security and the band to grasp the severity and halt the concert. AC/DC settled out of court with the victims' families. In September 1991, they played the Monsters of Rock festival in Moscow before 1.6 million people. It was the first open-air rock concert in the former Soviet Union.

  "Big Gun," written for the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Last Action Hero, became the band's first number one on the US Mainstream Rock chart in 1993. A beat 'em up game for the Atari Jaguar CD was proposed in 1994, but production never started. That year the brothers invited Rudd to jam sessions, and he was rehired when Slade resigned. Ballbreaker, released on the 22nd of September 1995, reached number one in Australia, Sweden and Switzerland. Stiff Upper Lip followed in 2000, produced by George Young, and critics found it better received than Ballbreaker yet short on new ideas. Its title track held the top of the US Mainstream Rock chart for four weeks.

  On the 30th of July 2003, AC/DC played the Molson Canadian Rocks benefit in Toronto, supporting the Rolling Stones. It aided a tourism industry hurt by the SARS outbreak. The audience of 450,000 set a record for the largest paid music event in Canadian history.

  Black Ice reached Australian shops on the 18th of October 2008 and the rest of the world two days later. Brendan O'Brien produced it, and it was the band's first studio work in eight years. In the United States it was sold exclusively at Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and the band's official website. It reached number one in 29 countries, including Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Black Ice World Tour opened on the 28th of October 2008 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Over 20 months it visited 108 cities in more than 28 countries and drew an estimated 4.9 million people, ending in Bilbao, Spain. In 2009, Business Review Weekly named the band Australia's top entertainment earner, at 105 million dollars. That pushed the Wiggles out of first place for the first time in four years.

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• 6. Loss and Return

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  Malcolm Young's last show with the band had been in Bilbao on the 28th of June 2010. After the tour, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. It was caught at an early stage, and surgery removed the cancerous tissue. He also had an unspecified heart problem and was fitted with a pacemaker.

  In April 2014, Malcolm became seriously ill and could no longer perform, and fans wondered whether the group would break up. Brian Johnson said the band would return to Vancouver to record its sixteenth album, Rock or Bust. By July, recording was done, with Stevie Young standing in for Malcolm in the studio. On the 23rd of September 2014, members confirmed that Malcolm had officially retired from performing. Rock or Bust, with eleven tracks, came out on the 28th of November. It was the first AC/DC album recorded without Malcolm, though all its compositions were credited to Angus and Malcolm. It reached number one in Australia, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom.

  On the 6th of November 2014, police raided Phil Rudd's home. He was charged with threatening to kill and with possessing methamphetamine and cannabis. The band said the Rock or Bust tour would go ahead but did not say whether Rudd would take part. At a charity signing before the Grammy Awards, the group was photographed with Chris Slade, who was confirmed as back for the Grammys and the tour. Rudd pleaded guilty in April 2015. On the 9th of July 2015, he was sentenced to eight months of home detention.

  On the 7th of March 2016, the band announced that the final ten dates of the tour would be rescheduled. Johnson's doctors had ordered him to stop touring at once, since he risked total deafness. On the 16th of April 2016, Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses was named lead vocalist for the remaining dates. In an interview on the 8th of July 2016, Cliff Williams said he would step back from touring and recording after the tour. Listing the loss of Malcolm, the trouble with Rudd and the situation with Johnson, he said, "it's a changed animal." His last show before the hiatus was in Philadelphia on the 20th of September 2016.

  George Young died on the 22nd of October 2017, aged 70. Malcolm died on the 18th of November 2017 at the age of 64, from dementia.

  In August 2018, a fan living near The Warehouse Studio in Vancouver claimed to see Johnson and Rudd outside the studio from an apartment window. Later, a photograph surfaced of Johnson with Williams in the gym of the Living Shangri-La hotel in Vancouver, taken in December 2018. On the 30th of September 2020, AC/DC confirmed that Johnson, Rudd and Williams were back alongside Angus and Stevie. On the 1st of October, the band released a snippet of "Shot in the Dark". The album Power Up arrived on the 13th of November 2020. It had been recorded in August and September 2018 at The Warehouse Studio, with Brendan O'Brien producing and some tweaking in Los Angeles in 2019.

