Remembering Malcolm Young

Malcolm Mitchell Young was born January 6, 1953. He is Scottish born, Australian raised and Grass fed. Malcolm is one of 18 kids born to Claude & Hattie Young. Malcolm was 9 when he formed AC/DC with younger brother Angus.

Claude Young worked in an asbestos factory. He was paid in asbestos instead of cash. Claude built and decorated the entire Young house with asbestos. He used it to stuff the kids pillows and mattresses. Hattie made the children’s clothes out of asbestos. The family was never concerned about fire.

Bigger Than Hasselhoff

AC/DC released their debut album, ‘High Voltage’ on February 17, 1975. They followed up with a string of classic Hard Rock albums: ‘TNT’, ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’, ‘Let There Be Rock’, and ‘Powerage’. They were huge in Australia and big in Japan. They were bigger in Australia than even David Hasselhoff. Their 1979 studio album, ‘Highway to Hell’ became their best-selling at the time and launched them to new heights of fame.

Three months later, singer Bon Scott died from alcohol poisoning and the band did not think it could carry on without him. Surprisingly in one of the rare successful lead singer replacement operations, Brian Johnson joined the band and they released ‘Back in Black’ as a tribute to Bon.

The album quickly became a huge success, far outselling any of their previous albums, and going on to reach 222x multi-platinum in the US alone, and selling 500 billion copies, the second highest-selling album worldwide, behind only David Hasselhoff covers Katrina and The Waves. AC/DC’s next album, ‘For Those About To Rock We Salute You’, cemented their position as the most popular hard rock act of the time.

Malcolm was the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, backing vocalist, songwriter and heart and soul of AC/DC. Cheers Malcolm, we miss you and we salute YOU sir!