  On the 2nd of October 2023, the band opened the High Voltage Dive Bar at Club 5 Bar in Indio. Five days later, they co-headlined the Power Trip festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, their first show in seven years. Williams came out of retirement for it. The drummer Matt Laug, who had previously played with Slash's Snakepit and Alice Cooper, replaced Rudd. On the 16th of December 2023, founding drummer Colin Burgess died, aged 78.

  On the 6th of February 2024, a teaser showed the lightning bolt flickering before the words "Are You Ready". On the 12th of February, the Power Up Tour was announced, with Chris Chaney, formerly of Jane's Addiction, on bass in place of Williams. Both Rudd and Williams remain official members. The European leg ran from the 17th of May to the 17th of August 2024, with the Pretty Reckless supporting at all twenty-four shows. On the 2nd of December 2024, a North American leg of thirteen shows was announced. On the 23rd of June 2025, five Australian dates were added for November and December, with Amyl and the Sniffers opening and a show at the BP Adelaide Grand Final.

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• 7. Sound and Style

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  Harry Vanda said he wanted to "recreate the real Australian pub sound" and rejected the smooth, polished American approach. Australian pub rock had been pioneered by Lobby Loyde of Billy Thorpe's early 1970s group, the Aztecs. Vanda observed that pub crowds demanded blood. The critic Ed Nimmervoll argued that Australian rock was defined by music built to be played live, getting down to basics with a minimum of distraction.

  Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described "dirty" guitar riffs, "snarling" singing and "catchy, anthemic" hooks. He placed the band among the defining hard rock acts of the 1970s, a reaction to the excesses of art rock and arena rock. In his view, despite the huge guitar chords, there was a "clear sense of space and restraint."

  David Marchese of Vulture broke the sound into parts. The drummer, whether Rudd, Wright or Slade, hits the kick drum on the first and third beats and the snare on the second and fourth. Williams down-picks a steady eighth note on bass. Angus plays lead lines with a clear architecture and a half-demented swing. Malcolm's rhythm guitar adds what Marchese called "little chuks, stutters, and silences that give the monstrous riffs life."

  For most of his time in the band, Malcolm recorded his rhythm guitar through a Marshall Super Bass head. Chris Gill of Guitar World said it gave him a tone that was clean but as loud as possible, riding the edge of power amp distortion. It can be heard on "Let There Be Rock", "Dirty Deeds", "For Those About to Rock" and "Thunderstruck". From 1978 to 1980, he used a Marshall 2203 100-watt head. Gill suspected it made Powerage and Back in Black sound slightly more distorted and dark.

  Robert Christgau compared the two singers. Scott had a "blokelike croak" and charm, singing about sexual aggression as though it were fun. Johnson had "three times the range and wattage" and an anthemic grandiosity that suited the band's rising status.

  Critics argue over the label. The music has been called hard rock, blues rock and heavy metal, yet the band calls itself "a rock and roll band, nothing more, nothing less." Tim Jonze wrote in The Guardian that for some listeners, calling AC/DC heavy metal is an act of treachery. The music academic Robert McParland noted that their songs rest on plain major and minor power chords rather than the modal writing common in metal. Their sound is crisp and loud, not muddy or down-tuned. The journalist Joe S. Harrington heard Back in Black borrowing the high-energy feel of punk and turning their songs into more pop-oriented blasts.

  Malcolm credited relentless work for the toughness. The band once played up to four gigs a day, and he said "The training ground was Melbourne." Their influences included the Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, Billy Thorpe, the Easybeats and Vanda & Young. George had taught both brothers guitar and played them classic rock and roll and blues records until the music was like blood in their veins.

  Angus recalled that George urged him to make it obvious on stage that he was doing something. A shy young guitarist, Angus pushed himself forward, and at first much of his movement came from nerves. When patrons threw beer cans, he told himself to "just keep moving." That became the habit that defined his stage act.

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• 8. Legacy and Critics

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  Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave remembered the arrival of Back in Black in an era when disco was huge and punk and new wave were rising. In his telling, the record "put hard rock music back on the throne." AC/DC were also a formative influence on the new wave of British heavy metal, including Saxon and Def Leppard. Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, Josh Homme, Dave Grohl, Scott Ian of Anthrax and Dexter Holland of the Offspring have all cited them as an influence. At home, Rose Tattoo and the Angels followed in their footsteps. Chrissy Amphlett of the Divinyls said Angus's schoolboy outfit inspired her own schoolgirl uniform on stage.

  Gene Simmons of Kiss said many bands look and act alike, but "Nobody's like them." Slash of Guns N' Roses called them, with the exception of the Rolling Stones, "the greatest rock 'n' roll band ever." Nick Cave remembered watching them on Countdown as a riot, absolutely unique and never taking themselves too seriously. In his memory, Bon Scott once appeared on the show dressed as a schoolgirl.

  Not everyone applauded. In the 1980s, AC/DC were caught up in the Satanic panic, a fear of hard rock and heavy metal. It grew sharper when the serial killer Richard Ramirez, nicknamed the "Night Stalker" by the press, was arrested. Ramirez told police that "Night Prowler" from Highway to Hell had driven him to murder. Police also claimed he wore an AC/DC shirt and left an AC/DC hat at a crime scene. Some newspapers concluded the name stood for Anti-Christ or Devil's Children.

  In 2014, Vice put the band on its list of the 123 worst musicians of all time. It joked that rock was the one place where a person could be a "professional 12-year-old" for forty years.

  The lyrics draw the sharpest complaints. Critics have called them simplistic, monotonous, deliberately lowbrow and sexist. Marchese wrote of a deep strain of misogyny in the band's output, whoever the lyricist. Christgau argued in 1988 that sexism has never held back a great rock-and-roller, but that the problem with AC/DC was doing it rotely. Fans defend the "bawdy humour." Angus called the band "pranksters more than anything else." Malcolm said, "We take the music far more seriously than we take the lyrics, which are just throwaway lines." The Guardian critic Fiona Sturges, a feminist, wrote that she found parts of the catalogue problematic. Still, she argued that in songs like "Whole Lotta Rosie" and "You Shook Me All Night Long" the women are enjoying themselves and often in control.

  The band's first nomination at an award show came at the American Music Awards of 1982. In February 1988, AC/DC and Vanda & Young entered the Australian Recording Industry Association's inaugural Hall of Fame. On the 22nd of March 2000, the Spanish municipality of Leganes, near Madrid, named a street Calle de AC/DC. The plaque was stolen so many times that the town began selling replicas. On the 1st of October 2004, Melbourne renamed Corporation Lane to ACDC Lane. The city bans the slash in street names, so the letters were joined. The lane is near Swanston Street, where the band filmed the flatbed truck video.

  On the 10th of March 2003, AC/DC entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Host Steven Tyler of Aerosmith sang with them on "Highway to Hell" and "You Shook Me All Night Long." He praised their power chords as "the thunder from down under." Mark Evans had first been announced as an inductee, but six weeks later his name was quietly dropped. In May of that year, the Young brothers received the Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Service to Australian Music, and Malcolm paid special tribute to Scott.

  Rolling Stone placed Back in Black at number 73 on its 500 greatest albums list in 2003, and Highway to Hell at number 199. The producer Rick Rubin called them the greatest rock and roll band of all time when the magazine ranked them number 72 among artists.

  Over 50 years, AC/DC have sold more than 200 million records worldwide, and 84 million in the United States, according to the RIAA. That makes them the fourth best-selling band in American history, ahead of Elton John and Mariah Carey in album sales. The RIAA certified Back in Black as 27x Platinum for 27 million American sales. The band's own discography lists the Power Up Tour as running from 2024 into 2026.

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